ROMANOV AUTUMN
Chapter One
One particularly warm summer
night, the sky was very clear and filled with stars. Fifteen-year-old Jack
Dawson wandered aimlessly home, using the familiar but quiet dirt path. He carried
his old, slightly worn leather portfolio under one arm and in his hand a tiny
linen pouch of charcoal pencils. Jack was a medium-sized lad, though a bit too
skinny for his parents’ liking. He had a head of straight, sun-bleached blonde
hair and deep, crystal blue eyes.
Yawning, Jack turned a bend,
startled by the fact that the air was becoming heavily pungent with the smell
of burning wood. Coughing, he glanced up, seeing the clouds of smoke rising
over the tops of the trees, and felt his heart skip a beat. The smoke was
coming from the direction of his family’s farm!
Jack nearly dropped his things as
he took off, stumbling over his colt-like legs. He approached the fields, and
could see bright red flames spewing out of the window of the old barn. Pieces
of the roof were ripping apart, falling to the ground with earsplitting cracks.
His eight-year-old sister, Olivia, stood on the porch of the house, screaming
at the top of her lungs. She was in her plain linen nightgown, her reddish-gold
hair loose and curled at her shoulders. Tears streamed down her pale cheeks,
and she only stopped when Jack grasped her arms.
"Where are Mama and
Papa?" he asked, feeling sick to his stomach. It couldn’t be that they
were in the barn. They just couldn’t be. Maybe they had gone for help. But the
terrified look in Olivia’s eyes as she hiccoughed told him that, indeed, the
horrifying thoughts in his mind were indeed true.
"M-Mama went in,"
Olivia practically whispered. "We heard Papa yelling for help…and saw the
fire f-from the window. Mama thought he might have knocked over the lantern
he’d brought with him and…I followed her but…but she made me stay here, and she
went in and never c-came back out…" Olivia broke down again, throwing
herself onto her brother, burying her face in his cotton shirt. Jack could not
tear his eyes from the blaze, at a loss as to what to do or say. The Dawsons
lived in a remote area, and they were the only house for at least three miles.
Luckily, the fire was not close enough to touch the house.
"We’ll have to let it burn
itself out," he told her, lifting the child into his arms. "Water
won’t do a thing at this point."
Olivia chewed on her nails, her
eyes now red-rimmed and bloodshot. They were alone; their parents were dead.
"Let me go and see exactly what’s happening up close. Stay here,
Olivia." Jack ran up the hill towards the barn, having to pull his shirt
over his mouth and nose. He could not hear any screams, and it would be too
risky to attempt to break in and investigate now. "Mother! Father!"
he yelled, moving as close as he could without being burned himself. You
already know they won’t answer, a voice spoke inside of his head. Jack’s
breath caught in his raw throat and he felt his own eyes well up with tears, as
though things were starting to sink in.
Jack eventually stumbled back to
the house, falling to all fours on the porch and sobbing. The smoke from the
fire had been so thick that it was still in his lungs, causing him to continue
coughing and choking on it. Olivia knelt down beside him, her small hand on his
back, and bent so her head was level with his. "What are we going to do,
Jack?" she asked.
He took a deep, trembling breath,
looking up at her. "I don’t know," he admitted. "We have to go
for help. We can’t just stay here."
Olivia stared at him. "But
it’s dark! And the next house isn’t for miles!"
Jack smoothed his sister’s hair,
nodding in understanding. "I know. But you’ll be safe with me. And I know
you can run, Olivia."
"But…" she protested
again, and Jack knelt down, taking her hands.
"Haven’t you walked at least
four miles to pick blueberries with Mama? And came back and wanted to ride your
pony?"
Olivia finally lowered her head,
defeated. "Okay."
He pulled her into a tight hug,
and pointed towards the door. "I’ll help you dress, and we’ll go." He
glanced over his shoulder at the burning barn, pausing in his steps to cough
once more as they entered the dark, empty house. As they walked towards the
narrow staircase, Jack had to pause and cough again.
"Are you all right?"
Olivia whispered, once he recovered enough to continue.
"I’m fine." He pushed
open the door to her room, watching as she scurried inside. After she fetched
her play dress, she turned around, her eyes wide.
"Mama said you aren’t
allowed in my room when I’m not dressed!" Her mouth dropped, her gaze
shifting towards the window where the fire was slowly starting to dissolve,
though it was still uncomfortably harsh. Jack couldn’t remember ever seeing
smoke thicker than that in his life. He suppressed another cough, raising his
eyebrows, almost amused at how serious his sister sounded with the statement.
"Well," he croaked,
"would you like me to leave until you get your dress on? Then I’ll button
it up."
She nodded, chewing on her nails,
and he walked out of the room, shutting the door and leaning back against it.
This had to be a dream, all of this. He would wake up in the morning, and his
mother and father would still be alive. His mother would be bustling about in
the kitchen, preparing breakfast with Olivia at her side, and his father would
already be out doing his daily chores on the farm. Jack wiped a trembling hand
across his soot-blackened forehead, feeling slightly dizzy. Life without them
was difficult to even think about, let alone face.
