A Day In The Woman's Life

The woman noticed the smoke first. Drifting, white smoke around the top of the house next door. “ Umm,” she thought, “The neighbors must be grilling.” She kept on dusting the table. But something drew her eyes back to the window and the house next door. And then she really saw it. The grill was on its side on the ground. No one was cooking. Why was there smoke?

She stepped to the door that led onto the porch next to the neighbor’s house. There seemed to be more smoke. She kept going, out, onto the porch, still peering to see where the smoke was coming from.

Then she heard it. A man was calling his wife’s name. Over and over he called for her. The woman’s heart began to beat faster. Quickly she ran between the hedges over into the neighbor’s yard. The man was still calling his wife. More smoke was coming out of the house.

The woman ran up the back steps and into the den of the house next door. She quickly crossed the room toward the bedroom. She realized now she was calling the man’s name. She got to the door of the bedroom and stared in horror. The sheets were on fire and she could just see one of the man’s legs was black where it had been burned.

Turning with extreme fright, the woman raced out the door, across the neighbor’s yard. What to do? What to do? And all the time she was running toward the front of the house and across the street to the doctor’s office. She didn’t realize she, herself, was now screaming, “Help, Help, Mr. B. is burning in his bed.”

Some men waiting in cars out side the doctor’s office jumped out and ran toward the back door the woman had just left. The woman was running into the doctor’s office like a wild woman. Still yelling, “Help, Help, Mr. B. is burning in his bed!” The doctor appeared, seemingly from out of nowhere. Calming the woman he asked, “Did you call the fire department?” “ No,” the woman answered.

The doctor spoke to his secretary. “Call the fire department!” and then moved quickly to a safe behind the half wall. He unlocked the safe, grabbed a needle full of medicine and raced out ahead of the woman across the street to the neighbor’s house.

The woman ran back to her own home. It had only been a few minutes but felt like a lifetime. The rescue squad and the fire trucks were soon there. She saw them bring Mr. B. out on the stretcher. She saw the man’s wife rush home and leave again quickly heading to the hospital. She saw the firemen bring the burned mattress out the back door and place it near the street for the trash men to pick up.

And she stood there and berated herself. She KNEW you were supposed to try to smother a fire. She had read and read all the instructions on how to react to emergencies such as this, and she had done Nothing! Panic had overtaken her, and all she could do was run and yell for help. She had not known that she would have reacted this way.
True Story