Little Fires Everywhere

by Celeste Ng

“Don’t say anything to Bill or Mark,” Mrs. Richardson said, gathering her purse. “Let’s not get their hopes up yet. Trust me. I’ll take care of everything.”

Bebe had not, in fact, been pregnant.

she’d gotten food poisoning—a

She hadn’t been able to eat for days afterward, and when she recovered, she found that, with the hearing mere weeks away, she was too nervous to eat.

the only clinic on the East Side, it happened, that provided abortions.

Could she check the clinic’s records and see if Bebe Chow’s name appeared in the list of recent abortions? “Unofficially. Off the record,” Mrs. Richardson assured her friend,

Elizabeth changed her mind.

“I would love to help you, Elena. But I’ve been thinking it over, and—” “Betsy, how many times have we stuck our necks out for each other? How much have we done for one another?”

“This is confidential information.” Elizabeth sat up a bit straighter. “I’m sorry.” “Betsy. I have to admit I’m hurt. That after all these years of friendship, you don’t trust me.”

Elena had been building up credit. Perhaps she’d honestly wanted to help, perhaps she’d been motivated by kindness. But even so, she’d been keeping a running tally of everything she’d ever done for Elizabeth, too, every bit of support she’d given, and now she expected to be repaid.

You’ve always been so concerned with what’s right and wrong.”

Quickly she came around the desk to Elizabeth’s chair and nudged the mouse across its pad,

There was no Bebe Chow. But a name at the bottom of the list, in early March, caught Mrs. Richardson’s attention. Pearl Warren.

This would, in fact, be the last lunch the two women ever had together, though they would remain cordial to each other for the rest of their lives.

There was no doubt in her mind who the father was, of course. She had long suspected Pearl and Moody’s relationship was more than friendly—a boy and a girl didn’t spend so much time together at their age without something happening—and

“Judge Rheinbeck just delivered his decision. He called us in an hour ago. We didn’t expect it at all.” He cleared his throat. “She’s staying with Mark and Linda. We won.”

Full custody to the state, with a recommendation that the adoption by the McCulloughs be expedited. Termination of visitation rights. A court order prohibiting further contact between Bebe and her daughter without the McCulloughs’ unlikely consent.

know,” Mrs. Richardson said. “About Pearl. About the baby.” The shock on Moody’s face, his stunned silence, told her everything. He hadn’t known, she realized. “She didn’t tell you?”

thought you knew,” she said. “I assumed you’d talked it over and decided to end it.”

“I think you have the wrong son,”

“There’s nothing between Pearl and me. It wasn’t mine.” He laughed, a tight, bitter cough. “Why don’t you go ask ...

But I see you’ve raised your daughter to be just as amoral as you.”

“I think it’s time you moved on,”

“By tomorrow.”

“Remember what I said the other day?” she said. “About the prairie fires? About how sometimes you need to scorch everything to the ground and start over?” Izzy nodded. “Well,” Mia said. A long moment unraveled between them. She could not think of a way to say good-bye. “Just remember that,” she finished. “Sometimes you need to start over from scratch. Can you understand that?” Izzy wasn’t sure she did, but she nodded again.

“Some pictures,” Mia said, “belong to the person who took them. And some belong to the person inside them. Are you ready?” She flicked off the lights.

Bebe sat on the curb in the shadow of a parked BMW and watched the McCulloughs’ house across the street.

“You are such a fucking idiot.” Izzy shook herself free. “Pearl wasn’t pregnant. You realize Mom and her mom are probably going to kill her, and you threw her under the bus for no reason?”

“You realize,” she said, “that Mom is probably going to blame Mia for all of this.”

The kindest people she knew, the most caring, the most sincere, and they’d been chased away by her family. In her mind she cataloged the many betrayals. Lexie had lied; she’d used Pearl. Trip had taken advantage of her. Moody had betrayed her, on purpose. Her father was a baby stealer. And her mother: well, her mother had been at the root of it all.

her life she’d felt hard and angry; her mother always criticizing her, Lexie and Trip always mocking her. Mia hadn’t been like that.

Mia had opened a door in her that could not be shut again.

On her shoulder she had her bookbag stuffed with a change of clothes, all the money she owned. They couldn’t be far ahead, she thought. There was still time to find them.

The crib was empty. Mirabelle was gone.

After that, there was almost no chance, the McCulloughs were told, that they could trace her.

Mirabelle hadn’t cried out when Bebe had reached into the crib and lifted her up and taken her away.