Deasil Street11.1

Malika returned home from her duties to find an ambulance crew taking away what was left of her parents. She walked into her living room stunned. There was so little damage… how could both her parents have died in this? And her father a firefighter?

It didn’t make sense. Her house as standing, the stairs were intact. But she was… her mind shied away from the word orphan. That was too much.

She was alone.

Not able to think straight, she busied herself with cleaning. Her sense of duty too strong to ignore. Clean and tidy first, collapse in a heap second.

She wasn’t alone. Gracie tried to start tidying up the still warm embers while Bernice stayed with the children.

Bernice was trying to keep them calm while the bodies of Julian’s mum Ambrose and their neighbour Alfred were taken away.

Their house was burnt out. Most of the elevated floor was still there, a few pieces of furniture but they had basically lost everything.

A brisk wind the next morning cleared the smoke and revealed the damage. Only the flats and Malikas house still stood, the rest lying in ruins. Even the Vickers house which had been built decades before the rest of the street was gone.

Simon approached the exhausted looking Kasitova’s and offered his flat to them. They’d been awake all night, they and their children needed a shower, something to eat and a long sleep.

Bernice accepted gladly. She hadn’t had anything to do with the newcomer in the bottom flat yet, but he seemed a nice enough young man.

Besides, Sonja was swaying with tiredness and Julian… well he could do with a lot of comfort.

Betty hadn’t slept much that night either, but she rustled something up for the Kasitova’s and Julian to eat. It was the least she could do for the poor things.

After her own nap, she noticed Julian was missing. She found him outside, staring towards the beach. He said he was tired, but couldn’t sleep. She gently suggested he just lie down then, so she knew he was safe. Betty then went to find Malika to invite her to join them, she had been orphaned too, and could do with people around her.

Before long everyone was sound asleep, the curtains drawn against the daylight outside. Simon had given up his bed to the married couple, sleeping on his sofa with the kids instead.

Malika was upstairs on the Nasirs sofa. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to be sleeping on a strangers sofa rather than her own bed, but the friendly old woman had insisted. Maybe it would make the next day easier, if she didn’t wake up to a house full of ghosts.