“THE FIRE GUITAR” – A Short Story

Written and Illustrated by Luis Roding
Reading time: 8 minutes

We made sure the six of us gathered around the fire. Only Mary’s closest friends. The sun was set, the tide was low, and now, thanks to Melanie and Rita, who fooled the other guys away from this part of the beach, we were ready to begin.

I was in charge of playing a tune, so I took my guitar, one with a slim blue body. Then Rita stood up. I knew what she would say even before she opened her mouth. After all, she had remained Mary’s best friend.

“Bob,” she said,”  you’ll do it with this one!”

She was holding my other guitar, which she had kept since that day when we found Mary. Her curly red hair looked like crimson flames in the light of the fire, and her freckles, the ones I used to like so much, failed to soften the menace on her face.

“Rita, please!” I said, but she just stared at me.

“Bob, I don’t know for how long we will have this spot. Don’t mess it up now,” she said.

“It can be done with this one, too, you know that,” I replied.

“Bob, honey,” Melanie said, as she fell into the sand, “I didn’t have my ass grabbed for nothing. Don’t waste time and take the damn fire guitar!»

«The fire guitar» is what Mary named it the first time she saw it. The guitar had some flames painted on it, and the whole body seemed like it caught fire and someone put it off before it burned completely. I thought it was too obvious, but Mary was like that; she could be silly and still get away with everything she wanted.

“I don’t know if I can stand it,” I said.

“Come on, man, you can do it!” said Carlos, hugging Melanie closer than I had seen before. She didn’t push him away like other times.

“We’re here with you. Don’t be afraid,” said Claire, covering herself with a towel and pushing up her glasses with her pinky finger. It was unusual that she joined us this late at the beach, but many things were that night.

“Don’t worry,” said Matt, looking at the others. “Just try it. If it doesn’t work, we won’t blame you.”

“Nonsense!” Rita gave him a severe look, “we will succeed on the first try!” She extended her arm, holding the fire guitar by the neck. All eyes were on me.

Memories came back uninvited. Mary’s blonde hair tickling my face, her soft voice during our arguments, her constant giggling when she had spicy food, and the intensity of her eyes when trying to guess what was on my mind. Yes, the possibility of being with her again was enough to consider what we were about to do. Still, I was afraid of how that would happen next.

“We got this far, Bob!” Rita said, “Please!”

I put the blue guitar aside, and Carlos took it. I stood up and faced Rita’s gaze, which, unlike Mary’s, was fierce, even savage, and made me wonder what she wouldn’t do in that state. So I took the fire guitar, and for a moment, she looked away.

“Thank you,” she said.

I took it and held it for a while, though more than feeling pain, I felt relief. It wasn’t as hard as I had feared.

«This will work, you’ll see,» she said, putting on a flower headband—the one Mary had when we found her.

I didn’t expect it, and neither did the rest of the guys.

“Yes, I know. I have to use something she was wearing that night”

She then looked at me, and for a second, her face softened. I realized then how little she’d smiled since the incident. I didn’t know what to do with that. I strapped on the guitar and tunned it up. Everyone was in position, Rita cleared her throat.

“I know we all want to speak to her, but I will do the talking. I will focus on what happened, where in the camping ground was the freaking flowers party, and who took her there. Alright?” Everyone nodded except me. “Bob?”

“You know me. I can’t do anything else while I’m playing,” I said.

We needed to be “connected,” everyone held the hand of their neighbor. Claire put hers on my right knee, Melanie lightly grabbed my left arm. However, Rita remained separated from the group, just the flames between us. She then started to sway rhythmically while I played a tune, following her pace. The flames began to grow higher.

“Steady folks, keep on going!” she said as the flames started to imitate her movements.

My fingers moved by themselves while Rita danced. It wasn’t clear if the flames were mimicking her or the other way around. This continued for some time, until the heat danced inside my chest.

The fire cracked and spat a larger flame where the figure of a young woman danced. She was wearing a white dress with straps, a necklace of seashells, and a flowers headband. She looked like Mary.

“Who are you?” said Rita.

“Rita?” replied Mary from the flames. Her voice came out distant, as if she was inside a bottle. “Where are you?” and a smile appeared on her face. Still, she kept dancing, eyes closed.

“Who are you?” repeated Rita.

“It’s me, Mary, you silly!” she giggled. “So you have come?”

It was her. Wherever she was now, we were talking to her.

“Mary!” I could feel the agony in Rita’s voice. “Dear, I need to ask you a few things.”

A silence followed, only broken by another giggle from Mary.

“What? What are you up to?”

“Mary, where are you?” Rita said.

“Oh, sorry. I should have told you, but I decided to come to the party, the one I was invited to. Remember?”

“The flowers party at the fair?”

“Of course! Don’t tell me you have been drinking again so soon?” Mary’s giggling continued.

“Dear, tell me, where was… I mean, where is this party?”

“Oh well, but of course, in a tent, in the camping field… I know, I should have told you. Please, if you see Bobby, don’t tell him. He told me not to, but I couldn’t help it.”

“What tent are you in?”

“Why? Are you planning to come?”

“Well, not exactly. Can’t you tell which tent it is?”

