The Bright Night
The heat was merciless. Only the firefighters were allowed around the building. And they were losing the fight. A collective weep from the prayers resounded in the night when part of the roof collapsed. Eastgate street residents and simply concerned citizens of Chester helplessly observed how one of their many listed buildings was disappearing in a red inferno.
“I met my wife in this shop twenty years ago…What a disaster…”
“Such a pretty building! It is a crying shame!”
“It is timber-frame, that’s why the fire spread so fast. Not many of these old buildings are so exquisite, cannot believe it, it stood here since 1600 to burn to the ground now.”
“Matt, Penny, how are you, did you manage to save your valuables?”
Their neighbour appeared as upset as the owners, who were snuggling together in a grey blanket wearing only dressing gowns.
“No, we are lucky we did not suffocate, we were fast asleep and then the alarm chased us out, the fire was already ravaging the ground floor.”
“What a devastating loss.” The neighbour put his enormous arms around their shoulders and shook them heavily in support.
“We are gutted.” Sighed Matt. The life of a criminal begins with poker face lies, thought Penny.
“Where are you going to spend the night? You are welcome to mine, we converted my son’s room into a guest room after he moved to Liverpool.”
“That is really kind of you, but the council is covering the expenses for a hotel room. We need some time alone to assimilate what just happened.” Matt rubbed his forehead and smiled apologetically.
“I understand you completely.”
Four hundred years of history and a couple of decades of happy family life were turning into ashes in front of their unbelieving eyes. What have they done, Penny felt nausea and a throbbing headache. At least the damage to the adjacent buildings was limited. Their little house was standing with dignity amidst the sputtering flames, but no delusions there, this was its last stand, a bright illumination ánd a dark end at the same time.
“Hi, guys, can I steal you for a moment.” The voice of the hefty firefighter made Penny jump.
“I won't bother you with too many questions, I know you are going through a hard time.”
Penny braced herself. Here it comes, was their story going to convince the authorities? Or raise suspicions. They discussed it long weeks before the arson, not too many details, we do not know, we have no idea, we were sleeping, it was so unexpected. Matt ensured her that he made it look like a fault of the electric installation. Penny mostly kept quiet and let Matt explain to the firefighter how they found themselves in a burning house in the middle of the night, Matt looked little green about the gills, even dolorous and she congratulated him in her head for his excellent acting skills.
“Ok, that was all, for now, I am really sorry, it is a terrible event, you need to be strong. But it saves you the trouble of those expensive repairs.” Penny noticed the vigilance in the man’s eyes at his last remark.
Matt shook his head.
“It is a small relief compared to the overall. Little damp, that was all that was wrong with the building.”
“Yes, I know.”
The firefighter stressed his last words in such a manner that Penny felt a chill down her spine.
It took a few hours for the last flames to be suppressed, where before was standing a picturesque white house with black details, now only a few burnt columns were sending smoke signals to heaven. The firefighters were starting their investigation. Was the victim of their crime going to keep silent or betray them? Penny felt like a low-life. If those people that were looking at her with such compassion only knew…She needed to escape their gazes, their friendly faces. Now that the house was gone, she realized it was the worst thing she had ever done in her life. Too late now, where was her brain when they were elaborating their desperate off-centre plan to earn money and get rid of a financial black hole.
“Let’s go, darling.” Matt took her out of her trans.
The temporary accommodation was depressingly standard. Double bed, mirror, desk. Curtains with floral motifs. Those nice people who were providing it also left some clean clothes in the wardrobe.
Penny sat on the bed and hugged her knees. Her eyes followed Matt as he moved nervously from side to side, blabbering.
“So, now we need to call the insurance company and get the money. Not bad for two retired teachers.”
“Not bad.” Repeated Penny like a robot.
“You were not very convincing, try not to look so scared of the investigators, they know nothing. Just look sad and worried, you know, like when your God damn cat got missing.”
“Ok, Matt.”
It wasn't a case of a missing cat. They committed arson and fraud, setting a heritage building on fire. She felt sick in the stomach. They had nothing more to say, the talking was done beforehand, and Penny knew what to expect. And how she was supposed to act.
The respected and beloved educator of young minds stayed awake in bed, tossing and turning, while her white-haired husband was snoring by her side. Suddenly, around 3 a.m. she shook his shoulder.
“Huh?”
“I am going to tell the police.”
“Tell the police what?” sleepily inquired Matt.
“About the arson.”
Matt flipped like a fish in the bed.
“You are crazy! We’ll end with nothing! We’ll go to jail!”
“I know.”
“You know! You know nothing! You have no idea how bad it is going to be!”
“We did a terrible thing. When I saw the house in flames, the sad faces of all those people, I realised it was a horrible, horrible mistake.”