When Olivia was ready, she
attempted to push open her door, realizing that it was stuck. "Jack!"
she yelped, pounding it with her fists, causing him to jump and whirl around.
He stared at the wooden door before realizing what the noise was, and pulled it
open. Unfortunately, Olivia’s hand clasped the doorknob at the same time, and
the little girl went flying forward to the floor.
"Are you all right?"
Jack gasped, while tears filled her eyes, though she did not break into tears.
"Yes," she whimpered,
trying to be as stoic as possible as he pulled her to her feet. She turned her
back to him so he could button the back of the dress and tie the sash.
"What are we going to bring with us, Jack?" she asked, coughing a bit
herself as the smell of the smoke drifted through her window.
"Let’s bring only basic
things…grab another dress and I’ll bring another pair of pants, a shirt, and my
art things. You can bring a doll if you want."
As soon as they had gathered
their things, the children dashed down the stairs and through the front door
again, each breaking into yet another fit of coughing. The smoke now spread
across the farm, and Jack could barely breathe as they stumbled through it to
get to the long, winding road at the edge of the property. "Run!" he
ordered, using whatever strength he could muster to get his voice to work
properly. Olivia took off as fast as she could, Jack tripping along behind her.
For a good five minutes, they did not stop running, until they were far enough
away from the house that the smoke was not so thick. Jack truly did not feel
well now, for his chest and throat burned and his eyes stung. He could not give
up, not until they came to some sign of civilization. He knew the Kramer family
lived nearby, for they came every so often to supper by horse and carriage.
At last, when all of his strength
seemed to slip away, he collapsed to his knees, gasping and gulping for air.
Olivia heard his small cry and whirled around, finding him on all fours,
sketchpad and pencil pouch lying beside him. "Jack…" she sobbed,
kneeling down just as his eyes rolled back in his head. "Jack! No!"
she caught him in her small arms, falling back as he sunk against her, and
shook him anxiously. His head lolled limply, and the only sign that he was
indeed still alive was the weak up and down movement of his chest.
Olivia slid out from under her
brother’s body, not knowing what to do. She was all alone, and she had
absolutely no idea where the next house was. Jack was possibly very sick, and
she could not carry him. She reached up to touch his sweat-soaked forehead as
she’d seen her mother do during the natural course of childhood illnesses
they’d fought, and found it to be burning hot. A single tear rolled down her
cheek as she picked up her fallen doll, hugging it tightly, and gazed down the
long, winding road.
She had barely walked a couple of
inches when the darkness clouded her own mind, causing her to trip and fall
flat on the ground.
Early the next morning, a
carriage came bouncing down the road, stopping just in time to avoid running over
the two fallen figures. The owner of it, a middle-aged woman with long brown
hair tied back into a single braid and covered with a straw hat, pulled the
horse to a stop. "Oh, my goodness!" Esther Williams descended to the
road, her dark eyes full of concern.
Two children lay amidst the dust
and grime, their faces deathly pale. She knelt down beside the boy, who lay
furthest away, suddenly causing him to jolt awake. He cried out and began
hyperventilating, shaking and trembling. "Shh…my dear, shh…" Esther
soothed, realizing he had a terrible fever. "Hold onto me. That’s my sweet
boy. Very good." For a woman, Esther was very strong, and she managed to
carry Jack into the carriage before going back for Olivia. She lived not far
away, just a couple of miles from the Dawson farm, and was a widower. Her
husband, James Williams, had died just a couple of months before in a sail
boating accident. He’d been out on the river with a couple of comrades when a
storm had hit, sinking the boat and killing all aboard. After his death, Esther
had sold their family farm, due to the fact that she could not afford it, and
purchased a comfortable two room flat in town.
Every Sunday, she traveled to the
country to visit her husband’s grave, and this was one such occasion. Once she
lay Jack as comfortably as she could in the carriage, she went to lift the
little girl, who murmured and opened her eyes as well. "Mama?" she
whimpered through chapped lips, and Esther smiled down at her.
"I am afraid not, child.
What on earth where you both doing out here, all alone?"
Olivia swallowed hard as Esther
set her down, and glanced at Jack, who had gone under again. "Our barn
caught fire," she whispered, the events of the previous night returning in
full force. "Our parents died in it."
Esther gasped, covering her mouth
with her hands. "Oh, goodness gracious! Oh, my goodness!" She put her
hand over her heart, taking the little girl’s hand and squeezing it. "My
dear girl, I am so terribly sorry…so very sorry. You were coming to get help, I
take it?"
Olivia nodded, the tears flowing
fast again. "Yes," she sobbed. "My brother Jack and I were going
to get help, but he fainted--and he’s sick," she added, and Esther
smoothed the child’s wet cheeks.
"I will take good care of
both of you. We will get a doctor for your brother at once…I live in town, and
it’s a good half hour drive from here. My name is Esther Williams," she
added. "What is yours, dearie?"
"O-Olivia Dawson,"
Olivia replied, holding onto Jack’s hand and stroking his damp hair. "This
is Jack."
"What lovely names."
Esther got back into the driver’s seat, taking hold of the horses’ reins.
"Off we go now…" With a firm "Yah!" the horses began to
take off again at a trot in the direction of town.