What Can You Not Buy With Money?

Fire. That was what I saw when we pulled up to the driveway. The fire brigade was working on extinguishing the flames but the damage was done.

The entire front of the building was charred and only the thin black skeleton of the frame was intact. Yet still, smoke and flames were lapping at the mansion, eager to devour everything in their path.

“Where’s everyone?” I ran up to a butler who was wrapped in a blanket, his face coated in soot.

The man coughed, and a paramedic gave him an oxygen tank to breathe in. “There…” He pointed to an ambulance, where there sat Madame Slater and Terra. They looked unharmed but sullen. Terra looked especially angry, staring into the flames with hatred and disgust.

“Are you all right?” I ran up to them, and Burgess was behind us.

“We just lost our home, what do you think?” Terra snapped.

I looked behind them to see only a medic who was preparing oxygen tanks. “Where’s Walker?”

Madame Slater’s jaw was clenched. “The brigade’s looking for him.”

I started to go cold all over and I started to tremble. “No,” I shook my head and looked over to the house. “But his lungs… the smoke…”

“Anyone else missing?” Burgess looked at the flames lapping at the shackled roof.

“Pierre. Everyone else is accounted for.”

I had a sudden urge to run into the house and look for them. I swallowed as I tried to not think about them suffering and I saw that the firemen were guarding the entrances.

“How did this happen?” I wrung my hands and my eyes stung by the great amount of heat, the smell of smoke, the terror that Walker wasn’t going to be all right.

“We don’t know,” Madame Slater sadly shrugged. “But…” She took out of her pocket a crumpled note. “This was tied to a brick and thrown through our front door shortly after you left.”

Burgess quickly took it and read it, a knowing frown was all I saw. He gave it to me to see and the only two words that were typed into the paper read: Merry Christmas.

I gave it back and quickly scuffled to the front doors.

The men put their hands on my shoulder, muttering in rapid French to tell me to stay away.

I just looked past them, hoping to see something—anything—and my heart broke when I saw some of the brigade run out of the house. They didn’t have Walker or Pierre with them.

I covered my mouth as my eyes leaked tears.

Burgess wrapped his arm around my weakened shoulders and held me as I started to cry like the helpless person I was.

A sudden yell had me open my eyes and I felt as though the world had suddenly turned to heaven.

Pierre and Walker emerged from the front door, their clothes fringed from the fire, their skin covered in a thick black smog, and their eyebrows singed. Pierre was carrying Walker on his back, the poor man had fallen unconscious.

“Prenez-le! Il doit aller à l'hôpital.” Pierre ordered at the rushing paramedics as they took Walker away. One of the men pulled Pierre to the ambulance, as though in disbelief he was really alive.

“Thank God,” I murmured and I went to run to Walker to touch him, see him—just prove that he was alive and safe. Burgess touched my shoulder to stop me and I looked to see he trying to hide the same amount of overflowing relief.

“Let’s give the EMT some space so they can help him without interruption.” We stood in silence as we watched the firemen kill the remnants of the flames. The clear sky had gone grey with winter clouds and the occasional snowflake began to fall.

“What’s going to happen now?” I asked as we went toward the Slaters who were now accompanied by an out of breath Pierre.

“I’ll offer the Slaters to live with me. And I’m going to find out what caused that fire.” Burgess took out of his pocket the note. “But I have an idea who’s responsible.”

“Who?” My eyes widened and my heart raced. “Why would anyone do that?”

“Because they want to give us trouble.”

I remembered that man who had been ‘cleaning’ the windows, so I told him. “Did you see that man washing the window before we left?”

“No,” Burgess raised an eyebrow. “But I’ll talk to Madame about it.” A medical technician ran up to us, rapidly speaking to Burgess who made a quick reply and told me, “Come on, they’re transporting Walker to a hospital by helicopter.”

As we all rode to the hospital in silence, I could only watch on as a man was holding a mask over Walker’s mouth and I looked out the window as the tragedy dawned on me. Madame Slater and Terra had just lost their home. And Walker wasn’t better yet, not even close to okay. There was still a chance he wouldn’t wake up, and that was the whole reason why he was being rushed to the hospital.

Pierre was asleep, his head resting on his employer’s shoulder. There was a loving mark on his expression as he moved his head subconsciously. Terra was silent, her arms folded as she looked down at the remnants of her home with an apathetic stare. Madame Slater, though, looked overjoyed.

“We are all safe, no one has died—that itself is more beautiful and wonderful than that house!” She rapidly spoke in that thick accent and I couldn’t help but care for her. I was moved my compassion by those words until she added, “Besides! I am insured, and I was growing bored of that same building! When spring begins, I will hire a crew to build a new one in its place! And it will be even greater than before! And you will all visit in May!” And I just smiled sadly at how she herself had a shake in her hand as she stifled a forced yawn. Words couldn’t disguise a relieved and scared woman.

I wasn’t going to cry, but I still was shrouded in a musk of misery but a warm hand covered mine. I looked up to see Burgess holding it, though he looked afar as though denying what he was doing.

When we landed upon the helicopter landing, Walker was immediately taken into an oxygen chamber.

