"Push!” I repeated..
"But I am!”
She was protesting. Smoke was coming from the shop. more smoke!.. it was rushing in through the opening!. smoke from everywhere!.. into the hole!.. into our cellar! from our pit! from the shop!.. We were caught in the spirals.. it came rushing up!. choking everything!. Now the vixen was giving all she had! with all her might! Come on, no more groaning! whiss! against the door!.. She forgot about wanting to die. no more Mary Stuart!.. no more whining!
.. But it wasn’t giving, damn it! Whiss! it dropped again. catastrophe! the door Ba-ta-boom!.. it was too heavy!.. Needed something else!.. I didn’t lose my head!.. in spite of my sniffling, gasping and choking. I’m not flustered. keep cool!.. I look for something hard.. there. an iron!
.. something… I feel around among the junk… in the dark.. I grab an iron in the rubbish, a crowbar!.. I ram it into the trapdoor, groping… my eyes hurt like mad. from the smoke.. I ram it into the door and oop!.. Oooh whiss! both of us! we press down! press down!.. we get it up!.. ah it’s coming!.. Oooh whiss! that’s it! it gives! tumbles down! everything! the whole works!.. topples over! cases! wardrobes!.. the whole shebang.. everything he’d piled on us!
.. The door loosens, opens! That does it!.. made it!.. but it’s murder! The shop’s burning! what smoke!..the whole place! the whole floor! The fire’s roaring!.. all over the house.. the flames are licking, racing, snarling.. Wow! Lady!.. There’re sheets of flame.. We’re sneezing. sniffling. suffocating. It’s too much!.. It’s worse than in the hole!..
"Do something!” Delphine yells.. She grabs my hands!.. She clutches at me!
"No!.. No!.. come on with me!”
We’ve got to push the door some more… so we can get out. out in the open.. make a dash for it!.. and oop! outside! out through the flames! right through everything! knock the stuff over!.. Come on! Let’s go! No monkey-business!.. I see the door at the other end… the daylight… the white frame. into the smoke. we’ve got to tear through!.. ah!
.. right in the bull’s-eye!
"Let’s go Delphine! careful!.. together! now! one! two! three!.. right through it!.. Come on!”.. We dash forward.. I hadn’t noticed!
Plop! I stumble! I topple over! I’m lifted up! carried away! two hands! ten hands clutch me! grab me!.. rush me off!.. the works!. Ah! the smoke!. I couldn’t see a thing!. But outside! in the open! The firemen!.. the people!. They’re all over!.. We’re outside! we’re saved!.. What a crowd.. Ah! the firemen!.. Ah! what acrobats! with their helmets! brass! ladders! the streams of water.. shooting, spattering! squirting all over! They grab us. water us!. drench us!.. I’m not burned!.. Neither is Delphine!.. That doesn’t matter!. They douse us anyway!.. they soak us, plunge us into the enormous tub!.. They fish us out, shake us, rub us down, roll us up in blankets.. It’s the excitement!.. A rescue!.. And then questions, words.. bowing and scraping! they congratulate us! Shake hands!.. Hurrah for our courage!. hugs!
"Hello! Hello!”.. They saw us cut through the flames!.. It was magnificent!.. Ah! a rousing rescue! Marvelous! Superb! Attaboy! What a jump! Atta good girl!.. They’re all talking together; And the questions! They’re screaming! Cla-ben!.. the crowd’s yelling for him..
They want to know where Claben is! Old Claben!.. What’s happened to him? His customers are very unhappy!.. Ah! they’re worried!.. They get close to the flames.. They come back!.. The whole house is on fire now!
"Inside! ” I point, I’m breathless.. dying from the effort.. "He’s in there!.. in there! ”.. I point to the flames… the giant fire.. The furnace that’s roaring, growling..
"Oh! ” they all exclaim.. "Oh! ”
It’s too horrible.
"Yes, he was sleeping in the shop!”
I keep repeating it, mumbling… I’m fully convinced.. it’s got to be sure.. absolutely!.. naturally..
"Did you see him?”
"Yes, yes!”
