02.15.07
The fire department always rings twice.
The firemen had come to visit before, last year, but that was in another place, so they didn’t know that I had a history.
We just wanted to see the fire do its magic. Our neighbor Andy and I took an old plastic soap dish to the back lot, put it in a coffee can, and through some dry grass on it. It wouldn’t ignite, so we got some lighter fluid; then it lit. The fire shot up out of the can and lept out onto the long, golden grass. A wave of heat and smoke pushed outward, putting a wasp nest into a frenzy. I was stung a number of times as I ran to the house to tell my sister the news. She had been watching us during a visit, and was about to find out how much kid-sitting can be.
I don’t know what stopped the fire from consuming the neighborhood. Maybe it lost its apetite. Maybe it lost interest.
One may not look forward to a visit from the police, but a visit from the fire department is more frightening. When the police come to visit, it’s likely you’ve been naughty. When firefighters come to visit, you may have been a minute or two from burning down the neighborhood.
