Flash Lit February 2020 #3 - Emergency Kit

“As soon as she had recovered her breath a little, she called out to the White King, who was sitting sulkily among the ashes, ‘Mind the volcano!’” Through the Looking Glass, Chapter 1

Mary screeched and stretched out a hand to try to grasp the central pole of the jungle gym.  “The hot lava monster is going to get me!”

Pam agreed.  “But the pole is safe as long as you don’t touch the tanbark.”

“Wait, I thought the tanbark was base?” Mary said.  “At least it was last recess.”

“The monster moved,” Pam insisted, her ponytails wagging.

The ways of the hot lava monster were, of course, inscrutable.  Some days it was triggered by touching the odd monkey bars, sometimes the even ones.  If the boys colonized the jungle gym first, the girls often found it infesting the merry-go-round floor.  Mary had no doubt that Pam was right about the monster’s movements; she just hoped that she could swing from one side of the structure to the other without dipping the toe of her sneaker into the lava.

She would have been successful if Evan hadn’t sauntered up and asked, “Can I play?”

Mary’s hand faltered and she dropped to the ground, fully expecting to feel her skin bubble and burn in the lava. 

Pam hurriedly extended an arm to help pull her back onto the safety of the jungle gym.  She glared at Evan.  “You nearly got her eaten up!” she yelled.  “Go away!”

Evan wiped an arm across his allergy-dripping nose.  “I’m sorry,” he said, but so softly that no one heard.

Pam soothed Mary.  “Don’t worry.  I have some magic spray here in my pocket with my emergency kit to heal the burns and I rescued you before the lava monster could get its teeth into you.”

Mary, relieved, exhaled and watched Evan retreat slowly across the blacktop to watch the kids playing handball.