If you hear your neighbor's fire alarm...
A house burned down in our neighborhood last night. Flames were shooting into the air, as tall as the highest trees. From the corner of the road a satin ribbon glowed orange and yellow and bright, hiding where the side and the roof of the house should have been. Alarms were beeping (in neighbor's homes I expect). Friends were rushing with garden hoses to dampen the undergrowth, to maybe protect what wasn't yet destroyed. And the air around us roared. I stood on the corner with other neighbors who lived a few streets over. We saw the fire engines arrive, first one, then another. We wondered in fear, in a drought, how many homes might be lost with the flames shooting so hot and so high. (It was raining, though not enough to feel like it was making any difference.) Then suddenly water was gushing in an endless stream and the fire died down to crackling, flickering lights. I was amazed and delighted at how quickly the firemen got there; amazed again at how fast they made a differen...