Fire from the Sky

Ka-boom-m-m! Houses quivered on their foundations. Aftershocks rippled through the ground. Debris rained from the heavens.

The windows along Sarah Williams' bed shuddered and creaked as if they were about to implode. The red-and white striped curtains took on a life of their own. Sarah dove under her pillow and tried to figure what the heck was going on. She had no luck.

Kaboom……BO-O-OM! A dry thunder cracked and reverberated from outside to the inside of the house. The blasts or whatever they were seemed deep, sharp, shattering. The antique bureau on the other side of Sarah's room danced from the wall. Pictures fell to the floor.

A tornado? Earthquake? Nuclear bomb? Something splintered the bright morning of March 31, 1960, in Little Rock, Arkansas at 7:10 a.m. Seconds passed and quiet was restored. Seventeen-year-old Sarah sat up brushing her auburn hair from her face. She flung back the covers and dashed toward the den. "Momma! Daddy! What's happened?"

Jimmy Williams was twisting dials on the family's only television, a fourteen-inch black and white set. Mrs. Williams wrapped in a faded blue terry cloth robe met her daughter with open arms. "It's okay, Darling. Daddy's trying to find out. Why, you're shaking like you have Parkinson's."

"I thought it was a tornado and it was hitting our house! But tornados sound like freight trains. This sounded like TNT blasts in the yard."

Following two more smaller explosions, Sarah tore herself free and ran to the front porch of the family's Craftsmen-styled brick and wood home. What she saw was surreal. Silver confetti was all over the ground as far as she could see. The trees and bushes were decorated with very narrow silver streamers. The sun caught the streaming slivers sending sparkling shafts of light helter-skelter throughout the yard. Good God, this is eerie She stuck her head back through the opened door with the oval stained glass window. "Momma! Daddy! Come here!" She turned back and continued fixating on the scene in the front yard. Pieces of sharp metal lay about and papers. Lots and lots of papers. It looked as if she had taken all the typing paper from Daddy's desk and thrown them into the air willy-nilly.

"Sarah," Lilly Williams rushed on the porch. "There's been an explosion"……she stopped, stared, and whispered "Holy Mother of God!" Slowly descended the stairs, her mouth hung agape. She turned back to Sarah. "The television says it may have been planes colliding." She picked a streamer off the mimosa tree and studied it. Sirens yelled in the distance. Lilly let the streamer float to the ground. She looked around at the neighbor's yards and they were decorated to match her own.

Jimmy hurried through the front door tucking in his shirt. "Apparently there was an explosion at Pulaski Heights Junior High. I'm heading over there to see if anyone needs help."

"Wait! I'm coming too!" Sarah dashed in the house, jumped into yesterday's shorts and grabbed a shirt from the dislodged bureau. She leapt into the front seat as her dad pealed from the curb. Sarah turned on the radio in the sea-mist green Chrysler Imperial.

Static……then……"special news bulletin. We have an unconfirmed report of a plane downed over the city. Details are sketchy but the possibility of a mid-air collision is being considered. Our reporters are on their way to the airport and the Jacksonville Air Force Base as we speak. Stay tuned for..." Sarah clicked off the radio.

Jimmy and his daughter saw small fires in yards, a few pieces of broken crumpled metal, and scattered papers as they approached the school--Sarah's old alma mater. A few people were standing in front yards talking, picking up debris and stomping out numerous small fires.

Jimmy parked the car in front of the school but nothing seemed amiss. They hurried around the end toward the softball field and stopped mid-stride. There were two bodies laying fifty yards away. The dead airmen were mangled, twisted, and blackened. The field was littered with metal and lots of paper. A black square portfolio lay ten feet away. Its top was semi-melted. Two cars were on fire. Acrid bile rose in Sarah's throat. She choked it down, swallowing carefully as she grimaced.

"Sarah, run to one of the houses and get me some blankets. Tell the owners to call the police and inform them bodies are here at the junior high..."

Sarah took off and soon returned with several blankets colors. "They 're calling the police now."

Jimmy took the items and instructed Sarah to stay put.

"No, I want to go with you." She took a step toward the first body, but her father pulled her back. "NO!" I need you to stay here and keep people from coming onto the field. This is very important, Sarah. Help me keep the scene closed to do-gooders and sightseers. It may be hard, but do your best."

