Chapter 12Outside, the air was cold and clean. It soothed Joe's tortured lungs as he swallowed it, helped to make him feel a little better. With each breath, a little more smoke was rinsed from his body, a little more pain was erased. He was no longer coughing and choking and his breathing was slowly returning to normal.
His head still throbbed, his body ached horribly; the original agony of his hangover had been doubled by his ordeal in the fire. He was still alive, though, and he could breathe. That had to count for something.
Though it was three o'clock in the morning, everyone in the neighborhood was out on the street. People shuffled everywhere, looking at the firetrucks and police cars, pointing at the building, looking at the hapless victims and whispering to one another. Old ladi
