AMELIA
I was peering at the screen of my computer, surfing the net and writing down prices of some items I wished to purchase when Rose, the manager of my bakery, called me.
"Hello?" I picked up the phone eagerly.
"Ma'am," she gasped and swallowed audibly. I sat upright immediately. Just that one word and I knew that something was very, very wrong.
Unconsciously, I gripped the phone tightly.
"Rose, what's wrong?"
She made a sound halfway between a gasp and a sigh. She seemed to be struggling to speak. "I'm sorry... It's just that I'm still so shaken... though we've got it under control, but for a while, I thought- I thought-" She swallowed again.
"Take a deep breath and tell me what happened," I said more calmly than I felt.
Rose audibly exhaled. "There's been a fire at the b
