Hailey ~ "When my house almost burned down"

In the fall of 2005, I learned to never litter.

One day when I was in third grade, I was riding the bus to the library where my mom said she would pick me and bring me home for the day. On the ride, I saw a black snake of smoke slithering off the hill where I live. Fear bit me in the back; it stomped on my feet and kicked me until I wanted to curl up in a ball and cry. Even then, it did not stop. I thought to myself, what is on fire? What is going on? What is happening to my house? Is it on fire? Where will I live? I couldn’t wait to arrive at the library and ask my mom.
When I got to the library, I waited until 4:10. I was petrified sitting on the rick outside because it was ten minutes after my mom promised one of them would pick me up. I worried that my home was burning down. So I began calling my mom and dad; I had to use the stinky public phone because I did not have a cell phone. They were not answering. All I heard was the recording of their voice taunting me. Then I really started to worry. Fear bit me again but this time harder. I sat in the couch mortified. After five minutes, I tried to call my mom again. She did not answer. Then I to called my dad. When I heard his voice, happiness gave me a big, warm hug. I blurted out all my questions at once, “What happened to Mom? The pets?” I was screaming in a very panicked voice.
“Hailey! Hailey, relax!! Nothing happened to mom, the pets, or the house. The only thing that got burned was the hillside. It was close to our house, though,” he said calmly.
“What happened?” I asked calming down.
“There was a fire on the hill, but it didn’t get any houses. I will come pick you up,” he said with a definite voice.
“OK!” I said strangely relieved.
When my dad got to the library, I was so delighted to see him I could have screamed, but I was so scared that I was numb. The ride home was quiet except for the humming of the engine. It felt like forever, but we finally drove up to my hill. There were two big fire trucks and one noisy helicopter overhead disposing life saving buckets of water and then racing off to get more. We watched them until they put the fire completely out.
When the fire was out, we wondered what started the fire in the first place. My dad said jokingly, “Maybe a deer was cold! Maybe he started a fire to get warm, but he did not build a fire pit!”
We laughed! “Ya, sure, Dad,” I said.
We never found out what caused the fire that almost burned down the neighborhood. We probably never will find out, but my mom and I think it was a cigarette. The fire started from the bike path and spread up the hill. That is how I learned to never litter…or smoke