Calvin and Lin sit behind the bed taking swigs off the bottle of vodka.
"It looks like our home, but it's not." Lin slurred.
"We bought those curtains at Costco. I remember. We were there. We left the house and there was a yard and the road."
"That's right!. The road. Where's the road?"
"It's gone. Now we're just toys."
"Toys in a dollhouse that just looks like our house."
Calving pulls the bottle to his mouth and winces at the taste. Lin grabs the bottle and stares at it, sets it to the side. She turns to Calvin with a more sober expression.
"What are we going to do when Meredith comes back?"
Calvin rubbed his hand over his head pulling at his hair.
"I guess she'll pick us up and crush us to death."
Lin gasped at the idea.
"Are you being serious?"
"Yes. Very."
Tears welled up in Lin's eyes and her nose started to run.
"Oh baby." Calvin let out. "I'm sorry."
He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her tight against him.
"We never had children, so I don't know how to deal with them." Calvin said.
"Is that my fault?"
"No. Never. We were both busy, working on our careers. I was just saying, I don't know how to reason with a child."
"I think we would of, but you're right. We were busy. Plus I could never see myself being like her mother. Getting her out the door when we were in here."
Calvin lifted himself off of Lin, looked her in the eyes.
"Her mother."
"Her mother. That's it."
"That is it. We have to get her mother to help us."
"How do we do that. She would never believe it."
"We have to get her attention somehow. What could we do to get her to look inside?"
Lin stood up and paced around the room thinking. She walked back around the bed deep in thought and kicked the vodka bottle over sitting in front of Calvin. He reached over and picked it up before it spilled.
"Sorry." Lin said. "Did it spill?"
"No. It's not full enough I suppose."
Lin watched as Calvin rubbed his hand over the spot to make sure.
"Vodka is flammable right?"
"Yeah, I suppose. Most alcohol is, why?"
Calvin picked up the cap and screwed it back on the bottle.
"What if we started a small fire, to get her attention. She wouldn't be able to ignore that, would she?"
"I know I wouldn't. Just a simple spill had me worried. Do we even have a lighter or matches?"
Lin thought a moment. She snapped her fingers and made her way into the living room. Calvin jumped up and followed her. She was kneeling down under the bookshelf searching through the cabinets.
"What is it?"
"I thought I had put those candles we bought down here with that box of long matches."
"For your bosses dinner party last year?"
Lin stopped and looked up at him.
"Yeah."
"I put those above the laundry machine."
Lin stood up and this time followed Calvin into the laundry room. He reached up and opened the cabinet door. With both hands he pulled down a box of light bulbs, then two large dark red candles.
"I don't see any matches."
"Let me look."
Calvin moved out of the way while Lin stood on her toes to look into the cabinet. She brushed her hand around and came out with some rags, but no matches.
"What would we of done with them?"
"I don't remember."
"Well then what?"
Calvin picked up one the candles tossing it up and down.
"When I was college and no one had a lighter we would light our cigarettes off the stove. Maybe it would work for a candle. I don't know, but it's worth a try."
"It is."
Calvin carried the candle into the kitchen. Lin stayed in the laundry room and searched around for the box of matches. Calvin turned the stove all the way up waiting for it to get hot. The stove was electric with an induction cooktop that heated up very fast. The red of the heat began to appear when Lin appeared in the doorway.
"How's it working?"
"Still waiting. The matches?"
Lin shook her head no. The door opened with a bang.
"I'll be right there." Meredith shouted.
"She's back!" Lin yelled.
Meredith ran across the room. Each thump of her foot felt like a small earthquake.
"Hello. Are you still in there?"
Meredith peeked her eyes through the window.
"There you are."
She lifted the roof up and loomed over them.
"What are you doing?"
Lin looked to Calvin holding the wick to the heat, but nothing happened. She looked over his shoulder and saw the pan of bacon still sitting on the counter. She reached for it and pushed Calvin out of the way dropping it on the stove.
"You guys cooking? Are you hungry?"
"Where's the vodka?" Lin asked.
"I don't know."
"Is it still in the bedroom?"
"I'll check."
Calvin ran for the bedroom.
"Meredith do you want a snack."
"No mommy."
Meredith turned her head toward the door then back again. Calvin was in the bedroom holding the bottle of vodka.
"I told my teacher about you, but she just laughed and told me I was full of imagination."
The bacon on the stove started to burn. Smoke started to fill the kitchen.
"Calvin!"
He ran around the corner keeping his eye on Meredith peering down on them. As he made his way into the kitchen he twisted the cap back off.
"What do I do?"
"Pour it on the bacon."
Calvin turned the bottle over over the stove. A stream of vodka flowed down into the pan and ignited a burst of flames.
"What are you doing? Mommy says never to play with fire!"
The smoke filled the kitchen even more causing Lin and Calvin to cough. Calvin poured another shot onto the stove causing another burst of flames. Lin threw a dish towel into it causing it to catch on fire. The flame grew higher and now started to catch the cabinets on fire.
"What do we do now?" Calvin asked to Lin staring at the fire.
"Run."
To be continued...
