GREGG WILLIARD
Four Flames 1. Cigarettes Meg Pall hung upside down with cigarette smoke oozing out her smile, but her bottom bunkmate Bridey Hatfield didn’t stir. Meg shook out her wet hair and whipped Bridey’s blanket like a horse tail to flies. Then she sucked down her Chesterfield and dropped it on Bridey’s sheets. Nothing. The spot smoldered. “Hey, girlfriend.” The spot flamed. “You’re on, like, fire.” The other girls at The School for Wayward Girls hissed Stop but not too hard or loud, because no one wanted the Sisters to hear, but most everyone still bore the blows and burns that marked Meg’s special welcome to the dorm. Meg finally kicked her powerful legs in the smoke and dropped, light like a gymnast to the floor. She tossed the window key to one of her lieutenants, Lonnie Dahlcet, and ordered her to “air out the dump.” Another girl, Hug Schyne, smothered the fire with her blanket. Everyone crowded around the sighing ash. The new girl, Bridey, wasn’t moving. Judy Schoetenstein pushed through the others and pulled back the smoldering top blanket. Underneath were knotted sheets bunched into human form. Lonnie gaped and said, “What the heck is that?” Everybody turned to Meg, who sneered and rolled her eyes to cover her own surprise. Then Bridey wiggled out from under the bed with a wet cloth on her face. She got to her feet unfazed by the hissing mess of her mattress and sheets and went to the empty bed in the back. Meg dropped a big hand on Bridey’s shoulder. “You’re my bunkmate, girlfriend. I like you. How’s abouts I show you the cans and cant’s tomorrow?” She waved to Judy Schoetenstein and said, “Take off the mattress on this bed and put it on Bridey’s, would you, girl?” Judy stared up at her with a hard smile. She was shorter than Meg but more muscular in the arms and shoulders. Meg 60 | Raleigh Review
