“Raaaachael!” I heard the shrill desperate call come as I just settled in to feed Jackson. “RAAAAACHAEL!!!!” The call came again with an even greater “I’m going to die” sound to it. “Maybe I should go check things out”, I thought. What could be the problem? Had my thanksgiving cooking partner been injured in the line of duty? I could hear our Aunt headed to help but I still felt I needed to go. I wasn’t going to make the mistake of not following that prompting. If Jackson cried for a bit due to the dinner intermission then so be it!
As I came out of the nursing mother’s room the word fire landed on my ears. My pace quickened rapidly to the kitchen. I could already see the smoke coming out of the doorways. Lauren, my sister-in-love and co-chef for the day, had turned off the stove top which immediately stopped the pot of over boiling, now fire burning, milk, butter, and water mixture I had been warming for the potatoes. My thoughts immediately raced to the multi thousand dollar sprinkler system recently installed in the building. “Please don’t go off, please don’t go off!” I said while flipping on the over stove fan. I fanned the area while others raced to open doors. The shrill sound of the smoke detectors began to sound. One step closer to the sprinklers I was sure! I fanned even harder begging the alarm to get enough oxygen to quit its alarming. Didn’t it know things were under control!? But there was no stopping it. No batteries to take out, no reset button to push. This system had a job and it planned to carry out its mission to its entirety. About this time the sound of sirens blaring down the street could be heard. Lauren and I looked at each other and rolled our eyes before she went to greet them with the “Thanks for coming, happy thanksgiving, all is well, go about your business” speech.
They kindly turned off the alarm for us and declined the offer to stay and join us for dinner saying they’d “Pass on the burnt dinner.” J
Fortunately, not even one dish was burned and dinner was still ready on time! Whoop, whoop! And…I didn’t even charge the church for the convenience of testing the smoke detectors…they work. However the sprinkler system might need some inspection. Not that I have any complaints about them not coming on. I just hope not to be the one that gets to test those.J
Twas a memorable time and fun, fun, fun!
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