Little Fires Everywhere

Everyone in Shaker Heights was talking about it that summer: how Isabelle, the last of the Richardson children, had finally gone around the bend and burned the house down.

All spring the gossip had been about little Mirabelle McCullough or, depending which side you were on, May Ling Chow and now, at last, there was something new and sensational to discuss.

A little after noon on that Saturday in May, the shoppers pushing their grocery carts in Heinen's heard the fire engines wail to life and careen away, toward the duck pond.

By a quarter after twelve there were four of them parked in a haphazard red line along Parkland Drive, where all six bedrooms of the Richardson house were ablaze, and everyone within a half mile could see the smoke rising over the trees like a dense black thundercloud.

Later people would say that the signs had been there all along: that Izzy was a little lunatic, that there had always been something off about the Richardson family, that as soon as they heard the sirens that morning they knew something terrible had happened.

By then, of course, Izzy would be long gone, leaving no one to defend her, and people could and did say whatever they liked.

At the moment the fire trucks arrived, though, and for quite a while afterward, no one knew what was happening.

Neighbors clustered as close to the makeshift barrier a police cruiser, parked crosswise a few hundred yards away as they could and watched the firefighters unreel their hoses with the grim faces of men who recognized a hopeless cause.

Across the street, the geese at the pond ducked their heads underwater for weeds, wholly unruffled by the commotion.

Mrs. Richardson stood on the tree lawn, clutching the neck of her pale blue robe closed.

Although it was already afternoon, she had still been asleep when the smoke detectors had sounded.

She had gone to bed late, and had slept in on purpose, telling herself she deserved it after a rather difficult day.

The night before, she had watched from an upstairs window as a car had finally pulled up in front of the house.

The driveway was long and circular, a deep horseshoe arc bending from the curb to the front door and back so the street was a good hundred feet away, too far for her to see clearly, and even in May, at eight o'clock it was almost dark, besides.

But she had recognized the small tan Volkswagen of her tenant, Mia, its headlights shining.

The passenger door opened and a slender figure emerged, leaving the door ajar: Mia's teenage daughter, Pearl.

The dome light lit the inside of the car like a shadow box, but the car was packed with bags nearly to the ceiling and Mrs. Richardson could only just make out the faint silhouette of Mia's head, the messy topknot perched at the crown of her head.

Pearl bent over the mailbox, and Mrs. Richardson imagined the faint squeak as the mailbox door opened, then shut.

Then Pearl hopped back into the car and closed the door.

The brake lights flared red, then winked out, and the car puttered off into the growing night.

With a sense of relief, Mrs. Richardson had gone down to the mailbox and found a set of keys on a plain ring, with no note.

She had planned to go over in the morning and check the rental house on Winslow Road, even though she already knew that they would be gone.