Fire Next Time

by Arline Chase

FIRE NEXT TIME is the tale of how a young teen handles it when her mother's "just plain no-good" boyfriend sets out to destroy her family and her world.

ISBN 978-1-59431-880-1 Young Adult / Action adventure

Also available in RTF and HTML formats.

Chapter 1

At church they say the world ended once by flood and will go by fire next time. When my world almost ended, it was by fire, that’s for sure.

But it wasn’t really my fault. That much I know.

My mother’s boyfriend, Rondelle Jenkins, treated Mama like he owned her and he tried to treat me that way, too. Mama tries hard and she works hard, seems like she could find a man who would treat her right. I know her heart was broken four years ago when my step-dad left her. He walked out because she got sick and had to take some kind of treatments that made all her hair fall out. We ended up on welfare, because he ran out on his child support. That was a real bad time for our family.

Mama’s younger sister, Aunt Rose, came to stay with us awhile until Mama got better.

Between her and me, we managed to take care of the little ones. Aunt Rose got married last summer and Mama’s well now. Everything was looking good until Mama got a new boyfriend. I know she’s too young and too pretty to want to live alone forever. My own daddy died a long time ago and she had been alone a long time.

But she could have found someone better than Rondelle. Mama’s boyfriend is dead lazy. I always said he’d never be one to set the world on fire. How wrong can you be?

Mama told me, “Y’shika, you’re still a child. "You don’t understand how it is with a man and a woman.” Well, maybe I’m only fourteen, and maybe I don’t sleep around like some of the other girls in my school already do. But I know a man who’s no good when I see one. You can bet on that. And Rondelle Jenkins is just plain no good.

“Who else is going to want a woman with four children?” Mama gave me one of her worn-out looks. “You’re too young to understand.” Seems like Rondelle didn’t think I was too young. Every once in awhile, when Mama’s back was turned, he’d make a grab for me.

I belted him last time with the soup ladle and I told him to keep his filthy hands off me, or I’d tell Mama.

He said he was only kidding and couldn’t I take a joke? Who did I think I was, anyway?

I told him I didn’t HAVE a sense of humor.