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Cinder sat in her cozy office.As Firetown’s self-appointed matchmaker, she had a natural gift for smelling love.She could tell,without a doubt,when two people might make a good match...or not.
Cinder gazed across the table at a young, nervous Fire couple.“Before I see if you are a match,”she began,“I will splash this on your heart to bring love to the surface.”
She stirred a bowl of oil and splashed a few drops onto the couple.Their flames blazed red.Then the couple lit the two sticks that Cinder had set on the table.
“And I will read the smoke,”continued Cinder.She sniffed the wispsof smoke rising from the sticks.
Just then,Ember threw open the curtains in the room Whoosh! The smoke dissipated.
“Ember!”scolded Cinder.“I’m doing a reading!”
“Sorry,”said Ember.“Gotta grab some stuff.Going for Dad’s record.”She raced toward the boxes in a corner of the room.
“So...are we a match?”asked the Fire guy.
“It’s true love!”Cinder announced.“Which is more than I ever smelled on this one.”She shot Ember a look.
Ember rolled her eyes.“Oh,goodie.This ol’chestnut.”
As Ember turned to leave,Cinder grabbed her daughter’s arm and sniffed it.“Yup,nothing,”Cinder confirmed.“Just a loveless,sad future of sadness.”
Ember pulled her arm free and started walking out of the room.
“Ember!”her mother called.“Work with me!”
Ember rolled her eyes again and sighed.
“You finding a match was my mother’s dying wish!”Cinder said,her voice crackling. She reminded Ember of the day Ember’s grandmother had died.“Promise me one thing.Marry Fire,”her grandmother had said.And then... poof! She was gone.
“Nice try,Mom,”said Ember.“Gotta go!”
When Cinder turned back toward the Fire couple,they were embracing.She squirtedthem with a spray bottle.“Save it for the wedding!”she spat.
“Hey!”the Fire guy sputtered.
Outside the shop,Ember carried the boxes to her scooter.That was when Clod,a young Earth boy,popped out of a planter.His camocolored shirt matched the green grass sprouting from his head.
“Yo,yo,yo,Ember!”he called.
“Yo,Clod.Can’t talk.In a hurry,”she said.“And don’t let my dad catch you out here again.”
“What?”he said,giving his hair a quick comb with a gardening fork.“He doesn’t like my landscaping?”
“Uff,”groaned Ember at the joke.She strappedthe boxes to her scooter.
“Anyway,”said Clod,“June Bloom is coming,and you just got to be my date.’Cause check it out—I’m all grown up!”He lifted his arm,revealing a tiny flower that had sprouted in his armpit.He sniffed it.“And I smell gooood .”
As Clod plucked the flower,he let out an“Ow!”Then he knelt on the sidewalk and offered it to Ember in a grand gesture.
“My queen.”
Ember took the flower. Poof! It burned to a crisp in her hand.“Sorry,buddy,”she said.“Elements don’t mix.”
Then she remembered—the timer was ticking!“Flame!Gotta go!”
“Come on!”Clod begged.“Go to the festival with me!You never leave this part of town.”
“That’s because everything I need is right here,”replied Ember.
Just then,a Wetro train passed overhead, sending water splashing down.Ember glanced up,annoyed,as she popped open her umbrella.
“Plus,”she said,“this city wasn’t made with Fire people in mind.”
As the train crossed the bridge toward Element City,Ember closed the umbrella and climbed onto her scooter.
“Sorry,”she told Clod,“but it’d take an act of God to get me to cross that bridge.”
“An act of God,or an act of... Clod ?”He waggledhis eyebrows.
Ember didn’t bother to laugh.“Gotta run!”she said as she drove away.
She arrive at the grocery store first,handing a delivery to a Fire Element,who rushed out to give a gift.Next,she delivered a package to the Fire chef at a food stall.Then she stopped alongside a Fire couple pushing a charcoalgrill.
Ember handed them a bottle filled with lighter fluid.“As ordered,”she said with a smile.
The couple lifted the lid off the grill,revealing a tiny Fire baby being warmed by the coals.The baby grabbed the bottle and sucked it down,burping up flames.
“Gotta run!”said Ember.“Going for Dad’s record.”
The tension Ember felt at the shop melted away while she made deliveries.But as she pulled into traffic behind an old truck,she quickly lost her patience.
“Move it!”she hollered.She revvedher scooter and maneuvered it around the truck. She shook her fist.
“ Sháshà r íshà! ”she hollered.“Spark in the dirt!”
Delivery after delivery,Ember worked as quickly as she could.She placed sandbags in the arms of the owner of a smoke-cleaner shop.She handed off a parcel outside a woodshop.She dropped off a box of fireworks at a fireworks store.Fire kids standing nearby swarmed around the box.The fireworks exploded to the delight of the kids.
But Ember didn’t have time to enjoy the show.As the fireworks lit up the sky,she happily raced home.
When she reached the shop,a“Closed”sign hung on the door.Ember hurried inside and saw that the timer hadn’t yet gone off.“Ha,ha!”she called to her father with a smile.“Winner,winner,charcoal dinner!”
But Bernie was asleep at the counter,surrounded by paperwork and red dot stickers.
Ember toned down her celebration and tiptoed across the floor,trying not to wake her father.Her smile faded when she saw how old Bernie looked. She was the reason he hadn’t been able to retire.Because she wasn’t ready.Because she still lost her temper.
When she drapeda chain mailshawlover his shoulders,Bernie woke with a smoky cough.Ember gently pulled a red dot sticker off his cheek.
“Head to bed,”she said.“I’ll close things up.”She helped her father stand.
“I still have much to prepare for the Red Dot Sale,”he argued.
“Dad,I’ll take care of it,”she insisted.“You needs to rest.”
Just then,the timer rang out.Bernie glanced at it with surprise,understanding that Ember had beaten his record!“How?”he asked.
Ember shrugged.“I learned from the best.”
They both laughed.Then Ember led her father across the shop.As they passed the Blue Flame,Bernie coughed again.
“I am old,”he said with a sigh.“I can’t do this forever.”He picked up a twigfrom the stack at the base of the Blue Flame’s cauldron.“Now that you have beaten my time, there is only one thing you haven’t done.Tomorrow I will sleep in.And I want you to run the shop for the Red Dot Sale.”
Ember gasped.“Seriously?By myself?”
Bernie broke the twig in two and handed half to Ember.“If you can do that without losing your temper,”he challenged her,“it will show me you are able to take over.”
Ember stood tall.“You got it, Àshfá ,”she said.
Bernie held the twig with both hands and closed his eyes.Then he tossed it into the Blue Flame.
“I won’t let you down,”said Ember.“I swear.You’ll see.”
Bernie patted her shoulder.“Hmm,”he said.“Good daughter.”
As he trudgedup the stairs,Ember watched him go.Then she did a happy dance.“Yes!”she cried out.
When she turned back to the Blue Flame, she held her stick and closed her eyes.Before she tossed the stick into the cauldron,she whispered,“Blue Flame,please let this go my way.”