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Through The Flames:

Book 3 of the Left Behind Kids Series

The Kids Risk their Lives.


CHAPTER FIVE

LIONEL Washington didn't really want every­one else's help, and he told them that. "Talia is Andre's old fiancee. I didn't know they were back together, but if they are, maybe she'll tell me something."

"You don't want us to go with you?" Judd asked. "I could drive you."

"I'm going to ride my bike. You guys don't need to get in trouble with these people."

"Why don't you go during the day?" Vicki said.

"Yeah," Judd said. "It's dark. How do we know when to come looking for you?"

"I'll be fine."

"Don't even say that," Vicki said. "You heard what almost happened to Ryan."

"If we don't hear from you by eleven," Judd said, "we'll come after you."

"I have no idea where I'll be. Andre's not going to be at my house."

"What are we supposed to do if we don't hear from you?"

"I'll be fine, all right?"

"No," Judd said. "We agreed to look out for each other. We're going to have to follow you, that's all."

"I don't like this," Lionel said.

"You won't even see us," Judd said. "We'll worry about you, but you won't have to worry about us. Now get going."

Lionel jogged out to his bike and rode directly home. Judd had been right. Lionel was not aware of Judd following him. He was still certain he would be safe, but it did make him feel better to know that the others cared about him.

Lights were on, but no cars were in the driveway. Who was there? Lionel stepped to the door and raised his hand to knock, sud­denly realizing how silly that was. This is my own house, he thought. He walked in and went straight upstairs to his room. He heard quick footsteps from a back room down­stairs. They came across the hardwood floors in the living room, into the dining room, and up the stairs.

"LeRoy?" Talia called out. "I didn't see you guys pull in."

Lionel stepped into the hall and could tell he had startled her. "Hey, Talia," he said sim­ply. "I need you to take me to Andre."

"Yeah, right," she said. "Like I know where he is."

"I know you know where he is," Lionel said. "And if you don't take me to him, he's going to be upset."

"I heard he was dead," she said.

"Cut the baloney," Lionel said. "We both know you chased off a friend of mine today. He heard you talking to Andre on the phone, and it was obvious he was worried about me."

"If I hear from him," she said, "I'll tell him you're fine."

"Is there a car in the garage?"

She hesitated. "No. There's not. Why?"

Lionel sensed she was lying. "I know there is," he said. "C'mon and take me."

"That's LeRoy's two-seat roadster. He'll kill me if I take it."

"You're not takin it," Lionel said. "You're borrowing it. You'll probably be back before LeRoy is."

Talia appeared to be thinking it over. "I wouldn't mind seein' Andre myself," she said. "LeRoy and them haven't been getting back before one or two in the morning the last coupla nights anyway."

"Let's go," Lionel said.

"I'd better call him first."

"Who? LeRoy?"

"No! Andre!"

"We both know he's hiding out. He's not going anywhere."

"You think of everything, you little brat. And there's no way you're only thirteen."

Lionel ignored her, taking both comments as compliments.

The roadster was a cool car, Lionel thought, and had it not been for the disap­pearances of his family and the danger in which he now found himself, he might have been impressed enough to really check it out. He had been interested in unusual cars since he was a small child. But now this was just a way to get to Andre. Something to ride in.

Talia seemed unable to concentrate even on where she was going. All she could say, over and over, was "Ooh, LeRoy's gonna kill me if he finds out about this!"

Lionel tried to talk to her, mostly to simply change the subject. "So, Talia," he said, "where were you when the disappearances happened?"

"What?" she said, as if demanding to know what in the world he was talking about. "Where was I?"

"Yeah. Simple question. Everybody remembers where they were. I was sleeping in my basement with Andre. Where were you?"

"I was at a party Andre shoulda been at. So he was with you?"

"He didn't tell you where he was?"

"No! I told you! He's usually at all the par­ties, but he owed these guys some money, so I figured he was laying low."

"I thought he was hanging with us because we're family."

"Oh, yeah," Talia said. "That's Andre. Big family man."

"He could be, at times."

"I know. Whenever he really needed some­thing, he played you guys like banjos. When he needed cash or a place to crash, he'd run back to the family and get religion. Am I right? Huh? Am I right?"

