Maggie came home from work to find Josh and me in the kitchen cooking up a storm. Becky was sitting at the table, trying to shuck corn and making a general mess. "I helping, Mom," she warbled.

"Yes, cupcake," Maggie said, "I can see you're being a big help. It looks like there's nothing left for me to do. Let me give you a hand with that corn, Becky, so I don't get bored, okay?"

"'K," the little one allowed, not at all reluctantly. She was having a bit of a struggle.

"Well, this certainly is a nice surprise," Maggie exclaimed.

"Mom's night off," I said, grinning at her. "I'm even going to do the dishes afterward. You deserve a break once in a while, plus Josh and I are celebrating the start of our summer vacation."

Josh chimed in singing, "No more pencils, no more books . . ." and we all laughed.

As if by unspoken agreement, Maggie and I tried to keep Josh's mind off his tests tomorrow, although he didn't seem at all concerned.

Over dinner, Maggie said, "There must be a full moon tonight. It seems like practically every phone call today was a challenge. First there was the guy who wanted an ocean front room in his hotel and insisted he wouldn't settle for anything less."

"What's wrong with that, Mom," asked Josh.

Laughing, Maggie replied, "Nothing's wrong except that his hotel is in Las Vegas!"

Then she told us how she asked the man which ocean he preferred. After he got quite persistent, she told him Las Vegas was in the Nevada desert--quite a distance from Pacific with the entire state of California in the way.

Next she told about the sweet little old lady who booked a trip to Japan. When she came in today, Maggie gave her the tickets and itinerary. The lady studied them and politely pointed out that Maggie must have made a mistake. It showed she would be arriving the day before she left.

"Well," Maggie continued, "I explained she had to cross the International Date Line, but it seems she never heard of such a thing. We had quite a go-round, let me tell you.

"Last but certainly not least, I was just getting ready to leave when I got a phone call from a customer I had arranged a business trip for about a week ago. I had set up a whole series of flights for him--thirteen cities in nine days, and many of the flights between cities had stops where he had to change planes. It was very complicated. I remember it took me over an hour to prepare all the tickets. He was supposed to leave this morning on a helicopter flight from Newark to JFK, so when I heard him on the phone, I had visions of him missing the first flight and having to rebook everything. The weird thing was his first words were, 'I just called to thank you for the lovely cruise!' I sat there scratching my head while doing a quick mental recall of his itinerary. Not a single boat trip on it--just airplanes and helicopters. Well, it turned out his helicopter ended up crashing in the Hudson River! Can you imagine that?"

"You're kidding," Josh blurted. "I hadn't heard anything about a crash. It was probably on the six o'clock news."

"Well, apparently it wasn't serious. He said no one was injured, but New York Airways insisted the passengers be taken to the hospital as a precautionary measure just the same. Anyway, the guy was so understanding and called as soon as he got home. Of course, we'll have re-book all his flights, but the main thing is he's all right."

"Whew," I said. "Sounds like you had quite an out of the ordinary day, that's for sure. Josh and I will even clean up the mess in the kitchen."

"Oh, by the way," Josh interjected, "I've got a Scout meeting tonight. Any chance I can get a ride over there?"

"Sure thing," Maggie said. "I'll be happy to take you."

Once the kitchen was tidied up, Becky was settled in bed and Josh and Maggie were on their way, I decided to keep myself busy. It's the way I deal with things when I'm worried. I went into the small room by the side door, which I'd turned into a den. I pulled out the manuscript for my book from my desk drawer and started working on the editorial changes the publisher had recommended. Since I had returned the contract, I really needed to get going to meet the deadline. I wanted to mail the corrected manuscript off to him before our trip.

It was a very warm evening, and the room tends to get stuffy. So I opened the side door and at the same time flipped the porch light on for Maggie when she returned.

I was deeply engrossed in my work when I heard a soft but strange "POP!" sound from just outside the door. At first I was going to ignore it, but some inner sense told me to check it out.

As I approached the door, I thought the porch light seemed exceptionally bright. I flung the screen door open and was horrified to see the porch light had exploded, sending flames shooting toward the upstairs. Jeanne's room was right above the den.

In high gear now, I raced inside, grabbed the phone and dialed 911. After telling the dispatcher there was a house fire and giving the address, I was asked to stay on the line.

"Sorry, pal," I said, hanging up. I couldn't take the time to explain why. All I could think of was how to get Jeanne out if I wasn't able to extinguish the fire quickly. I slammed the door on my way back out, in an attempt to keep the fire out of the first floor.

Fortunately the garden hose was hanging on a bracket next to the outside faucet, only a few feet from the side door. I grabbed the hose, turned the faucet on full force and started attacking the fire. My heart was pounding.

As I stood there battling the flames, I heard the fire horn blow, alerting the volunteer firefighters. It was only a couple of minutes before I heard the fire trucks coming.

Suddenly the side door burst open. Startled, I turned toward it, and without thinking, turned the hose that way as well. The water gushed through the screen, thoroughly drenching poor Mom.

Spluttering, she said, "I came to see what was going on. All these flashing lights are pulling into our front yard."

"I'm so sorry, Mom! It seems the porch light exploded and I was trying to put the fire out," I started to explain. Before I could say any more, the fire chief, Jack Roberts, and several firefighters came running up in full gear, asking what the situation was.

I explained, handing the garden hose to Jack.

"Here, this is your department. I'm rescue squad, remember?"

Jack laughed. "Yes, I know, Captain Madison. But we have hoses that are a wee bit bigger, so how about we use one of ours instead, okay?"

"Yeah, sure," I responded. "Looks like it's just about out anyway. Whew, what a scare. My wife's grandmother's room is right up there, and she's partially paralyzed. Thought I was gonna have to try to figure out how the fireman's carry works. I'm sure glad to see you guys."

Mom decided that things were now sufficiently under control so she went to change her wet clothes.

After thoroughly checking inside and out to make sure there was no fire lurking inside the walls, the firefighters finally left. The two police officers who had come on the call finished their report and left shortly afterwards.

I felt totally drained. Maggie had returned just as the police car was pulling out. I met her at the top of the outside stairs and filled her in.

After expressing thanksgiving that no one was hurt and that the damage was minor, she joked, "So, I can't even leave you alone for half an hour, huh?"

"Nope, guess not, Honey," I said, grabbing her around the waist and giving her a big hug. I told her I'd go get Josh when the meeting was over so she could enjoy whatever excitement came along at home.

Fortunately, the rest of the evening was uneventful, but after the commotion died down, I found myself fretting once again about Josh's tests in the morning, wondering what they would reveal.








Continue to Chapter 10


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