Three Hundred Sixty Five Degrees

A few days ago, Angie startled me with an early wake-up. She was actually off that night; but, because she works nights, she doesn't always get a full night's sleep. (I don't know how she ever gets her body clock in order.) What happened is this....

She woke up around 4:30 and just stayed in bed. Since she couldn't go back to sleep, she finally got up around 5:00 and went into the kitchen. She had a large bag of black-eyed peas that a friend had given her and she decided that right then was as good as anytime to cook 'em.

It's important for you to know that Angie has a keen sense of hearing. When John and Meredith were toddlers, Angie could hear them turn over in the crib in the middle of the night. How do I know this? Because she would wake me up at 2:00 in the morning to go check on a baby that got tired of sleeping on his/her back and rolled in the crib. At any rate, while she was cooking her peas, Angie heard the rumble of a truck.

Now, early in our marriage, Angie would have immediately awakened me. But, over the course of 24 years, she's learned (1) that, most of the times, the bump in the night is usually nothing; and (2) I don't wake up easily anymore after having gone through this drill for so many false alarms. So, now she'll check things out first before she gets me up.

She walked outside to see where the sound was originating. She noticed a fire truck only one block away. And in the dimly lit pre-dawn sky, she saw a huge blaze. At this point, she ran inside and startled me awake. You know that state of being...your head is still in dreamland, but your body is picking up real-world stimuli. "What, what, where am I?" I wearily asked. "There's a house on fire down the street! Hurry up and come see it!" she quickly retorted. And with that, she was off...heading back outside. I found a pair of shorts and stumbled into them. Groggily, I walked out to the driveway. And what did my wondrous eyes see? A huge flame dancing in the night. The fire looked like it was trying to lick the leaves on the trees above the house. My first thoughts were "I hope everyone is out of the house." There were no less than five rescue vehicles already on site, so I figured they at least had that part under control. The next thought that came to my mind was "get your camera." I ran inside, but it was no where to be found. After five minutes, I finally gave up the hunt for the camera and went back outside. That's when I noticed Angie had it and was steady taking shots.

It was a surreal moment to say the least. Humid, dark morning...rescue trucks rumbling...house timbers crackling...bright yellow and orange flames piercing the night. Not to mention that getting startled awake before 5:30 in the morning makes my body act funny. As it turned out, my BP was lower than typical that day...all day. I dunno...just weird to say the least.

Well, the off-the-record story about the house fire. Someone broke into the house that morning, stole some money, games, etc. and then started a house fire to cover up the break-in. At least that's what I've been told by more than three reputable people. No one was in the house at the time, but most everything was destroyed by either fire, smoke, or water. Please pray for the family as they try to recover from this loss.

Angie didn't videotape like I would have. I probably would have zoomed in and captured several minutes of footage. So instead, I just spliced together her photos and short video to make a little vignette. I hope this doesn't offend anybody or show a lack of concern for the homeowner. I really am concerned. But as I described earlier, this was surreal!