VISUAL

Breaking News reporter Tiffany Clermont sits in a chair in a comfortable interview room. There is a fireplace in the room and flowers on a table placed between Tiffany and a second, empty, chair. A video screen behind the chairs displays an image of fire consuming the Bolinas Mall buildings.

VOICE

Tiffany: Here’s the second in a series of my interviews with surviving residents of the Apthorp. They are about Katherine Hart, who lost her life during the fire at the Bolinas Mall. This one’s with Isabella Fox.

Once again, my interview questions have been edited out to keep the focus on Isabella.

VISUAL

Tiffany in the interview room. Isabella sits in the second chair.

VOICE

Isabella: How the heck did you get Audrey to talk? We can’t get a thing out of her. She won’t even say why she’s not together with F F any more. You know what she called him? Fairfax. That’s what F F stands for, Fairfax Fern. Sheesh.

Me, I’ll talk your ears off if you want me to, but just remember, I’m not a very nice person. I know that now. And do we really have to talk about that night? Man, I hate to even think about it, let alone rake it all up again.

Yeah, I did it. I told them how to find the Apthorp, and that opened the whole can of worms. My god, it hurts to say that. And Katherine … Give me a minute.

OK.

I was so stupid. I believed the Covenants protected everybody. But the gods don’t give a damn about us, do they? Ah, who really knows? No god’s ever written a memoir. I sure hope they can’t see the future. If they can, then being a god has to be the most boring thing going. No surprises, ever, forever.

Besides, when you talk to Mackenzie, she’ll tell you it’s all up to us. We’re responsible for stability and civility, and all that stuff. Everything, really.

When she told me that — it was just afterward — it made me feel like the blame for Katherine was all mine. I hit her. I was crying like a madwoman, pounding on her chest, and she just took it. She could have stopped me in a second, of course, but maybe getting hit, even by me, helped her. She has her own guilt.

And who would have thought it? With GPS and all that, couldn’t those guys have found out where the Apthorp was for themselves? They had cell phones, didn’t they?

Ugh. There I go again, making excuses. I shouldn’t. I mean, a bunch of SUVs pull into a parking lot, guys in uniforms get out, and I act like they’re there for my amusement. God, I hate being a whiner.

Maybe that’s why I tease so much. After that night, though, it was a hell of a long time before I said anything flippant to anybody about anything.

The thought of teasing made me feel like throwing up, but after a while I started in again. I mean, it’s me, right? I think Mackenzie was first. Maybe she seemed stronger than the rest of us. I began making feeble jokes at her expense, stuff like that, even though she wouldn’t crack a smile.

But one day she did smile, just a little. I was so surprised, I stopped in the middle of what I was saying — probably something about Anthony and her — and started apologizing for not respecting her grief and all that, and she said, “It’s OK, I like it.”

You can’t imagine what that was like. There I was, being me, and somehow it was OK.

I think that made it possible for me to start with Emily again. She’d been after me for a while, in her shy little way, and even when I knew how strongly she felt, did that keep me from teasing her? Heck, no.

But she stuck with me, even though I’m not such a great person. And in the end she got me, and — you know what? — it feels good to say that.

Maybe there’s hope for me, after all.