Chapter 7 - The Aftermath and the Fire
The victory at City Hall sent shockwaves through the city.
By Friday morning, Victor Vance was under federal indictment for real estate fraud, wire bribery, and illegal tenant displacement. Harbor View was saved, placed under the management of a non-profit community housing trust that immediately signed a five-year maintenance contract with Calvin at double his previous salary.
At 6:00 PM on Friday, I was sitting at my desk at Mercer Print & Binding, finishing up the weekly invoices.
The shop was quiet. The warm evening light filtered through the front display windows.
Suddenly, I smelled smoke.
It wasn't the smell of burnt paper or ink. It was the acrid, terrifying stench of burning gasoline and insulation.
I rushed out into the front lobby. Thick, black smoke was billowing out from under the door of the basement archive room.
Vance’s men.
One of his fleeing lieutenants had thrown a firebomb through the basement window before skipping town.
Alarm bells shrieked overhead. Flames licked up the wooden stairs, consuming the dry paper rolls, the old wooden cabinets, and Tom’s old desk.
"Clara! Get out!" I screamed to my manager, shoving her out the front door into the street.
I grabbed the fire extinguisher, but the heat was unbearable. A wall of bright orange fire burst through the floorboards of my office.
I stumbled toward the door, coughing violently, the toxic black smoke filling my lungs.
I collapsed onto the sidewalk outside just as the glass windows of Mercer Print shattered from the heat, exploding into a shower of sparkling shards.
Sirens wailed in the distance, but all I could do was sit on the cold asphalt, watching the flames consume forty years of my family's legacy.
Tom’s presses. Tom’s desk. My life’s work.
Going up in ash.
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A fire truck pulled up, firemen leaping out with heavy hoses, but I knew it was too late.
I buried my face in my hands and wept—crying for the shop, for Tom, and for the sudden, crushing return of the hollow emptiness I thought I had left behind.
