I panicked and ran out the door, forgetting everything. I lost my jacket, my boots, my mitts and my packsack, along with all my schoolwork and supplies. The fire burned long into the night. Our volunteer firefighters tried to save the building, but couldn't. Everyone around here knows that the best way to start a fire on your woodstove is to build it from the bottom up, putting down fire starter first, then split logs, then logs.
Fires burn best from the bottom up.
So did our school, from the floorboards up. The exhausted firefighters kept a night-long vigil around the blaze to ensure that no power lines or gas tanks were reached by the heat and flames. You lick your lips and let out a whistle, all the while shaking your head as you look at the empty space that was once the school. Now the children often sit at kitchen tables, over soda pop, glasses of juice or tea, and reminisce, through stories and humour, about the school. We had some good times there.