she?” I pointed out the door to her room. “Can we go see her?”
“No, not until they get done treating her.”
Then came the wait. I noticed my hands were dirty from fighting the fire. I went to the restroom and washed them. As I did, I noticed I had a small minor burn on my little finger. It didn’t hurt at all. Neither of us said anything. We both knew what the other one was thinking. After an hour, a nurse came out of Michelle’s room. I asked, “How is Michelle doing?”
She answered, “Oh, she’s doing fine.” She took something from a medicine cabinet and left. All that told us is that she was still alive.
Another hour passed before a doctor come out of Michelle’s room. We saw her being wheeled down the hall on a cart. We knew she was being admitted. We expected that. The first thing the doctor said was, “Michelle is being admitted.”
That was no surprise. I asked, “Did she burn her face?”
“She singed her hair a litte and singed her eyebrows, but her face isn’t burned. She also has minor burns on an elbow and a finger. However, she has second degree burns on about 60 percent of her body. Those burns are on her legs and lower buttocks. She will need skin grafting. We estimate she will be here at least six months.” Jim and I just looked at each other. The doctor added, “We gave her a sedative to relieve the pain. She’s a little groggy from it, but you can see her now if you want to.”
He gave us her room number. We thanked him and left.
Chapter 5
We went straight to her room. She looked so tiny in that big bed. She was really happy to see us.
I asked, “Do you have much pain?”
“Just a little. They gave me medicine for it. The doctor said it will make me sleepy.”
“Are you sleepy now?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, you can go to sleep if you want to. We’ll stay here and wait until you’re asleep. Then we’ll go home. We’ll be back the first thing in the morning. Is that all right with you?”
“Okay, Mom. I’ll see you both in the morning.”
We waited until she was sound asleep. Then we tiptoed out of her room and headed home.
At home, we had a cold roast-beef sandwich. While we ate, we talked to Mary.
Jim asked, “What happened in the basement this morning?”
Mary explained, “When Michelle opened the stove door, she saw a few red coals. She crumpled up some paper and put it in the stove. Then she put in some kindling wood. She put some bigger pieces of wood on top of everything. She poured a little bit of fuel oil on the wood and threw in a match. The match went out right away. She lit another match. When she opened the stove door, we saw some smoke but no fire, so she threw in the other match. Then there was a loud “poof” and fire blew out of the stove. It caught Michelle’s clothes on fire. That’s when I called Mama.”
Jim had heard enough. He went down in the basement and found the one-gallon can of gasoline setting near the stove. Then he knew what happened. To Michelle, the one-gallon can was a “big can.” She had used gas to start the fire. Gasoline is much more explosive than fuel oil. Fumes built up when she poured the gas on the coals. That’s what caused the explosion. Smoke, ashes, soot, gasoline, and fire spewed out of the stove, igniting Michelle’s cotton clothing. He came back upstairs and explained everything to us. It was just an unfortunate accident. We assured the rest of the family that Michelle would be okay.
Jenny said, “Mom, it’s a good thing you told me to check the basement. The mattress was still smoldering. It’s out cold now.”
Jim remarked, “I didn’t even notice that the mattress was burning. Thank you, Jenny.”
No doubt Jenny had prevented a possible house fire.
I did remember to call Kelly. She thanked me for calling. She hadn’t heard about Michelle.
The next morning, we went to visit Michelle. She was still in some pain but more alert than the previous day. We were able to explain to her and her doctors what had gone wrong. We assured her that it was not her fault. It was just an accident. She accepted that. We discussed her schooling while she was in the hospital. We decided not to do anything for a few days. She would need time to recuperate. She was okay with that. She hated missing school. She was in good spirits and eating all her food. The doctor assured us she was doing fine. We stayed most of the day with her.
Before we left, I explained to Michelle that we wouldn’t be there on Tuesday. We had to go to Escanaba, Michigan, to get a part for our John Deere skidding machine. We would visit with my mother and sister who both lived near Escanaba. We’d be gone most of the day. She understood. When we said goodbye to her on Monday afternoon, we had no idea what the future held for us.
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