Something Old - Dianne L. Christner [39]
Elizabeth cupped her palms over her swollen stomach and nodded, but still didn’t budge.
Katy stepped over gifts and bent over her. “What’s wrong?” Surely she wasn’t going into labor?
“The baby’s gifts. I—”
Understanding, Katy gripped Elizabeth’s arm and pulled her to her swollen feet. She glanced toward the jammed exit and made a quick decision. “We’ll help you get them.”
Katy swept a few gifts off the floor and handed them up to the dazed woman.
“Megan, what are you waiting for?” Anita Weaver suddenly loomed over them with a frightened expression.
Katy shoved a pink gift bag into the older woman’s hand. Then Megan and her mom hurried to gather as many gifts as they could.
“Let’s go,” Anita urged.
The three women juggled gifts and pushed Elizabeth toward the exit, all of their gazes fixed on the thick smoke billowing into the back of the room and the bright flames now visible as well, flickering up through the pass-through window.
“We waited too long,” Anita cried. “Hurry, girls.”
They tried to run, but the area next to the exit was filled with stifling smoke. Worried for Elizabeth in her pregnant state, Katy yelled, “Hold your breath.”
After that, they didn’t speak. They reached the rear of the frantic bodies packing and blocking the exit where the smoke-filled multipurpose room narrowed into a hall. A handmade receiving blanket slipped out of Elizabeth’s arms and fell to the floor. With a shriek, she halted.
Anita whipped it up off the floor.
The line steadily moved, and as soon as they stumbled outside, they all took welcome draughts of the fresh air. Katy found herself coughing much like she had with the drywall dust, but with each inhalation of uncontaminated air, her breathing became more normal.
Inez urged, “Keep moving so others can come out.”
“We were at the end of the line,” Katy informed her. The woman nodded with relief and ran toward the other door, which was the kitchen’s exit.
Katy instantly remembered Lil and lunged after Inez, but Ivan Miller blocked her path. He moved around Katy and swept Elizabeth into a quick embrace that knocked several gift boxes to the ground.
“Thank God, you’re okay.” The young husband’s voice was husky with worry.
Feeling a touch at her elbow, Katy turned. David gave her a worried nod, his gaze darting nervously to the building and back at Ivan. He moved past her and stopped beside his brother. “We’d better check inside.”
Ivan reluctantly released his wife. “Go wait in the car, honey. The smoke isn’t good for the baby.”
Elizabeth nodded but stooped to pick up the packages her husband had recklessly knocked to the ground. Involuntarily, Katy stooped to help as her worried gaze followed David and Ivan into the smoky building. Torn with which entrance to use to go search for Lil, she watched them until they disappeared.
“No!” Elizabeth lunged, belatedly, after Ivan.
But Anita snatched Elizabeth’s arm. “Don’t,” she reprimanded. “Let the men go.”
Megan interrupted her mother. “Do you think Lil and others are trapped in the kitchen?”
Alarm sprinted up Katy’s spine at Anita’s stricken expression, and she quickly pressed, “Can you take Elizabeth to the car?”
The older woman clamped her lips together for a moment, then replied, “Only if you both stay put, out of danger’s way.” At Anita’s stern look, Megan nodded for the both of them. Katy couldn’t promise anything until she knew Lil was safe. Anita draped her arm around Elizabeth, moving the distraught woman toward the parking lot.
Katy’s fingers imprinted the soft gift boxes she still clutched. “Oh Lil. Where are you?” She whipped her gaze to Megan. “She must be inside.”
Flames now flickered through the kitchen exterior windows. Megan clenched her fists at her side. “We have to go get her.”
In the distance they heard a siren. Somewhere along the kitchen’s exterior wall, Katy had dropped the gifts. Outside the door, she shrugged someone’s hand off her shoulder and grabbed the door handle. But she quickly released the hot metal. Her shoulder jerked back under a firm