False Alarm

         The morning was quite and cool. Just another spring day starting off. It had been quiet filled with the repetitive droning of housework.. So when the woman took out the trash she was only half paying attention. Her mind was on the book she was writing, the sink that needed fixed, the gutter that needed cleaned, and the million other things that needed done.. Each thought simultaneously holding a part of her mind.
         A loud high pitched beeping brought her from her thoughts. She glanced up to see a large cloud of white smoke rising from around the shingles on her neighbors roof. For a moment she was surprised and imagined the small Korean woman next door to be inside bustling around her stove of whatever meal had caught on fire. Surely that was all it was. Just a burned dinner. She waited a few seconds longer expecting to hear the sounds of life maybe a banging pan as she shoved a lid over it, a yell for a phone to call the fire department. Or maybe someone to come out the backdoor and look up dumbstruck at the rising smoke.
          Nothing happened. The beeping stopped as suddenly as it started but the smoke still rose. She waited for someone to tell her she was imagining it. But that didn't happen. The wind pushed it away from her toward the neighbors house on the other side. And she realized with the startling clarity only a person witnessing a disaster can no one was home. She pictured them again. This time the scene was different and the small woman was coming home possibly from a long days work wanting to relax and maybe watch TV. She saw the horrified expression the woman would wear when she looked on the charred remains of the small house. There would be so little left. Maybe a few appliances blackened and warped from the heat, the fireplace eerily recognizable through the ash and smoke, maybe a couple of the boards that had served for the houses frame standing still mostly burned but a few cracks in the charbroiled boards.
          She could practically smell the wood ash scent that freshly burned houses seemed to give off for weeks. Shuddering she ran inside and grabbed the phone. She couldn't bear the thought of seeing that horrified expression made real. Mind made up she grabbed the phone book and started to look up the fire department's number. Then she laughed at herself. The cruel mocking laugh that only a person who thinks you're an idiot can give and hit 911 in rapid succession. She heard the ringing of the phone as if it were on someone else's phone and she was just standing nearby. The call was answered on the second ring and the voice was friendly enough. A woman with no discernible accent asking what the nature of the emergency was.
         “I'd like to report a fire. I think the neighbors house may be on fire.” She cussed herself for sounding unsure.
         The voice asked for the address and she gave it then the woman asked if the house in question was north or south. She glanced at the house. It was west. She tried to think how to say west if you were limited to north or south. ...before she could answer the woman asked another question “Where is the house in relations to where you are?”
         “Right next door, we're separated by a fence.” her mind said just say west but she didn't. She waited.

         “Where's the smoke coming from” That was an easy one
         “The roof”
         “Can you see where at.”she hadn't been looking for a location she'd been to concerned with the massive bank of smoke that had first completely obscured her view of the house she looked for it now and realized she couldn't tell. It seemed like it was everywhere and no where at the same time. Her mind supplied and answer “around the vents and around the crack where the seams meet.” She answered but wasn't sure. It did look like it was coming from everywhere. Then she noticed something else. There was less smoke. She knew that if it was a fire there should be more as time went by not less. But it was undeniably less. She could see the shapes of the shingles again. Maybe someone was home and put it out. She told the woman on the other end what she saw. The woman continued to ask questions if there was anything around the house that could catch on fire, what other structures were around the house. If there was anything in the yard that might be flammable. Grass. She thought about how wet the ground was and how just walking out to see the smoke had gotten her shoes soaked. You couldn't burn this grass if you tried. “Can you see?” she wasn't sure what she was being asked if she could see
         “Would it help if I went over and knocked on the door?”
         “Can you do that and stay on the line?”
         “Yeah, this phone is cordless.” it might be out of range. Yeah but here isn't I’m only going across the fence. Going around it might be too far. She walked around the house to the side walk. Only one way to find out. The sound of cars passing made it to loud to hear anything. So she said nothing as she walked to the neighbors front door. She noticed the way the edges of the side walk surrounding their flowerbed had crumbled. The mismatched shoes resting on the welcome mat. That's just asking for the monsters to walk right in. Fire is a monster. Different kind of monster. She pulled her thoughts back to the task at hand. She considered knocking then noticed the small white circle that almost blended into the wall. She pressed it and got a chill when it turned reddish orange. The fire got in it. Don't be stupid it's an electric light. “There's no answer.” she put her hand on the door it's cool. She glanced through the curtain less window. There was no lights on and she could see through to the kitchen. It was dark. No flickering of flames on the wall. No smoke nothing to obstruct her view into the house. Before the first threads of embarrassment could form she heard the siren.
         “Can you go flag down the truck?”
         “Sure.” She ran down the sidewalk and around the weathered boards that made a privacy fence. She waved. No one acted like they could see her. So she started walking towards them waving the entire time stop that. If they haven’t seen you yet they're blind. I have to be sure. I am sure. Then why aren't they moving? Maybe they think it's our house that's on fire. I have to get their attention. You have it now stop. The internal conversation went on even as she heard the crackling beep that told her she was on the edge of the phones range. She saw the driver of the truck nod to her and put down her hand feeling like an idiot. The truck drove past her and into the driveway. She walked back to the truck. She wanted to go in her house and pretend she hadn't been the one to call but she couldn't. She made the call she had to see it through. The woman on the phone hung up.
         She smiled at the guy that getting out of the truck his coat slung over his arm. The look on his face made her miss a step. He was glaring at her unabashedly glaring. She wondered what it was she had done wrong. So she shook off her feeling of trouble and walked up to him “Do you need anything else from me?”
         “Which house was it?” She pointed at the one they were standing at. In the process she noticed steam rising off the house beside it. That's not possible. Why not? There's no way they are both on fire. Maybe that ones not. But it's the same color. Maybe it jumped.. I don't think so. Why not? No heat.
         “Where do you live?”
         She pointed at her house “there.”
         He gave her a slight nod “It's probably just steam. But we'll check it out.” He walked around the parameter of the house as the girl went back into her house She waited pacing the hall. She wanted to help wanted to know what was going on. But there wasn't any reason to. She'd done her part. What if it was just steam? What if you called them out here for nothing but a little cloud making? Stop it. She sighed and squared he shoulders she still had housework to be done. With a renewed determination she went to take out the bag of recycling that was what she was going to do next, after the trash before she saw the smoke. The bag came out of the can easier than she expected almost causing her to drop it. She carried the bag out the back door and to the standing garbage can. As she dropped it in her gaze drifted to the house and the men walking in the back yard. She noticed him looking at her and walked to the fence to see what he had to say. “It's just steam. See its on that house to.” She felt sick to her stomach.
         “I'm sorry.” you did the right thing. “I'd rather call and be wrong than not call and the house burn down.”
         “It's ok. Have a nice day.” He turned and walked away and she wanted to run into her house and hide until she forgot about it. Instead she paced. Walking past the pile of dirt she meant to sweep up. She considered finishing cleaning. Why bother? You're an idiot. Cleaning won't change that. It wasn't my fault.You could have minded you're own business. I did what I thought was best. You just wanted to be involved. I didn't want the house to burn down because no one cared. You're the only one that had to get involved. I had to. Had to protect the neighbor from the scary steam? It wasn't like that. I was just trying to help. No one asked for it. No one ever does. She walked into her bedroom still fighting the urge to hide until it went away. She closed her eyes. Feeling anxious wondering how she could have been so wrong.You're not perfect. I should be. Why? Why..so I stop screwing up so badly. She laid her head on her pillow and drifted off to sleep dreaming of flames that danced and whispered her name.