Lionel shook his head and looked out the window. Talia was driving toward Chicago. It didn't seem to slip past her that Lionel had ignored her question. "Tell me," she said. "Isn't that what Andre pulled on your family every time?"

Lionel nodded, but she must not have seen him. "Isn't it?" she pressed.

"Yeah," Lionel muttered. "So, what did you think when people disappeared?"

"Nobody disappeared from that party, honey. Made me start believin' it was only Jesus' people who flew away."

"You believe that?"

"No! I'm just sayin'..."

"That's what I believe, Talia."

She whirled to face him. "No lie?"

"No lie," Lionel assured her, nodding toward the road where another car was sig­naling to move into Talia's lane. Lionel hated when she took her eyes from the road. She was an erratic enough driver when she was paying attention.

"So," she said, "how'd you miss out then, comin' from a family like yours? Andre says they're all gone but him and you."

"Right," Lionel said, and for the next sev­eral minutes and most of the ride to Chicago, he told her his story.

Lionel almost wished he hadn't started on the subject. Within minutes, Talia was wip­ing her eyes with her fingers while still trying to maneuver LeRoy's roadster through Chi­cago traffic. Lionel was eager to reconnect with Andre, but he didn't want Talia crying and driving at the same time. He was relieved when she finally pulled to the side of a street about six blocks south of where the police found the body they thought was Andre's.

Talia shifted into park and buried her face in her hands. "My mama's gone too," she wailed. "I knew the truth. I always knew the truth. I was raised the same way you were. Well, maybe not the same, but Mama warned me and warned me about this!"

"It's not too late, Talia," Lionel said. "I'm a believer now, and so are three of my friends and lots of other people---"

"No! No! It's too late. When Jesus took the Christians away, the Holy Ghost left and nobody can be saved anymore!"

"That's not in the Bible," Lionel said. "You need to talk to our pastor."

"Your pastor was left behind?" Talia said.

Lionel told Bruce's story. "And he told us the Bible talks about a great harvest of souls during the last seven years of the world. Something like a billion and a half people will get saved, and there'll be like 144,000 Jewish evangelists."

"Even if what you're saying is true, Lionel," Talia said, "I know I'm too far gone. If there really is a second chance, I don't deserve one, I know that."

"Nobody deserves a first chance. If we had to deserve it, nobody would make it."

To Lionel it appeared that Talia suddenly realized she was pouring her heart out to a thirteen-year-old boy. She quickly wiped her eyes again, turned the rearview mirror so she could check her face, and quit crying. "Andre is close by," she said, "but I'm gonna have to let him know you're here and find out if he wants to see you."

"Never mind," Lionel said, reaching for his door handle. "He does."

"You can't just barge in there with me," she said.

"Yes, I can, and you know it. You know he wants to see me."

Talia hesitated. She snorted. "True enough," she said. "He probably wants to see you more than he wants to see me."

Lionel got out of the car, prepared to fol­low Talia. As he fell into step behind her, he said, "You two not getting along?"

"I'd still marry him, messed up as he is."

"He doesn't want to?"

"Obviously! But I'm scared to death to be facin' the future alone."

"But Andre is really messed up," Lionel said.

"Not as much as me," she said.

Lionel wondered what kind of a couple those two would make.

Talia led Lionel around the back of a three-story brick apartment building in a bad neighborhood. Lionel wondered if Judd and the others were still keeping track of him. In a way he hoped they were, but he also won­dered what three white kids would do to pro­tect him in this neighborhood.

As they approached the rear entrance, Lionel noticed the lights went off in the apartment at that end on the top floor. As they climbed the square staircase, Lionel was quickly enveloped in odors and noise. Peo­ple were apparently cooking, arguing, and fighting.

As they reached the third floor, where the lights at the end of the building had gone out, Talia put a finger to her lips and knocked four times at the door. Silence.

She knocked four times again. "Open up, Andre!" she called out. "It's jes' me."

"Somebody's with you!" Andre hissed from just inside the door. "Who is that?"

"It's your nephew! Now open up!"

Before the words were out of her mouth, Andre had begun the process of unlocking, unbolting, unchaining, and opening the door. He peered out from the dark apart­ment, then grabbed Talia and Lionel and yanked them inside. He shut, locked, bolted, and chained the door in the dark. "Now," he said finally. "Let's get a look at you."