"But we're do-gooders!"

"All the more reason for you to stay here." He strode off toward his grisly task. Sarah watched as he placed two blankets on each body.

The sirens grew louder. Police, fire trucks, and ambulances arrived, but passed by the ball field and turned on the street just behind the school. They were soon out of Sarah's sight, but she could hear them as they came to screeching halts not too far behind the school. She saw her father hurrying back toward her and she went to meet him.

His arms went around Sarah and he held her close. "Sarah… Baby…listen to me. I need to tell you something and I need you to be calm."

"Daddy, what is it?" She pulled from his arms, and locked on his eyes. "What's wrong? Did we know one of the men on the field?"

"No, Baby. It's Janie's grandmother."

"She was one of the bodies?" Sarah began to bite the nail of her thumb. "That makes no sense. She lives right across the street behind the school. Something niggled her thoughts. What about Mrs. Whiteman?" Sarah gawked at her father and wanted to cover her ears with her hands so she wouldn't have to hear what he was going to say. Instead, she covered her eyes with both. "Oh, no, no, no! What happened?"

"I don't know what happened, Sarah. But, her house is on fire and there seems to be something big that fell onto the roof….it might have been part of a plane."

Sarah took off running toward Mrs. Whiteman's. Jimmy attempted to catch up. He reached her well before she reached the house, but not before she saw the pulsating, raging inferno that had been her friend's grandmother's home. The vicious flames of red, yellow, and black danced like demons. Gasoline smells permeated the air. Sarah coughed. This was the house where she had attended birthday parties and sleep-overs. This was the home of a kindly, gray-haired, aristocratic lady she'd loved since second grade. Sarah began to wail like a dog caught in a trap.

"Honey, you have to get control of yourself." He pulled her deeper into his arms. She fought him and tried to get away. "Sarah!" He tried to head her toward the car. Fists pelted his chest and Sarah would not leave.

She tried to speak. "Daddy, you……. don't…….. understand….." the rest of the words would not come. Her body went limp. The dead weight was too much for Jimmy and Sarah crumbled to the ground. He let her alone and let her cry herself into exhaustion. He stood protectively by and looked off across the field. Hatred seized him when he spied an old lady holding up the blanket on the nearest airman so three gawkers could see him. She was carrying a mutilated airman's helmet. I can't believe the insensitivity and evil that people hide in their hearts! You'd think they might have some respect for the dead.

Jimmy knelt down beside Sarah and raised her trembling chin up so he could see her eyes. What he saw broke his heart. "Sarah, let's go home."

"I can't."

"Why?" he wrinkled his brow trying to understand.

"Janie was spending this week with her grandmother. She was there! She was in that flaming house. Oh, Daddy, I just talked to her last night!"

Jimmy was shaken, but he pulled his daughter up and half carried her to the car. Once he had Sarah in the car, he got in and turned on the radio. Sarah slumped against the side window.

"This morning at 7:10 an Air Force B-47 Stratojet based at Jacksonville Air Force Base exploded over western Little Rock. The cause of the explosion is not known at this time. Authorities believe only one aircraft involved.

"Two major areas of destruction have been identified. The largest site is located behind the Pulaski Heights Junior High School in the Hillcrest area where Mrs. Dwight E. Whiteman was killed when one of the engines and a section of the main fuselage fell on her home. Bodies of two crewmen were recovered on the school campus. The tale section fell in the intersection of Maryland and Summit Streets creating a huge crater some twenty-five feet deep and forty-five feet wide. Several homes and cars suffered severe damage from fires, metal, and gasoline at this location. One fatality has been reported at the Summit site. The name of the civilian victim is being withheld until relatives have been notified.

"The Arkansas Children's Hospital which is located two blocks from the second site suffered no damage.

"One crewman--the co-pilot-- was found hanging in a tree from his parachute in the backyard of school teacher Martha Manees. He has been rushed to Jacksonville Air Force Base and we have no further updates on his condition.

"This is Lana Lane for KGFL…"

Jimmy parked the car in front of the house and helped his daughter inside. He would need to notify authorities that a second body was probably in the Whiteman house.

(Words: 1667)