BEEP, BEEP, BEEP! The alarm blared loudly in my ear, waking me from my sleep. I shot up from my bed, and glanced around the room. Flames were dancing in the moonlight, flickering and eating up the books around me. There was a deep rumble, shaking the windows. Thousands of thoughts were racing through my head, blood rushing through my ears, as I wondered if my family were safe. I anxiously crawled out of bed, my sweatshirt over my mouth, as smoke continued to fill my lungs with every passing second. The alarm continued to blare loudly and the flames continued to glow in the background...burning my whole house down! I rushed to grab all of the things I could find. The first things that came to mind were; Money (to buy things) food, water, my devices (that are easy to take, like my phone), a first aid kit (in case anybody got hurt), a jacket, a pillow/blanket/sleeping bag, ID’s, etc. But who knows if I even had time to grab all of that stuff? Plus I would probably have to race across the house to grab half of that stuff! Through smoke! And, I would have to crawl. All of the memories of our fire safety came rushing back through my head, and I tried to remember where our emergency fire kit was...hmm….where did Mom keep it? Was it in the kitchen? The living room? I tried to go through the checklist in my head. But there was no time to lose, so I grabbed some snacks and band-aids and stuffed them into my purse. I called out to my family, but couldn’t hear them over the alarms and crackling fire. looked around again and went to the nearest window and looked outside. Lightning was flashing outside. It kept striking the grass, causing the fire to spread even more! “Mom! Dad!” I raced outside, coughing as the smoke and dust got into my lungs again. I tried to stay low-I had heard if you were near a tree lightning could strike it. It was beginning to reach daylight outside, and I saw our meeting spot, but it was covered in flames. The whole neighborhood was, actually. I coughed again and tried to call out. “Mom, Dad!” I FINALLY found one of them, my mom, but dad wasn’t with her! “Where’s Dad?” I asked, hurriedly. She coughed, too, and said “He’s still out there! And your brothers, too! With the other men, fighting the flames!” She rushed into my hands, sobbing. One of the firefighters rushed up. “We’re collecting survivors. Sit over there, please.” He pointed to a small encampment over by the (undestroyed) grass. Small makeshift tents were set up, and also little cots. People were warming themselves slowly by the fires (the safe ones), rubbing their hands, and volunteers were helping them. I was not hurt very much, only a small burn behind my ear and one on my leg, so I helped some people up too get some food. I led my mom over there too. “Hi! You can come over here.” The volunteer led me over to a tent. “Lie down, sweetie.” The volunteer (and my mom) urged. So I did. And as soon as I did, I was lulled to a deep, deep sleep. When I woke up, I was aroused by a very sharp, loud sound. They were blowing up buildings with shrapnel and exploding them because they felt there was no other way. I rubbed my head, annoyed. I had gotten almost no sleep at all because a baby was sleeping in our encampment and had cried all night long. Breakfast was a mere handful of pudding. There was literally nothing else to go with it, and it looked sort of like disgusting puke, but in a tan, greenish sorta color. The next week, they announced that they were going to move us to a shelter, because the encampments were full. I couldn’t see how things could get any worse than they already were, so I went along with the idea. In the shelter, a man greeted us at the door, and stated that his name was Wyatt. He showed us to the cots and I started to get dizzy, tired, and fatigued again. I fell asleep. When I woke up, I decided to go out, because the dizziness was gone. The library was close by to the shelter, so I went in. There were already people at the computer, so I went off in search of a book that would take me to another world. I woke up, head in a book. The computer I needed was free, so I went on to type to my friend Alex from the next town over. “Hope you are still alive and breathing, we are okay, Dad is missing though, and we are helping in a shelter with hundreds more people. Who knows out of all of all of these people, how many family members are dead? I fill my time up with napping and reading and helping my mom. What do you do? Hope again you are alive and well. Alive and breathing, Ellie.” I think that was good, so I typed out more to my extended family, reassuring them. Things like; “We are still alive over here”, and “Dad is missing but all of us together and well.”. Numerous people were waiting then, so I logged out and slipped out of my seat, hoping to find Mom before she worried.
She worried. “Where were you?!?” she practically screamed in my ear. “Sheesh, Mom! I was just at the library! I messaged Alex and the rest of the fam.” at least I saved my cell, so I knew when they replied. It was so old, though, (My mom’s old phone) that I could not reply. But I worked, still, and my watch did, too. I could always reply on the nearest computer. I went to go outside for some fresh air, and I called to my mom “I’m going outside!” “O.K.!” I went outside to get a breath of fresh air, and around me was a beautiful Japanese-garden looking landscape, with bonsai and sculpted trees. There was a lily pond and a bridge overlooking the pond. It was absolutely gorgeous. I took a deep breath, reflecting on the past week. So much had happened. My life, personally, had changed. And my little brother! I still wonder what has become of him! How could the men let work on the fire? Here in Chicago, 1998, you grow up knowing all about the Great Chicago Fire. We know it’s easy to get eaten up by it. Looking back, I saw that there was an earthquake, too, during the fire. I went back inside, to check on Mom. I also had to eat lunch, too; I was getting famished. When I got back inside, there was another man waiting. His name was Marc and he was holding an official-looking clipboard with checkboxes next to it. “I am putting you down for temporary housing,” Marc explained. I was so excited!! And also thrilled. I rushed back inside to tell Mom the exciting news, then smiled to myself. This was the BEST DAY since the fire happened! When Mom and I got back, Marc showed us the picture of our new house, which was very beautiful-Marc told us it even had a swimming pool! Mom and I were ecstatic with joy and happiness, and I was about to burst. Marc told us we could move in the following Monday, and I was SO happy. The house had blue shutters and curtains around the windows-not those lacy curtains you find at old lady houses but with blackout curtains. There were rose bushes and azaleas in the front yard, and a porch with lounge chairs facing each other, side by side. It was a two-story house, with a kitchen that had an island like granite, and a backyard that was practically the size of the house itself. I was IN HEAVEN. … but then I remembered that it was temporary housing only. I twirled around the grass, which had a gazebo in it. I laid down in the grass (probably not the most sanitary thing, but I was happy!) A month went by, which surprised even me, and I soon got accustomed to this new life. I was so happy that we had FINALLY rebuilt our lives, survived a fire, and got our lives back on track. We helped other people along the way as well. I am so glad that we are all helping each other, and have hope in the dark (and fiery) times!
