Stars Fell On Alabama

Rebecca knew better. She really did. She learned long ago to stay in her lane. Do your job well, but not too well. Never volunteer to do more. Don’t let your hormones lie to you about a man. Just one instance of doing more than expected would only raise the same expectations.

In high school, she worked at the Burger Palace as a cashier. Young and enthusiastic, she would volunteer to cover for others and to do some jobs no one else wanted to, like cleaning the bathrooms. Before long, she was assigned bathroom duty every time and was blasted when she didn’t take someone else’s shift because she wanted to attend her own high school graduation.

Her ex-husband taught her to lower her expectations when she would get him the watch he’d been staring at for months on his birthday only to receive wilted gas station flowers on her own birthday.

College taught her not to volunteer ideas. One volunteered idea turned into a group project where she did all the work, but the group shared the benefit work.

Don’t do extra, don’t volunteer, and don’t let a good-looking man con you into happily ever after.

She went to Michaela’s for coffee Monday morning because her coffee machine had gone on strike, on the worst day of the week possible. While standing in line, she noticed the man ordering was wearing a Dogwood Bow Fire Department tee shirt and nicely fitted jeans. He was muscular and fit, and her first thought was, “nice ass.”

When the woman before her in line looked around at her with wide eyes, she feared she had spoken her inside thoughts until the woman mouthed, “Oh. My. God.”

Rebecca flicked her eyes at him and tilted her head in question. At the woman’s nod, she gave a slight nod of agreement, and they both returned to staring at him. When he completed his order and her partner in ogling stepped forward to give her own, Rebecca’s eyes lingered, trailing up to his face. Black hair in a severe crew cut framed a face designed to fire up a woman’s hormones: a square jaw with a trimmed beard, high cheekbones, and strong brows. Dogwood Bow, Alabama, was a small town in which she had lived her entire life. Well, her entire life minus the years in college to learn to become the high school science teacher she was now. If he was from their small town she would know him, so he must have recently moved into town. He was chatting in a low tone with another firefighter whom she recognized. Danny Hill was a kind, redheaded bear of a man married to her best friend. When his eyes caught hers, Danny gave her a friendly grin and tilted his head towards her. His companion followed his gaze, and Rebecca met his chestnut eyes.

His eyes traveled appreciatively down her body and back up, meeting her gaze. A faint quirk of a smile and a wink later, and Rebecca’s heart was trying to pound its way out of her chest. As he and Danny turned to collect their coffee order being served, she vaguely heard the barista at the register asking if she was ready to order. She tore her eyes away and ordered her coffee. When she completed the payment, she was disappointed to find he had already gone. However, she was not unhappy. She would have Lucy corner Danny for information about the mystery man.

With a grin, she collected her own coffee when her name was called and continued on her way to the morning’s staff meeting before school started.

She was feeling good.

She was feeling lucky.

With all the confidence of a chihuahua confronting a Rottweiler, Rebecca volunteered to chaperone the high school dance. She should have known better.

Friday night, she stood in her nicest Sunday dress directing students to lines for pictures and selfies first then lines for the buffet or the punch bowls. As the overhead lights dimmed in favor of rotating colored lights and dancing started, she haunted the secluded, shadowed spots, separating amorous gropers. She could be at home, bunny slippers and face mask on, sipping cheap wine and sighing over Mr. Darcy. Instead, she was enduring loud music, flashing lights, and dirty looks from sullen teenagers. Just a run-of-the-mill school dance until the screaming started.

To be fair, screaming and teenagers are not odd. However, the bestial roar and clang of metal that accompanied the screaming was…unusual. She whipped her head towards the previously chained double doors leading to the parking lot to see both doors lying twisted and tossed aside like balls of paper. The fire alarm added its screech to the cacophony as Rebecca tried to make sense of what she saw. At first, she thought it was a bear. However, it was about five feet tall at the shoulder on all fours, which was much larger than any bear found native to Alabama. Also, it had a long, black tail swishing with a dark brown ruff of fur at the end. Bears had short, stubby tails. This was like the tail of a big cat. Add in that it had a russet-brown mane surrounding the broad head, while the rest of its body was covered in black fur, and it looked like a cross between a bear and a lion. The beast rose onto its hind feet, and her mind buffered.

It was massive. It had to weigh several hundred pounds and stood over seven feet when it reached its full height. He (yes, she could now tell it was very much a he) roared, flashing cruel fangs and began shambling towards a cheerleader. Brittany? Stephanie? Tiffany!

Tiffany, bless her silly heart, was standing tall and screaming defiance at the creature. He dropped to all fours and broke into a lumbering run at her. Then all hell broke loose.

Tiffany finally realized she was in genuine danger and screamed, fell back on her behind, and started crab-scrambling backwards. Maggie, the English teacher, seemed to appear out of nowhere, snatching Tiffany up and shoving her towards the doors at the end of the gym. A bellow from the opposite side of the room drew her attention to a man holding an impossibly enormous sword at shoulder height and charging the beast. Wait, was that the history teacher? What in the world was going on?