“Hmmm, I wouldn’t be able to tell you; it’s one of the first ones coming from the food trucks, though I doubt you can find it without help.”

“How did you get there?”

“Ahhh, well. Teresa brought me.”

Rita remained silent for a while. We all remembered Teresa. We attended her funeral five weeks ago. Rita swallowed hard before proceeding.

“Dear, but can you tell me if there’s something special about it? A color, a sign, some decoration.”

“Well, not from the outside, but there are many white flowers inside, all decorated with them. Oh, and they smell so good. I really wish you were here… Rita, where are you? I don’t have my phone with me. We are dancing now, but I am talking to you and cannot see you.”

Her voice revealed signs of worry. Again, a new silence.

“Mary, dear. I am a little far now, but I need you to tell me who invited you.”

“I told you, Teresa did.”

“Who is organizing the party then? Who is the host?”

“I cannot tell you. Well, I could,” and she started to whisper, “but the truth is that I shouldn’t. It’s a secret.”

“You need to tell me, please.”

“If you come, you will know. I can go and pick you up.”

“Mary, there is something I need to tell you, and it’s not going to be easy for you.”

“What? Are you still mad about Bobby and me?”

“No, it’s not about Bobby. Listen…” Rita’s voice trembled.

“Are you upset? Do you want to talk? I can go and pick you up,” Mary said.

“You cannot go and pick me up anywhere,” Rita sighed, “the fair ended more than five weeks ago. It’s almost December now.”

Mary laughed, and for a moment, it was hard for me to breathe.

“You silly! Stop it!”

“Mary,” Rita’s voice started to break, “sweetie, something happened in that party. Something bad.”

Another silence.

“Many boys and girls died that Saturday night at that party. Others were left wandering around in terrible condition.”

“What are you talking about?” Mary gasped, “where are you? I cannot see you!” Mary’s voice broke, “can you see me?”

“We can see you, sweetie.”

“Who else is with you?”

“The whole gang.”

“I cannot open my eyes,” Mary started to cry.

“I know, dear, I know. That’s what I wanted to tell you.”

“Oh my god!”

“Sweetie,” now Rita was sobbing, “you are not well.”

“What do you mean? What’s happening to me?” Mary’s figure kept dancing, but her face was contorted in fear.

“Nothing is happening anymore. But something bad did happen that night. You are alive. You’re at your folks’ house.”

“Oh my God! I cannot see it! What happened to me?”

“Mary, we don’t know yet. But you were found sleepwalking the next Sunday near the river. You were so lucky we found you.”

“Am I a…” Mary struggled with the word “… a vegetable?”

“No, you’re not a vegetable. You sleep, you wake up, you eat, you can go to the bathroom, you can dress, you can go out and take the sun…” Rita made a great effort to keep talking “…but that’s all you can do!”

An explosion of hot pain burst in my chest. I started to feel my fingers again and missed the tune for a second. I heard sobs of the others, too, but Claire broke into a loud cry.

“Is that Claire?” Mary said.

“Yes, she’s here. We’re all concerned about you, and we want to help you!”

“Is Bobby there too?”

I lost the tune again, but Rita’s eyes urged me to keep going.

“Yes, he’s here. Bobby’s here. We are all here. Melanie, Carlos, and Matt as well.”

“Bobby? Can you hear me?”

Rita gave me another look. Again, I knew what she meant. My heart was beating so fast that I felt I would push the guitar forward.

“He can’t talk to you now. Mary, tell me who’s hosting that freaking party! Only that way we can bring you back!”

“Oh, Bobby, I am so sorry!”

“Mary! Tell me, who is the host?”

“Rita, it’s the foreigner!”

“The foreigner? What foreigner, Mary?”

“The man we saw that evening at the square, remember? The one with the funny hat.”

“The circus man?”

“No, the other one, the tall and handsome one, the one with the green suit.”

“That fucker!” Melanie yelled between tears.

“Bobby!” Mary said, and for the first time since she appeared in the fire, she stopped dancing. She turned to me as if she could sense where I was.

“Bobby, I love you.”

I stopped playing and approached her. For a moment, I could feel she was there, but then a huge spark cracked, and the fire guitar was now really on fire.

“Bob!” Matt yelled, followed by Claire screaming. I felt heat on my face, and before I knew it, a body hit me, a woman’s body.

We both lay on the sand, and I could feel hands taking the guitar from me. When I opened my eyes, I saw Rita, tears still rolling down her cheeks. She had a concerned look.

“Are you ok?” she said while touching my face. She was trying to douse any flames letf on me, but I could feel something more from her touch.

“I think so,” I said, and I could feel I had tears, too. “I am sorry, I didn’t know she was going to…”

“Don’t be sorry,” she said as she wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand. “You did great,” and the others surrounded me.

“What do we do now? Do we know how to find that guy?” I said, standing up and feeling with a different kind of heat in my chest.

“Oh, we do,” Rita said.

“We do?” said Claire, looking at the others.

“You bet we do! Right, Matt?” Melanie said. Matt just nodded, his gaze fixed on the sand.

Rita stepped forward and removed the flowers from her glowing red hair. She looked at me and said: “We are bringing her back.”