Last night, my parents called me.  Have you seen the fire?, they asked.  Fire?, I said.  Fire, they said.  It’s huge.  It’s in the creek, only a few houses away from you.

Thanks, I said.  I love you.  Good-bye.

I ran out to the garage and screamed.  Donald!  Fire!  We ran to the street and there it was.  I thought at least we’d have to go closer to the creek, that at least it would be small enough or far enough away that we would need to go to our neighbors’ deck, but there it was.  Orange.  Enormous.  Glowing.  Terrifying.  Close.

Let’s pack, my husband said.

You tell the neighbors, I told him.  I’ll stay with Charlotte.  And he ran.  Like the wind.  Toward the fire.

I packed.  Shorts and t-shirts for Charlotte.  Diapers.  Her favorite books and her favorite toys.  Work clothes for Donald.  Socks and underwear.  Shirts.  The camera.  The video-camera.  The computer.  Our wedding album.  Photographs from Donald’s childhood.  Photographs from mine.  Charlotte’s clay handprints.  Tax paperwork.  The journal a six-year-old me confided everything in.  The notebook my father writes to Charlotte in.  Our stockpile of seeds.

I found the cat-crates.  I filled water bottles.  I charged our phones.  I made contact with someone we could stay with.  I grabbed our toiletries.  And just as I was about to place it in the car, just as I was about to walk through the house taking pictures of everything we own for insurance purposes, Donald came back.

Someone using illegal fireworks set a tree on fire.  We had a scorcher this weekend; it was 94F on Saturday morning.  Hot plus dry plus illegal fireworks are exactly the sort of conditions you do not want on Independence Day.

It’s okay, Donald said.  The fire department came and they have the fire mostly under control.  I already saw your dad and told him.

We’re safe?, I asked.

We’re safe, he affirmed.

Last night, we shared a brownie and laughed and felt relieved.  We looked at one another and remembered why we fell in love.  We worked as a team and responded quickly to a threat.  We’re safe!, we whispered happily as the fireworks burst overhead.  Safe.