“Mistake or not, we are not confessing. We stick to the plan. You cow!”
Penny trembled. For thirty years of married life, he never used offensive language. Neither he spoke to her with such disdain. Maybe it was the panic, taking over. Penny tried to ignore him, she needed to unburden herself, the faces and voices of the last night's events were burning her mind with more ferocity than the flames she witnessed. One question, first pulsating, then hissing, formed in her head.
“Mat, why did we do something so irresponsible? What were we thinking?”
“It is not us! It is freaking everybody! We did everything we could to raise money and we failed. Do you want to beg on the streets! To be homeless with nothing between you and miserable death! Or that new strange idea, to go to jail because nobody fucking cared!
“Matt, I cannot support you in this, I am so sorry.”
“Are you serious?! You are really going to devastate us, is that so? You are so stupid, you know that?”
“I am not stupid.”
“You are daft! It is too late now for your noble sentiments! You should have thought before we lit the match!”
Matt’s face was distorted by anger and wariness. It was like a stranger different from her husband stood here in the boring, dull room with her. She could not blame him for the harsh words, she even thought he was right to some extent.
“Matt, can you really stop and tell me that you will continue living, knowing that you are hiding something so terrible. I cannot. I will talk.”
Matt gasped. And then it followed. A hurricane of offences and shouting, until Penny felt tears down her cheeks. She lay in the bed and pulled the covers over her head. Matt collapsed on the other side. No one was about to sleep. Penny was too frightened. Matt was too pissed off. She was not sure what to expect. A pillow over her face in the middle of the night? After all, he was like a different person, displaying some callousness and cruelty she never noticed in him for thirty years by his shoulder.
They first met in Venice, a chance encounter of two British tourists, who immediately felt they were born for each other. And the romance continued, they got married a month later. Penny was a primary school teacher and convinced Matt, who was in between jobs, to pursue a carrier in the same field. They worked in the same school till retirement. The house, she fell in love with the facades and the layout, and even though they were warned about listed buildings, they moved in, only to find themselves on a financial rollercoaster twenty years later.
In thirty years, never had Matt forgotten her birthday or anniversary. Once, Penny was in a hospital for her birthday with meningitis, barely conscious, and Matt arrived with teddies, flowers and loads of affection. They had their problems, but she could not recall him ever being rude or inconsiderate. She stayed focused on her husband who lay in bed, then jumped and nervously walked up and down the room every ten minutes, it was like she was trapped in a cage with a wild animal who is about to tear her apart any second. The insanity of burning the house has destroyed something much more important, their bond. Years and years of little gestures, funny moments, and general concordance passed through her mind. They had no children, loads of pets but the children were not meant to be, so when those grey hairs attached and wrinkles conquered their faces, they had only each other’s company.
“Penny…” changed his tone, Matt. He sounded tranquil and kind. “Did you calm down?”
“I am leaving you, Matt. I don’t want to see you ever again, ever. Enjoy your dirty money.” Penny looked determined in her decision. She dressed quickly and slammed the door behind her back.
It hit Matt like a hummer. A black screen fell in front of his eyes and he lost balance. Talk about a perfect plan gone wrong, he thought. He had no illusions. Without Penny, his life was ruined, money or no money. He looked through the window. Smoke and dying flames were indicating where their lost peaceful life used to be.
After his stupefaction passed, Matt realised it is a good idea to jump like a tiger and get Penny before she does something incredibly stupid. He rushed after her. In the darkness, her slim figure flickered like a candle flame, at a moment visible, at a moment hard to discern. She was walking fast, she must have been really angry. Where was she going, oh, she managed to grab her purse, so she was probably on her way to a different bed&breakfast?
He followed her for ten minutes, and then she made a sharp turn and disappeared. It took him a while to understand what had happened. The council used to repair the gas pipes under the street, and in the darkness of the small street, Penny has fallen straight into the big hole. He heard a muted moaning.
“Penny, are you alright?”
“Live me alone.” She sounded in no mood for negotiations. Neither is too hurt. He sat by the edge.
“And how do you plan to get out of there?”
“Crap, I have no battery. Ok, Matt, you’ll have to pull me out, but then you need to stop following me. Don’t get any funny ideas.”
“Yeah, I don’t think so.”
“You going to leave me here all night? Are you crazy, I’ll freeze to death. Stop fulling around and pull me out.” In her voice, there was just a hint of panic.
“Yeah, but before, we need to talk.”
“I have nothing to say to you.”
“Penny, I’m sorry I shouted at you. I was wrong. But what we did to the house, we had every right.”
“Nothing you say makes any sense.”