Lionel couldn't help but chuckle. His uncle had always been a little crazy, but­---

"It'll be a long time before my eyes get used to the darkness and I can see you," Lionel said. "Get a light on in here."

Lionel heard Andre feeling along the wall for a switch. When a single, bare bulb came on above them, Lionel was stunned to see his wasted uncle. Andre was barefoot and wore a pair of old, shiny suit pants and a sleeveless T-shirt with food stains down the front. He appeared to not have bathed for days. His hair was matted, his facial hair patchy. His breath smelled of alcohol, and his dark eyes were bloodshot. It was all Lionel could do to keep from gasping and telling his uncle how bad he looked. Lionel assumed Andre knew that and didn't care.

"Oh, Andre" was all Talia seemed to be able to say, and when he approached her, she stiffened. Whatever relationship was there or had been there or was trying to be rekindled, Lionel knew Andre's present con­dition wasn't helping.

"Ain't there no shower in this place?" she finally managed.

Andre shrugged. "Yeah, I guess."

"Get your stinking self in there and get cleaned up," she said. "Shave and brush your teeth too, and don't be comin' back out here until you do."

Andre squinted at her and looked as if he were about to burst into tears, but his shoul­ders sagged and he skulked away like a little boy who'd been ordered about by his mother. "Oh, man!" he whined.

"Hey," Lionel said. "I haven't got all night. I got people who worry about me when I get in late."

"That's more than I can say," Talia said, collapsing into a plastic chair at the Formica-­topped dinette table. A heavy, glass ashtray full of butts and a nearly empty bottle of cheap wine graced the table. Talia noticed them as if an ugly insect had just landed before her.

"Oh, for the love of all things...," she said, never finishing the thought. She had just used her foot to slide out another chair for Lionel when she stood and grabbed the wine bottle in one hand and the ashtray in the other. She tossed the bottle into a waste­basket nearly full of beer cans, where it set­tled at a crazy angle. She held the ashtray at eye level, looked resolutely at Lionel, and let it drop. It smashed the wine bottle, and Lionel heard the last of the wine drip to the bottom of the basket. The contents of the ashtray, however, scattered on the floor. Talia swore.

Steam poured from under the door of the nearby bathroom. Over the sound of the cas­cading water, Andre hollered, "What's goin' on out there?"

"I'm just clearin' the table," Talia answered. "What you been doin' for food, just drinkin'?"

"That's all the food I need!" Andre said. "Don't be messin' with my hooch."

Lionel was disgusted. He was relieved to know that Andre was still alive, if you could call this living. There was always a chance for Andre if he didn't kill himself or get himself killed first.

Was this the life Andre thought was better than what the rest of the family enjoyed? There had never been cigarettes or booze in Lionel's house. When guests asked his mother if she minded if they smoked, she always said kindly, "Of course not. I have an air­conditioned facility for you just beyond that door." It was the door to the driveway. And when Mrs. Washington's colleagues at Global Weekly magazine forgot themselves and showed up at dinner parties with gifts of expensive liquor or wine, or if they sent the same as Christmas gifts, she thanked them politely. She did not serve the stuff, of course, but the next day sold it to the manager of the beverage department at the corner store and gave the entire amount to the church. "The devil used that money long enough," she would tell her husband sweetly, winking at Lionel. "It's time the Lord got it back."

How Lionel missed his mama at times like this! What had he been thinking when he considered being a rebel with Andre better than being part of the family of God?

The only things Andre had to change into were brightly colored and way-too-big work­out shorts and a T-shirt that had been left in the apartment. Lionel could only wonder whose place this was and whose clothes those were. Andre padded out, keeping the shorts up with one hand.

"You look better," Talia said, smiling. "But not much."

Andre did not smile. "Man," he said, "it's good to see you both."

Lionel was frustrated. This was no family reunion. This was the only family he had left. "Andre," Lionel said, "I want to know what happened after you left that crazy message on my answering machine."

But the phone rang. Andre jumped, then stared at Talia. "How'd you get here?" he asked.

"I borrowed LeRoy's roadster."

"What? He doesn't loan that out!"

"He doesn't exactly know."

"Oh, man!"

Andre answered the phone and immedi­ately glared at Talia. "LeRoy! " he mouthed silently. "And he's not happy."


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