After the Fire

I will take the opportunity to introduce a few friends.

Rob is one of my good friends. We met a little over a year ago at work - at the time, he was delighted by how easily he could make me blush. Said friendship built over the summer and IM, when we discovered that we could argue about theology, books, music, friendships, human nature - just a lot of stuff we both enjoyed. He's amazing at backrubs, generally people find it easy to trust him. I think. He's also got cerebal palsy, which means that he spends a fair amount of time hanging out in a wheelchair, and he says sometimes people have a hard time with him because of it. I've yet to see it, but okay.

Alex is another friend of mine, got engaged to my dear Micro Psycho on Sunday. We've known each other since I started going to FCC. He's occasionally referred to as, "All-American redneck farmboy." Not a comment on his intelligence, but rather his size and his approach to problem solving. He's big, he's strong, and if there's a practical solution to a problem, he'll go directly to it and not care if anyone's offended. Generally a pretty friendly guy, but nobody's doormat. We like Alex. Useful to have around if you want a small piano or hay bale dropped on someone, or your back cracked.

Liz is sweet, petite, and a little bit random - she's in show choir with me. I don't know her as well as the guys, mostly because she's a newer person in my life, but really, it's hard to NOT like Liz. She has a genuinely cheerful attitude that prevails in almost every situation, and she's darn cute. She and Rob are also engaged.

Coincidentally, all three of them live in the same house. Well, Alex rents from Rob, and there's some chaos in Liz's world that just made it sensible for her to be living with her fiance. Or something. So, Rob's house.

The rest of this story is almost entirely from Rob, with bits from Liz and a few things from Alex's fiancee, as I see her more often than I see him. Particularly since the event.

3:30 a.m., Rob wakes up because Liz's dog is barking. He half turns over to get up and see what's up, then the dog stops. Waits a minute to see if there's anything more, shrugs, and then turns back to go to sleep, throwing an arm over Liz as he does so. He makes a point of mentioning this last bit - why?

Because Rob knows that I know that his reflexes, whether in spite of or because of his condition and a few surgeries, are rather stellar. Startlingly stellar, really. And a minute later, when a 4'x8' section of sheetrock fell out of their ceiling over them, it cracked over Rob's elbow, where he'd gone into a protective stance over Liz.

It's been ruled a natural gas leak. The immediate wall between the bedroom and the backyard was largely missing, so Liz and Rob crawled out. Rob could only make it so far, and Liz dragged him the rest of the way to the edge of the yard (I did mention, she's little), where they both collapsed.

Alex has other problems. He's trapped in his room, the floor above Liz and Rob. He managed to break the window and dive through it, and found the rest of his housemates. He carried Rob to a neighbor's house, and another neighbor carried Liz.

The house is obliterated. Photos of it show the frame of Rob's Cruiser inside the frame of his garage - nothing else. The rest of the house is simply gone.

Alex's truck is okay, as he'd parked it on the street, and Rob apparently had his phone in a pocket. Everything, absolutely everything else, is gone. I amend that - Alex went back to the site yesterday and found Liz's engagement ring in the backyard.

Every other house on the block was evacuated because of the high gas levels, but fortunately there haven't been any more fires. Yesterday, Rob and Liz went to get their eyeglasses replaced, and today they're moving into an apartment not far from where he (and I) work. The chair that was custom-made was lost in the explosion (he doesn't use it in the house - he keeps it in his car), but fortunately his best friend has his original at her house, and she's bringing it up today.

We've been calling back and forth since it happened, and we share the same sentiment - it's bad, but at least they're alive. We're so, so thankful that they're alive. Everyone's saying that it's a miracle that they got out of there. Rob has some ice burns from being dragged, Alex has some scratches from the window and the landing, and I'm not sure about Liz, but they're alive. It's also great talking to Rob, because he's one of those people who's a blended pragmatist and philosopher. His general take on the whole thing is a very calm, "Taking it a day at a time," and at this point he's just getting tired of retelling the story. It's also great because Liz is there with him, and despite how scary the ordeal was, she's now back to being cheerful and finding things to laugh at in the world.

Rob's already talking about rebuilding on the same site, just clearing everything out and starting new. He tends to enjoy construction projects, and he also has this belief that the fire's not going to kick his butt and make him move. He makes me laugh, and it feels so good to laugh with him again, even knowing that it could have happened that we'd never talk with each other again.

"Treasure one another in the recognition that we do not know how long we shall have each other."
-Joshua Loth Liebman