“I’m sure you will think about it differently. Just listen, remember…”
And he started reminding her of all the funny moments, touching moments and moments they needed to be strong through their life together. They had a moment like from fiction when she bought him a new seat for his bicycle with the money from a leather jacket that she sold, just to receive a new leather skirt with the money from his bicycle that went on the market. He reminded her how they spend a whole night camping under the old oak because one of her cats refused to get down. Many, many stories that his wife could not ignore if her heart has in the right place.
“Ok, Matt, stop, I know what you are doing. And it is not working.”
“I think it is quite the opposite, you cannot leave me Penny, neither you can go to the pólice. I’ll tell you what you will do, you will get out of this whole and we claim before the council for not putting signs around it. And we will not claim the insurance money.”
“That’s not good enough, Matt, we still burned a listed building.”
“Wait, be quiet.”
“Are you alright, Sir?”
A pólice car has approached and by Matt stood the biggest man he had ever seen.
“I am alright, officer, but my wife fell inside.”
“Hang in there, madam, help is on the way.”
The officer returned to his vehicle.
“Ok, Penny, how about we restore the house.”
“I am listening.”
“We dedícate half of our income towards building it back as it was. “
“So why did we need this ordeal in the first place?”
“Maybe it was a much-needed life lesson, that you are better than that and I am lost without you.”
“Very romantic, but hardly an excuse.”
“What do you want me to say. We were desperate, a few more months and we would be on the streets, and neither of us could bear that perspective. We made a drastic move to save our life together, Peggy, and even if you think it was a mistake, there is no doubt on my mind that we had no other option. Quiet, he is coming back.”
“Ok, we’ll have to pull her up here, if we can’t, we should wait for my colleagues, they went for a ladder.”
The ladder turned out to be redundant, the two men easily managed to pull her by the hands.
That was it. The moment of truth.
“Penny,” Matt took a deep breath. “Is there something you want to tell this nice officer?”
Penny took a deep breath too.
“As a matter of fact yes.” She looked at Matt and exhaled.
“Thank you, officer, and good night.”
“Not so fast. We have some paperwork to do, especially if you want to claim an accident.”
“Sure.”
“So you were going…”
“Just stretching my legs, I couldn’t sleep. Our house burnt tonight”
“Ok, here, simply explain what and when happened. So you are the owners of that house burning. I‘m really sorry, you are having the worst night I could think about.”
After fifteen minutes they were on their way back to the hotel. Penny was feeling restless. The flames of the house could still be seen, illuminating the night in red. They did something so bad and so stupid, that it was beyond imagination.
“This is beyond imagination, what a mess.”
“That’s good, nobody will have the slightest idea it was our fault.” Matt put his hand over her shoulders. The abyss between them was still yarning. But he had an idea.
“Penny, I want to marry you.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I want to marry you again, in Venice.”
“I’m not in the mood for silly stunts, Matt.”
“It is not a stunt. This night made me realise that if I lose you, I lose my life. You are my cherished companion, my trusted friend and my true love. So, would you marry me? Oh, excuse me…”
He clumsily kneeled.
“Penny, would you marry me?”
Penny signed.
“Oh, alright.”
“I could do without the vexation, but still, you made me the happiest man alive.”
“Matt, were you serious about restoring the house.”
Oh, dear.
“Penny, look, the new build house is never the listed building, it is gone.”
“I knew it, we are horrible, horrible people.”
“Think of something, something noble we can do with the insurance money. We need to claim them, it will be suspicious if we don’t.”
“What, the insurance money now!”
“Yes, but think positive, something you really wanted to do, and you never had the financial means. Well, now you can afford to think big…”
“I assume we can donate for charity…”
“No, something you can be a part of.” Matt stroked her hair.
“Maybe opening a youth centre.”
“Yes, a youth centre, come on, what are we going to do?”
“Teach young people skills. From outdoor learning to money management, maybe a cafe they can run by themselves.”
“Yes, now you are talking, and what else?”
“Tackle the lack of basic digital skills in young people, well, and much more ideas, are we really going to do it? Are you with me?”
“This will drain the insurance money like no man's business, we will need to depend on donations, but I like the idea, very much. Yes, I am with you.”
Penny managed to see the bright side of the horrible night. From a house where they were desperate and miserable to a lively new establishment where young people were about to get a chance for a better future, well, the calamity could be turned into good. She collapsed on the floor and started crying.
“Penny, Penny, calm down. Just think of a name for your project.”
She turned her wet eyes toward him.
“Kittens youth.”
She was joking. Well, what the hell.
“Kittens youth it is. Now come here.”
He hugged her and swing back and forward. The abyss between them was gone, as much as that wretched house. And if he had to sacrifice her nerves dealing with spoiled teenagers, so be it. From the ashes of the past, new life was flickering alluring and promising.