Not the slightest doubt. That way there won’t be any mistake.. It’s a sure thing!
The house was crackling horribly.. from top to bottom!.. the firemen couldn’t get at it any more.. not even approach it from a hundred yards!.. it was just a torch. a wild enormous torch.. the flames were shooting from all the windows.. The crowd was getting bigger and bigger.. they must have come from all neighborhoods… a terrible jabbering in addition to the crackling of the flames. all around the burning mass.. they must have seen it from far off.. from farther off than the devil.. They’d come rushing up in crowds!
.. a storm of jabberers!.. The rescuers of the Order of Saint John with their soft little hats took good care of us.. Delphine and me!.. quite specially.. their heroic survivors!. They cheered us up.. crammed us, coddled us.. biscuits.. brandy.. hot coffee!.. ah! at last..
"Coffee! ” I said to Delphine..
She straightened her hat, coquettish immediately!.. Her silk dress was scorched.. That shows what a close shave we had.. she’d lost her gloves.. We watched the house flaming.. the House of Claben.. I wasn’t thinking of anything else!
Nothing’s so fascinating as flames, especially flying around like that, shooting, dancing in the sky.. It just makes you stare… spellbound… the shapes they take.. just dazed, dopey, gaping.. sitting on the grass.. Delphine, too, beside me..
Someone takes hold of me.. shakes me, damn it! grabs me, hugs me to his body!.. What’s going on?
“My child!.. My child!”
I thought it was the firemen again!.. that they were going to dunk us again! that they were going to rescue us again! Oh! what a horror! I scream! I yell! but it wasn’t the firemen! I look! it was Boro! the louse himself! suddenly gushing! ah! the fairy! hugging! tears!
"My child!.. My child! ”
He embraces us.. kisses us!.. Ah! what a fine chap! he’s so happy to see us again!..
"Neither one of you is burned?”
Ah! he’s so excited!.. He’s squealing with joy!.. he’s crying. he’s yapping around us!..
"Oh! my children!.. Oh! my children! ”
It’s such a moving scene!..
"Are you safe and sound, my children?”
The people rush up.. they all want to kiss us..
It’s a unanimous effusion.. What can I say?.. I kiss him, too.. I kiss anyone!.. I kiss a fireman! a Saint John!..
But he doesn’t give us time to think..
"Let’s go home!.. Let’s hurry! ’’
"Home where?”
We don’t know..
He grabs Delphine by the arm… off they go together.. I’m going to follow. I’m going to follow them.. I look at the house again.. the flames are shooting up! whirling around!.. climbing. waltzing up above!.. the yellow, the red wreaths!.. Ah! some furnace!.. I’m not going to stay around!
.. I’d get burned again!.. I get going.. I force myself..
I catch up with them.. Ah! now, my boy, you’re going to get it! When we pass the kiosk I go for him!..
"Listen, you big louse!.. listen you mug! ”
He doesn’t answer.. he’s stepping on it..
Ah! that’s nerve for you!
His arm in Delphine’s and oops! she’s got to hustle!.. get a move on! She asks for a second!.. she’s all in!.. a stitch in her side!.. then her shoe!.. her heel’s twisting! and damn it! and damn it!.. he won’t let go!.. Shake a leg!.. Shake a leg! she’s hobbling.. "Come on!” he pinches her. what a shriek!.. The people look at us.. the whole sidewalk!.. We were moving fast… to the station, the Stepham entrance.. they’re swallowed up.. the Tube.. I catch up.. he gets the tickets…At last! We squat! oof! in the train…it bumps along… I ask him where we’re going..
"To Cascade’s, of course! You know well enough!”
I irritate him by asking..
We pass one station.. two.. three..
Cascade’s? I don’t like that… I don’t want to.. that’s enough!.. Shit! I don’t want to drag around like that. disgusting!.. it’s awful!.. I don’t care if I’m sick, nuts, knocked out, limp and everything. Hell! I won’t go with them!.. I won’t follow them!.. The big filthy pig! and the other one, the old witch! Go on, strut!.. I’ve had enough of their guts!