As the pudgy, balding history teacher engaged the bear-cat-thing with the sword, Rebecca kicked into gear herself. She whirled around and started screaming at the kids cowering under the buffet tables.

“Get out! That table won’t save you. Run!”

She punctuated her commands with grabs and shoves, getting them moving. Most of the kids had already fled the gym, leaving the path to the doorway open. She concentrated on breaking the children frozen in fear out of their stupors and getting them to safety, doggedly ignoring the roars, screams, and clashing of metal behind her. She would either live or die, but there was nothing she could do about the battle behind her. As she moved to the opposite side of the room to help the remaining children still hiding under tables, the fire department rushed in through the doors. Danny’s giant form came first, followed by two others in full gear. Under normal circumstances, she would have been relieved, but she was terrified it would kill them. Where was the National Guard when you needed them?

Rebecca shoved the last two teenagers towards the door before letting her lizard brain take the reins again. Wide-eyed, she looked at the battle. Mr. Douglas, the history teacher, was flying through the air at that moment and slammed into the wall. The creature roared. Maggie screamed from her stance in front of Tiffany. A firefighter threw off his coat and transformed into a…dragon?

Twelve feet of red scales, two black membranous wings resembling bat wings, a barbed tail, and a haze of smoke crouched over the bear-cat. The other creature rose to its hind feet again with a roar and launched at the dragon. The dragon opened its fearsome maw and sprayed a viscous liquid at the bear. Flames leaped up everywhere the liquid landed, sputtering and smoking. The roar of the beast pitched into a scream. It recoiled, dropping to all fours and fled out of the broken doorway. The helium tanks they used to fill the balloons before the dance were no match for the flames, and Danny realized it.

He screamed, “Everybody out!”

Rebecca obeyed.

The next hours were hectic, getting teenagers and shocked adults away from the building and into the parking lot while the fire department worked feverishly to extinguish the flames. Additional fire companies came from around the county to help combat the blaze. They began taking breaks in rotation. Paramedics came and went. They examined Rebecca and found no serious injuries. They gave her a blanket to wrap around her shoulders en lieu of a jacket. When she made her way to her car, she found it surrounded by emergency vehicles.

This was her fault, she thought. If she hadn’t let her hormones make her giddy, she would be at home right now watching the news in her pajamas. She slumped on the trunk of her car and watched while she waited for the surrounding vehicles to be moved.

Danny and the new firefighter came out for a drink and a snack. Her car was in the shadows, and the tailgate of the truck was angled away from her. She could see them, but they couldn’t see her. Her ears perked when they started talking in low, serious tones.

“What do we want to call this, Uriel?” Danny asked.

The hot fireman’s name was Uriel. He was named for an archangel?

Uriel was glaring at the still-burning gym. “Gas leak. Why didn’t anyone tell me there were helium tanks in there?”

Danny shook his head. “We didn’t know. I didn’t even know there was supposed to be anything going on there tonight.”

Rebecca slid off the trunk of her car and walked around the edge of the truck. “A gas leak? Really? What is this, a movie?”

Both men jerked and turned to her. Danny’s eyes widened, and his jaw dropped open. “Rebecca?” he asked.

She continued as if he had said nothing. “I guess the next option is swamp gas. You can’t get more imaginative than that?”

Uriel narrowed his eyes at her. “What would you say, Raven?”

Her hand jerked to her straight black hair, but she pulled it away self-consciously when his eyes followed the movement. She straightened her spine and walked back to the trunk of her car.

“Easy,” she said as she popped the trunk. She rummaged in a box in the corner and pulled out a meteorite. Slamming the trunk closed, she spun and held it out so they could see it. “A meteorite punched through the roof and hit a helium tank.”

Uriel said, “Who would believe that?”

She stared at him. “Haven’t you ever heard the saying ‘stars fell on Alabama?’”

He looked at Danny, who shrugged.

She stalked to Danny, grasped his hand, and dropped it in his palm. “The bigger question is how are you going to explain away all those witnesses that saw the lion bear?”

“The what?” Danny asked.

“The grindelkin,” Uriel said. He turned those chestnut eyes on her. “They won’t remember. Humans never do. Which begs the question, why do you?”

Rebecca stilled. Uriel was the one who turned into the dragon, so it made sense he would not consider himself human, but she was and so was Danny. “What do you mean, humans never do? Danny?”

Danny coughed. “It’s a long story,” he said.

Uriel scoffed. “He’s special. Apparently, so are you.” He narrowed his eyes as he looked at her. In a soft voice, he said, “Very special. And smart.”

Rebecca blushed. Uriel snatched the meteorite from Danny’s hand. “You’re right, Raven. The meteorite is a much better story.”

“It’s Rebecca,” she snapped.

He smirked. “Rebecca. The raven-haired beauty. Will you have dinner with me tomorrow, Rebecca?”

She froze again, then said, “Yes. I would love that.”

Another slow smile graced his lips. “Good. I’ll pick you up tomorrow.”

“Okay,” she said. She couldn’t think of anything else to say.

He grinned, nodded, and pulled his jacket closed again. Without another word, he walked back to the fire.

“Nice ass,” she said. He laughed.

Maybe happily ever after did exist.