Free Night of Fear by Peg Kehret Page B

call the fire department; the fire was already out.
    Would the farmer call the police? Maybe not. He might think the fire started spontaneously. Or maybe he was glad to be rid of the little building. Maybe he could hardly wait to collect his insurance money so he could build himself a new, bigger shed.
    Brody said, “I bet that one will be a shocker. Way out here, with their pretty garden and their open space, they won’t be expecting it.”
    Something in T.J. snapped. “What’s the matter with you?”he said. “How could you stand there and let that poor pony burn to death? All you had to do was untie him. You could have turned him loose before you lit the fire.”
    Brody looked startled. “What pony?” he said.
    “
What
pony? The pony I rescued. The pony that was screaming because it was tied in its stall while you set fire to the place.”
    “I didn’t see any pony.”
    “You must have heard it.”
    Brody shook his head.
    “Then you must be blind and deaf,” T.J. said, “because there was a pony right inside the door, plain as day, and it was yelling its head off the whole time.”
    “When I’m getting revenge, the rest of the world fades away. Everything else disappears.”
    “And your revenge is to burn down other people’s property?”
    “My revenge is to make the rich people of the world pay attention, so they’ll know what it’s like for the rest of us.”
    “I doubt if those farmers are very rich.” T.J. leaned his head against the seat.
    “Their shed is gone now.”
    “It’s gone,” T.J. agreed, “and the people who owned it will get stuck cleaning up the mess and building a new shed.” He looked at Brody. “I could have been killed, you know. It wasn’t easy, getting that pony out before the shed collapsed.”
    “You went in the shed? You went in while it was burning?”
    “There wasn’t any other way to get the pony out.” He glared at Brody. “And if I had been trapped inside, it would have been all your fault.”
    “Only a fool would run into a burning building. If you don’t have sense enough to stay out of a fire, it isn’t my fault.”
    “It’s your fault that there was a fire to begin with. It’s your fault that the pony was left in there.” Memories of the thick smoke and the leaping flames made T.J.’s hands sweat. He had nearly lost his life and he would not soon forget the smell of that smoke or the terrified cries of the pony.
    “I didn’t push you in that door.”
    “What would you have done, if I had been trapped inside?”
    “Nothing.”
    “Thanks a lot.”
    “I didn’t even know you were in there. I told you, when I’m thinking about my revenge, everything else fades away.” Brody glanced over at T.J. “Even if I had seen you, I wouldn’t have done anything different. I’m not fool enough to go into a fire. Not me.”
    T.J. pictured himself trapped in the burning shed while Brody strolled happily back to his truck.
    “Why did you go in?” Brody asked.
    “I just told you. To rescue the pony.”
    “It wasn’t your pony.”
    “What does that have to do with anything? No matter who it belongs to, I couldn’t let it burn to death when all I had to do was untie it.”
    “Why not?”
    “Because . . .” T.J. tried to think what to say that Brody would comprehend. He remembered when he was about three years old and Grandma Ruth caught him smashing ants with a rock. “You must be kind to all creatures, T.J. Each one is important; each has a special place on Earth.”
    “Ants don’t.”
    “Oh, but they do.” She explained that ants have lived on Earth for more than 100 million years. “They live in colonies,” she said, “and each colony has a queen.” She told him how hard the ants work and showed him an anthill, with the ants climbing in and out.
    T.J. had been fascinated by the anthill and had spent several hours looking for the queen ant, expecting it to be wearing a tiny golden crown. After that day, he never again killed an ant