the secret of silver lake

I was seven again, and I could feel the scratchy mattress my mother and I were sleeping on itched my skin. I didn't like it. It was hard to sleep. I screached for Mommy, but she was still sleeping. "Mommy," i said into the dark, hoping for her to answer me. I could hear the heavy breath raising and falling of the sleeping women around me. The smell of unwashed bodies and the dirty mattress hung in the air like a cloak. My mommy and daddy stopped here because Daddy had to see a man about a horse to make it the rest of the journey. "Hush Lilly, don't wake the others it is not yet morning," she spoke lovingly with sleep heavy in her voice. Two large dogs were sleeping in the corner of the dark room, alerted to my movement, lifted its head to look at me. I giggled at the dog, who put its gaint head down to rest beside the other. I raised and clapped my little hands togeher both large animals lifted their head's which made lauch.One began to sniff the air the other walked over to me and started to tug on my sleeve I giggled out loud as I let the dog pull me off the mattress I had been sitting on. I smiled as the dog led me towards the doorway. As I reached the doorway, the other dog had started down the stairs. The hallway was dark and thick like a heavy fog after rain on a warm day. "Daddy," I called down the dark hallway but heard no answer back, so I followed the dog down the stairs. At the bottom, snoring men were slumped other tables, heads proped in their hands swaying as snores escaped the open mouths of sleeping men who had too much to drink. "Daddy, " I called out. Some of the men stirred at the sound of my voice. I sat down on the bottom stair. I was going to wait for Daddy to come get us. There was a large man sleeping on a stoll he had his head barried in his arm well the other gripped a large bottle.he was the man that let us stay in the room with other women. I didn't like him very much. I sat there listening to the sleeping men too scared to go further and wake one of them. On the way here, we stopped at stream to water the horses one had gone lame daddy told Mommy. daddy had a worried look on his face when he looked at me. Daddy told me not to talk to anyone and not cause trouble. "Mommy,' I whimpered 'Daddy, where are you?;" My eyes started to water and sting as chaos erupted around me, the once sleeping man on the stool. His head shot up like an alert cat, eyes groggy from too much drink and one side of his face wet from drool. "SMOKE! SMOKE!" He suddenly screamed. I could barely see what was going on. The vail of smoke was so thick now that I heard men tripping over chairs and tables as they woke up trying to understand what was going on. "SMOKE FIRE!" Another man yelled from somewhere in the room. "FIRE! WE NEED WATER!" Someone yelled from outside. The women up the stairs started to scream. It was getting hard to breathe. I couldn't see only hear the yelling that was coming from everywhere. I started to cry and stood up from where I was sitting. A man that was close to the stairs and heard the women's screams ran right into me. Knocking me down with a hard thud, I cried out. 'A CHILD? WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE! He grabbed me in his arms and started to grope through the thick smoke towards the door."MOMMY MY MOMMY, WHERE'S MY MOMMY?" I cried as the man carrying me moved slowly, tripping and almost falling. "Hush, child," he said softly. Coughing hard, he kept moving forward till he found a door leading out. "WATER! WE NEED WATER! THE WOMEN ARE TRAPPED IN THE BUILDING." Once he found his way out, the man stopped some distance away from the burning buildings. People were running and yelling as men ran back away forth with buckets of water. "Lilly Lilly," I heard my name being called. I hoped it might be mommy. I ran towards the voice calling my name. It was Maggie, an older lady, that mommy and daddy helped on the side of the road on the way here. She helped Mommy take care of me on the road to our new home.She wrapped me in a hug. "Thank goddess." she whispered."Where is your mother and father?" A loud scream followed by a large crack was heard coming from the building. I truned from Maggie to look at the sky as it began to grow dark as the smoke rose in the morning sky. The fire sounded like a horde of goblins. Cackling and cawing as the flames grew large, the barn holding the horses was completely engulfed now, and you could feel the heat from where I was standing with Maggie,