Flaming Catastrophe

This is an excerpt from the fifth and final novel in "The Faith Fiction Series", Providence: Leading of the Spirit:

Lilia sniffed the sweet and pungent smell of sugar cane burning twenty miles away as the brisk trade winds carried the smoke in her direction. The palm trees next to the old barn swished noisily as the fronds tangled together in the heavy winds, and the winds continued to pick up speed. She had just returned from a rousing ride on her magnificent American Saddlebred horse, King, and she stood brushing him in the paddock. She loved to ride him on windy days because it incited him to gallop as if he had shot out of a starting gate at a racetrack. Lilia pulled a turquoise, hand-sewn hair band out of her pocket, one of the several that her bodyguard boyfriend, Jim, had given her for her seventeenth birthday. She pulled her waist-long blonde wavy hair back into a ponytail and secured it.

"There King, now maybe I can see what I'm doing instead of eating a mouthful of hair," she said as she pushed the fine hairs around her face away from her golden-tanned forehead and shook her head to feel the freedom.

King lowered his shapely head from his more than seven-foot height, and allowed her to stroke his beautiful shining neck with the brush, and then her hand: brush stroke, hand stroke, brush stroke, hand stroke. Lilia smiled as she massaged the noble horse. The majestic bay horse wiggled his white blazed forehead spiritedly and groaned with pleasure. People who viewed the regal horse for the first time sucked in their breath at his beauty. Indeed, he was the peacock of the horse world, and Lilia's trusted and endeared steed. He was sixteen and a half hands of the finest horseflesh ever seen on the island of Kauai. He stood as tall as Lilia did at the withers, five-feet, six-inches in height. The stunning horse whinnied at Lilia and shook his head up and down with satisfaction.

"You love to be brushed, don't you, boy?" Lilia smirked at his enjoyment.

The horse muzzled her back when she reached the spots that itched and encouraged her to scratch the areas for him. The splendid horse moaned with gratification and rubbed his forehead on her side. She scratched behind his ears, his favorite place, and then he reached around behind her and grabbed the anticipated carrot out of her back pocket. He drew the tasty morsel into his mouth, and munched and crunched on it until it was all gone.

In a matter of seconds, King's mood changed from idyllic relaxation to a highly excitable state. He danced around and pawed the ground, an action that was uncharacteristic of him. "Is the wind bothering you, boy?" Lilia asked with a frown. King pawed the ground repeatedly with his hoof and Lilia knew he felt agitated about something. She stroked his side and encouraged him to calm down, "Settle down boy."

King whinnied and then suddenly reared anxiously. Lilia quickly jumped to the side away from him before his hooves hit her head, or landed on her cowboy boot and broke her foot. When she glanced up at the screaming beast pawing the air, she saw the smoke billowing out of the hayloft of the old barn.

"The barn's on fire!" She howled with alarm and panic. Her heart and mind raced as she grabbed his mane, and threw herself up on the beautiful animal's bare back. She held to his mane, dug in her hells, and yelled "Hyah!" She fiercely galloped towards the paddock fence, kneed his sides firmly, and jumped him over the paddock fence and out into the meadow behind the ranch, as if flying was a normal everyday activity with a saddle or bridle. "Whoa!" She hollered as she pulled on his mane. The gigantic horse slid to an abrupt stop with all four legs in the braked position. Lilia leaped down quickly. Her heart pounded with fear, and her mouth felt as dry as cotton. "Boy, stay in the meadow!" She urgently ordered the large horse, and he whinnied his agreement to her.

Lilia charged for the fence and bounded over it effortlessly. She could see the flames bursting out of the roof next to the barn door that led to the paddock, and her heart lurched for the animals inside the barn. She tore around to the side door. She pulled her t-shirt down and soaked it in the water trough, and then she pulled it up and over her head exposing her back. Now she could see through the white t-shirt and smoke without inhaling too much of the toxic substance. They had learned in health class that the number one cause of death in a fire was smoke inhalation, and not burns as many people conjectured. She blasted into the barn, tore open the gate to the cow pen, and grabbed the halters of their two Guernsey cows. They bawled their fear of the smoke and sparks, and balked. She slapped their rumps to get them moving, dragged them out into the yard of the circular driveway, shooed them away from the barn, and set them free in the front yard.

The heavy winds inflamed the fire, and it roared out of control like a tornado of fire. Lilia charged back into the barn, seized two gunnysacks, soaked them in the water trough, and dashed to the horse pen. She hurriedly tucked the gunnysacks into the halters over the eyes of her two beautiful Morgan horses, Jim and Esther. The horses danced around in fear of the smoke and the crackling flames.

She screeched with urgency, "Let's go, Jim and Esther!"

She threw open the gate, clucked her tongue as she did when she drove the team and yanked them towards the side door as she heard the ceiling crack and begin to give way. She frantically trotted them out into the yard and smacked their rumps with force to get them away from the barn. The horses screamed with fear at the sight of the flames and hysterically cantered from the inferno.

Lilia sprinted back into the blazing barn with a lump in her throat as she gasped for breath. Her childhood pony was old, sick, and quite stubborn, but she hated to see him die in the terror of the fire. She glanced up at the ceiling and heard the timbers crack under the pressure of the hay in the loft above. The hair stood up on the back of her neck, and her arms tingled with impending dread. She grabbed another gunnysack, soaked it in the water trough, and slapped it over Jerry the pony's eyes. She walloped the pony's rear end to get him moving. The ornery old pony turned and nipped at her, but Lilia didn't let that stop her. Her lungs, eyes, and nose started to burn with the smoke. She yanked the pony to make him trot faster. He bucked in protest and trembled with the fear of leaving the barn.