A Fire

When I was about 10 years old, the neighbors across the street had a fire in their house. It might have started at night, but that part is not clear in my memory.

We didn't know the neighbors very well, but as the fire blazed my mother saw the woman who lived there standing on the sidewalk looking at her home go up in flames.  It must have been winter because my mother went across the street and brought her and her children into our house, She gave them blankets and sat with them until the fire department left.

I clearly remember the way the mother and kids smelled like smoke, and our house smelled like smoke for several days afterward because they had been in the living room. The smoke from the fire also billowed across the street into our house.

I never found out what happened to that family, but I was very proud of my mother that day.