What Would You Take in a Fire?
I live in Los Angeles and I’m terrified.
Yesterday morning, I leave my house and the sky is bruised. It’s nearly nine in the morning and the sun that once glares has been replaced by darkness lit up by the fluorescent lamps of gas stations and cars. Palm trees bend, everything smells of smoke. I sit at a bus stop, confused.
I’ve removed all kinds of alerts on my phone. I don’t have social media except for Instagram, which, up until yesterday, I barely use. I don’t have a television in my home and even though the Santa Ana winds blew in hard the previous night I had no idea the city in which I live is burning. In Los Feliz, the post office losses power and a worker shows me a video on his phone, which he took on his way to work, of two trees collapsed on a tangle of wires. Miniature fires, everywhere.
People wander the streets. Confused. I have errands to run, things to do, but I go home, to the place I know, where it’s safe.
Until it’s not.
Come evening, my building falls to an eerie quiet. All the cars vacate the lot and the streets are barren. A few lights flickering. My building manager, who’s also a friend, comes to my door and shows me a video on her phone. Her friend just left and got on the 101 freeway, a couple of miles away, and flames plume up. The…
