Free Bundle of Joy? by Ariella Papa

that had run up the stairs, firemen hustled up the fire escape pulling hoses from their giant backpacks. On the street, some firemen sprayed hoses to back up the firemen on the fire escape. Other people in the apartment building ran out onto the street where passersby gathered. It was close to two in the morning, but the fire gave the street a new light. The air was filled with the sounds of beeping horns. We had blocked 32nd Street. Armando was cursing in Italian.
    The whole thing was unbelievable. There were three fire trucks, and another one arrived just as I saw Kelly walking up the street.
    She looked up at our building, not sure what was happening. I yelled her name, and when she saw the three of us standing there, she ran over.
    “What the hell happened?”
    “I don’t know. Fire.”
    “Is all that smoke in our apartment?”
    “I think so,” I said. “But at least it looks like the fire is out.”
    Soon firemen began to spill out of our building. The minute they stepped outside they lit up cigarettes. The street was full of men in heavy jackets smoking and looking up. When one of the trucks pulled away, I took this as a good sign.
    “What time is it?” I asked Kelly, noticing she was wearing a watch.
    “It’s two-thirty.”
    I couldn’t believe that much time had passed. One of the firemen came up to me.
    “Do you live there?”
    “We all do,” Kelly said.
    “I think the problem was a candle.”
    “Porca butane,” Armando cursed.
    I looked over at him and his Swedish import. Was this his fault?
    “Do you have apartment insurance?” the fireman asked.
    “Do we?” Kelly asked me.
    I looked at Armando, who shrugged and shook his head.
    “No,” I told the fireman, my voice shaking.
    “You should never leave a candle unattended,” said the fireman.
    “I didn’t,” I said defensively. I immediately regretted it. The man had just risked his life.
    “There’s an office in there. A room with a desk and a file cabinet.”
    “Oh, my God,” I said. I felt a knot forming in my throat. “My office, my computer. It has everything.”
    “It’s fine. There’s some smoke damage. Your health,” the fireman said. “Your life. That’s everything.”
    Another fireman came and stood beside us. He was wearing a backpack, and I was pretty sure he was one of the guys who had run up the stairs. The backpack looked like something out of Ghostbusters. For some reason when I looked at him, I felt like an idiot.
    “I know, but what happened to my office?” I said to the first guy.
    “Part of the desk is shot,” the new fireman said, adjusting the backpack and taking a cigarette out of his jacket.His voice was kinder. “The files in one of the drawers are ash because it wasn’t shut all the way. The computer, I think, is okay.”
    I closed my eyes. I knew that I should have been happy for my life, but all I could think was, Why hadn’t I shut the filing cabinet drawer? Why hadn’t I shut the office door?
    “What about the bedrooms?” Kelly said.
    “Who’s got the one with the candle?”
    “Me,” Armando said.
    “Gonna be lots of smoke in that one,” answered the new fireman. “You might want to stay somewhere else tonight. We can try to hook you up with a deal at the Marriott down the street. Who’s next to you? With the purple chest of drawers?”
    “Me,” Kelly said. “I just moved in.”
    “Well, the drawers ain’t purple no more,” the original fireman said. “Everything is going to smell like shit for a few days, but considering the stupidity of leaving a candle out, you guys are lucky.”
    “Yeah,” added the second fireman, who I noticed was quite cute.
    “Let’s go, Torrisi,” the first fireman said.
    Torrisi put out his cigarette and looked at us, in various stages of dress, standing there in shock. He met Kelly’s eyes. “It’s going to be okay.”
    I looked down at the ground and then I felt a hand squeezing my shoulder just above where it was beginning to hurt from