“He’ll be all right,” Pierre murmured and forced a grin of hope for me. “In fact, he was the one who saved me in that house.” Everyone gathered in the waiting room as he began to tell of the story while we nervously sat for the doctor to arrive. “You see, when the fire came I was in the library. All those books lit up like a dry grass field, surrounding me. I couldn’t register what was happening… for you see—the flames ate up at the ceiling and everything came down on top of me. I couldn’t move but I was close enough to the ground not to inhale so much smoke. But I was scared! Mon dieu, I thought, Je suis mort. But then, I heard Walker calling out like the nobleman he is. And I yelled out so he came and helped take a wooden board off of my stomach. But then, the doorway caved in, blocking the exit.” Pierre coughed; his voice’s wheeze reminded me terribly of Walker. “And so, I had to use a backroom that Madame Slater used to store her valuables in. There was a hidden entryway to the basement, which… almost killed us. When we opened the door, we must have fed the fire with unused oxygen for all of a sudden, an explosion threw us into the passageway, and Walker had inhaled too much smoke. His asthma had already made it almost impossible for him to take that board off of my body. He fell to the ground. ‘Hold on,’ I told him and I grabbed him by the arms and pulled him up. ‘We’re almost there,’ I kept saying until we climbed the stairs and reached the front entryway and escaped to the front door.” Pierre caught his breath. “Walker’s a strong boy, you see? He will be on his feet in no time!”

“Why aren’t you seeing a doctor as well?” Madame Slater snapped with worry. “If something fell onto you, you could have a hurt back!”

Pierre’s caramel cheeks turned a dark red and he smiled dreamily at Slater. “Are you worried about me, boss?”

“Of course!” Slater folded her arms and added her usual crushing final comment, “It would be such a stress having to find a replacement assistant, especially during the holiday.”

I threw Burgess a frown of disbelief and I looked at Pierre worriedly. But he took it in good stride like the perfect employee he was.

“Of course,” there was a sting in his tone but he bowed his head. “I’ll go talk to a nurse then, excuse me.”

“Madame Slater, you and Terra are more than welcome to my home until you find a new place,” Burgess quickly brushed away the drama as he went down to business.

The woman’s eyes brightened. “Ah, oui! That sounds lovely, I’ve hardly been in the states! What do you think Terra?”

The heiress had been ignoring us but she finally looked up, her narrowed eyes at me. She stared at me until I blinked, feeling inferior, which she smirked at then said, “Sure. I heard California’s beautiful during this time of year.”

“Then we’ll head back as soon as Walker’s discharged,” Slater ordered and checked her fingernails. “Now I’m excited.” She frowned and let a sigh escape her.

“Mr. Burgess,” I pushed his shoulder and looked over at a secluded corner for us to talk privately. When we were out of earshot, I said, “What about your… party?” He had made a point to only invite ‘people our age’.

“Obviously, Madame Slater will…” Burgess let out a lament, “…want to be a part of it when she finds out. At least Terra will be there too.” He eyed my stare and added, “She isn’t as bad as you think she is. She’ll grow on you. Besides, it's my home.”

“I know, I just wanted to point that out.” I pulled at the necklace Lucy made for my birthday and whispered, “Do you think Walker’s going to be okay?”

“Yes, he’ll make it. The doctors seemed confident enough.” Burgess paused then added, “You don’t have to call me that.”

“Call you what?”

“Mr. Burgess. Call me Ben; I think we’ve gone through enough to be on the first name basis, Mary.”

My face burned and I nodded. “All right… Ben.”

“Excusez-moi,” a nurse came in with a clipboard in her hands. “Monsieur Walker est éveillé.”

Though the staff seemed to protest for so many people to visit Walker, Pierre intercepted them by batting his lashes and flashing some Euros for the nurses to stop their complaining. I couldn’t help feel a bit of envy and disgust at how easy it was for people to just get what they wanted with money.

Walker was no longer in the oxygen chamber, but he now had oxygen tubes deep in his nose.

“Hey,” I smiled down at him and took his hand with a gentle squeeze. “Do you need anything?”

“How about the dinner and sex you owe me?” Walker grinned and let out a choking fit of laughter.

I smiled back but a sudden movement behind me took my attention away. Burgess had his arms folded and he was looking away with displeasure clear on his mouth as he scowled.

“So we’ll be going home soon?” Walker asked as his eyes ran through the crowd in his room.

“The doctor said that you can be taken back to the states by tomorrow morning.” Pierre answered as he took a seat over a heating vent.

“Okay then.” Walker yawned deeply and let out a sudden cough. “I’m pretty tired,” He eyed me warily.

“All right, then get some rest,” I told him as I brushed some hair out of his face affectionately. “We’ll be here tomorrow as soon as we can to take you home.”

“Great, I miss Lucy and Lawrence.” Walker yawned again and closed his eyes as he began to doze off.

When we all closed the door behind us, Terra walked off. “Call me tomorrow when we’re leaving, okay Mom?”

“Wait!” Madame Slater and Pierre were on her heels, desperate not to have her disappear on them again. “Where are you going? And with who?”

Burgess and I were alone.

“Hey, about what Walker said,” Burgess muttered as he couldn’t look me in the eye. There was an embarrassed pitch to his voice and his cheeks had the lightest shade of flush. “Was he serious?”

I blinked and then my face went the same shade of red when I realized what he was talking about. He was talking about the comment about owing Walker sex. “No, it was just an inside joke.”

“Okay,” Burgess looked at me with a small smile. He was relieved. “Remember that promise you made before we came here? About you not ignoring me during this trip?”

“And the lunch,” I added. “Yeah, I remember.”

“We haven’t really worked together this weekend,” Burgess explained.

“All right, I’ll just get my…” my face paled. “Oh no, all the papers are gone in the fire.” I dug into my pockets to take out the Smartphone and my hand fell onto my necklace. Breathing a sigh of relief, I looked up at him sheepishly. “Sorry.”

“It can’t be helped,” Burgess shrugged. “We have backups back at my office. Come on, I’m sure the cafeteria is open at this hour. I’ll pay.”