Lin and Calvin fled to the living room away from the growing fire burning in their kitchen.
"Mommy! Mommy!" Meredith screeched at the top of her lungs.
The sound of footsteps came running towards them and the door flew open.
"What did you do?"
"It wasn't me, it was the people."
"People!"
The fire started to spread through the house, going up the wall and igniting the ceiling.
"Are they going to do anything?" Calvin said.
"We should get out of here."
Lin grabbed Calvin's hand and pulled him with her to the bedroom. The fire started burning through the wall.
"Where are we going?"
"Out the window."
Meredith's mother ran out of the room pulling her daughter behind her. Lin opened the window and flung her leg over the window's stool.
"What's the plan Lin?"
"I'm going to climb up onto that desk."
"You are?"
"We have no choice. All I need is for you to push me up, then I'll lean down and pull you up."
"Alright."
Lin set her foot in the window pushing herself up. Calvin stood behind her with his hands around her ankles. The smoke got thicker as the flames began burning through the wall separating the kitchen and bathroom. Calvin held onto Lin while she reached for the desk's ledge.
"Push me up a little higher!"
Calvin put his hand on Lin's rear end and pushed her up. She grabbed the ledge and tried to pull herself up.
"Keep pushing!"
He put his hands under her feet and pushed again. The flames started to burn across the ceiling.
"Hurry up Lin!"
Lin pulled her upper body over the edge then pulled her feet over.
"Ok! Climb up!"
Calvin stood in the window as a piece of burning ceiling dropped onto the bed. He reached his hand up, but Lin couldn't reach.
"Hold on! I have an idea!"
The fire consumed the bed in seconds filling the room full of black smoke and dangerous temperatures.
"There's not much time Lin!"
Lin scrambled around the desk looking for an object to hold out to him. She came across a pencil, but it was too heavy for her to lift. Next to it was a stack of papers held together by a paper clip. She ran over and with two hands pulled it off of the papers.
"I'm coming!"
Calvin waited desperate to get away from the burning inferno that had consumed the whole room.
"If I jump, I might make it. The floor isn't too far."
The shiny metal of the paper clip dropped in front of him.
"Grab it!"
He flung both hands in the air and took hold of it. Lin pulled the paper clip gripping her feet on to the desk to push herself back using the full strength of her body. As Calvin inched his way closer to the desk's edge, he let his right hand go and reached his forearm onto the surface. Below him the house raged in an orange glow and intense heat. He pushed himself up as hard as he could until his chest made it over the edge. Lin let go of the paper clip and ran to him, pulling him up by his shirt until he was all the way over.
"I love you."
"I love you too."
The door flew open with a heavy bang. The white foam from the fire extinguisher filled the air. Calvin and Lin coughed as it blanketed over them like an avalanche. They stood and ran for cover behind a box of crayons laying on the desk. The harsh whoosh of the of the fire extinguisher's nozzle went off for close to a minute, then stopped.
"What happened here Meredith? No lies!"
"The two people in the house-"
"You want me to believe there are little people in the house?"
"It's the truth mommy."
"Then where are they?"
"I don't know. Did they get hurt?
Lin and Calvin emerge from behind the crayon box. The chard remains of the house stinks of smoke and fire. Meredith stands pleading to her mother that she is telling the truth. In their loudest voices they scream out, "Over here! We're over here!" Meredith's mother walks toward the noise, sees the two of them and like in some Hollywood movie faints just before she collapses on the floor.
"Didn't she look familiar to you?" Calvin asked.
"For a second there."
"You're alright!" Meredith screeched.
The door slammed open and a man stood in the door way.
"What the hell is happening in here?"
"Daddy!" Meredith screeched again.
The man entered the room and picked his wife from the floor.
"Meredith, tell me what happened?"
"Look on the desk. It's the little people."
Meredith pointed in their direction, as the man turned his head the mother began to wake.
"Honey are your alright?"
"Are they real? The little people? I saw them and what happened?"
"You fainted mommy."
"I did?"
Calvin and Lin wipe the white extinguisher fluid from their faces and clothes. The mother sat up on her knees and crawled closer to them.
"Who are you?" She asked.
The father followed close behind her. Calvin and Lin couldn't believe their eyes, as they inched closer to the desk they could see it was themselves, Calvin and Lin staring down at them. Then in perfect unison together they said, "It's us."
