“Clear the way!” He had my fire extinguisher in his hands and before I could stop him, he squeezed the handle.
In seconds, the stove was covered in foam. The nozzle stuck and when Tom lowered his arm the thing kept spraying. Tom was so surprised that he turned away from the stove, coating the floor and the rest of us in white. As he wrestled with the nozzle, he continued to coat the kitchen until the canister ran out of chemical.
We stood for a moment staring in horror at each other and the mess that used to be my kitchen. The pancake-related disaster looked as if it had been caught in a blizzard. My favorite sweatshirt was likely ruined, the dogs whined at the doorway to the kitchen, and Seth stood with his arms out, apparently afraid to move. Tom alone had escaped the foam. His eyes were huge as he made squeaky apologetic noises. Alex was the first to laugh and soon we all had tears streaming down our cheeks. I felt almost immune to the shrieking smoke detectors when another sound came to me. Sirens.
The phone call must have been the alarm company calling to check on us. Now the volunteer firefighters were on their way. I heard them pull up outside and ran to stop them, but slipped and fell in the now-melting fire extinguisher froth. I told Seth to keep the dogs out of the kitchen before they got covered in the chemical as well. Alex helped me up and we both went through the dining room to the front door to stop the firefighters.
I got to the door just as the first rescuer hit the porch, carrying an ax and the business end of a hose. I put my hand up like a traffic cop.
“We’re fine, false alarm,” I said.
The firefighter looked at Alex and me, covered in white, and said, “You don’t look fine.”
“No, really,” I said. “We had to use the extinguisher and it got a little out of hand.”
“We’re here now.” He gestured to the other two who had joined him on the porch. “We have to check the premises. Protocol.” They trooped past us into the house.
“I see you beat us here, Andrews,” one of them said as they entered the kitchen.
I caught a quick glimpse of Tom turning bright red and decided to let him handle his buddies. He was also on the volunteer squad, and would likely never live this down. He didn’t need me as a witness.
I turned back to Alex and was just breathing a sigh of relief when the air caught in my throat. A bright orange smart car careened down the street and screeched to the curb behind the fire truck. My mother and aunt flung open the doors and rushed up to the porch. I saw Dad’s ancient Buick take the turn at the corner at a much safer speed, but still fast for Dad. He also hopped out and made his way to the stairs. Thankfully, the alarm switched off just as they made it to the front door.
“We heard about the fire alarm on your father’s scanner! I knew something like this would happen. I was so glad he put in that alarm.” Vi paused to take a breath and I jumped in.
“Everyone’s fine. It was just a small kitchen fire.” I thought about the small kitchen fire’s large cleanup requirements and sighed.
“Oh, thank goodness!” Mom’s left hand fluttered over her amulet while her right patted my shoulder.
“How long was the response time?” Dad asked. “I’ve heard they’re almost as fast as a paid fire department. Were they here pretty quick?” He stood on tiptoe to look over my shoulder into the house.
“It’s a good thing you aren’t their driver,” Aunt Vi said to him. She turned to me. “He couldn’t find his keys, and you know how slow he drives. We had to leave him behind.”
Dad kept his face neutral, as usual, during Aunt Vi’s tirade.
The volunteers clomped back out, dragging the hose behind them. “Everything looks fine now.” The man hooked a thumb over his shoulder. “We’ve left our best guy behind in case anything else starts smoking.” The other two chortled and stomped off the porch. I sent a glare in their direction for Tom’s sake, but couldn’t really blame them. Tom did tend to get himself tangled up in less than stellar situations.
“Let’s see what happened,” Vi said.
I swung my arm wide in an “after you” gesture. I caught Alex’s eye and he shrugged. We were stuck with them now until they had deemed the house safe.
*
I was covered in dusty foam when Mac burst into the kitchen.
“Clyde! Are you all right?” He was out of breath and his eyes were worried.
“I’m fine. Are you all right?” I was surprised by his harried appearance.
He reached for me and pulled me into a hug, completely disregarding the extinguisher foam that covered every inch of me.
“I just got back into town and heard the fire department had been dispatched to your place. What happened?” He pulled away and surveyed the destruction.
“It was a small kitchen fire and a large fire extinguisher. Didn’t they tell you everything was okay?”