Prologue

The word that pretty much sums up the way I feeling, is terrified.

I think that almost everyone felt that way. I can't really speak for everypne but I think I can speak for most.

Nothing anyone could have done, could prepare my cummunity for this horrible event that happened September 15th, 2014.

This is my story of The Boles Fire.

 

"Normal"

September 15, 2014.

Windy and warm.

Sunny with very little clowds.

I still remember the day like it was yesterday. The day where my life changed, in good ways and in bad.

 

It was warm and windy. It was like any other day in September to me. I woke up got dressed brushed my teeth and went to school no big deal. I was wearing my favorite pair of running shoes, favorite jacket. Before I left home I gave my cats kisses. One for Samson, one for Rodney, three for Misty, four for Macy, too many to my cat Luna, and a lot more for Jake, the one cat in the neighborhood that everyone loves. I walk to the bus stop, seeing the stray cat I take care of and tell her I love her. I arrive seeing my best friend Liz, my three friends that live near me and a little girl that loves me with her mom. I turn to see my sister Taylor and my next door neighbor with his mom and dad walking up. I wait just talking. 

When we arrive at school everyone is happy to be out of that uncomfortable bus. The mood all around was not mixed up and all over the place today so I though that it's gonna be a good day, little did I know that theory would be proved wrong.

We start class. Same old thing. We had ELA, then History, then Math. ELA, easy. Math, easy. History, easy. School comes to me very easily like most things. We go to lunch after math, then I go to Choir. Happiest mood ever. Then I go to P.E. We stretch, then a lap, then we do what ever the teacher has planned out. when we were finshing up, we went to line up where we normaly do. But It was then, getting out of P.E. where everything changed. I walk outside enjoying the fresh air and I see a huge clowd of smoke comming from behind the hill where my school is located. I run back inside and tell a few kids what I saw and other kids go to investigate. We all walk outside seeing this smoke clowd become bigger and bigger within seconds. With the stong wind, it wasn't long till the school premises is filled with smoke and ash.

We walk to computers and on our way the smoke became thicker and thicker as we walked. The smoke was not bothering everyone but it was bothering the kids with asthma and bad lungs. Then you had me. I had a cough and I had been recently been coughing up blood, and this was not making my breathing any better. I started coughing and on my way up the small hill to get to the computer room I was being followed by a boy who had a crush on me. He was annoying but I had to put up with him or I'd snap. We get up the small hill and there he is saying he would be happy if the fire reached the school because he didn't want school anymore. I kicked him in the leg and he almost fell. I continue walking and the smoke becomes to strong I can't hold in the coughs I take off my jacket realizing it's cooler with my jacket on and I bundle it up and start coughing into it. Using it to breathe clearly, I hold it to my face never letting go.

Leaving The School

We get into the computer room and I rush to my seat and go to google. I search up wildfire in northern California and typed in the date. It brought me to a page with a picture off al the fires in northern California that are around us. It has nothing nothing about it. Suddenly on the intercom I hear my principe saying that we are to evacuate to school to the high school calmly. We all get up turn our computers off and walk out. I get my jacket and go. The kid who has a crush on me says that this is the happiest day of his life. Then he said something that made me hate him and lose all respect for him. 

"If the school burns down, I'll be happy. I'll be that happiest boy in the whole state if the school burns down. I hate it here. It's discusting." He didn't really mean he hated it here, he just hated school; but this school is where i had most of my best meomories at. I mean there were some bad ones too, but still, if it were to burn down, the memories would just go from good, to bad.

I froze. I stand there with others passing me, tellin me to move. I can't believe him. Out of all things he did this, I though to myself. I turn to him with tears in my eyes and he looks at me shoked. I punch him in he gut and walk away. I take my jacket and cover my face with it to cover my tears and the blood that I'm coughing up. There were small embers coming to the school and I got hit by about five leaving small burns on my arms. And one landing in the boys hair. I laughed.

I walk and I bump into him. I make the tears go away and he stays at my side no matter what I do. He gives me a hug and I push him aside and I go to the third grade class. Seeing all my little friends. I find one that's my favorite girl in he world and pick her up and hug her. She is crying which causes me to cry. I tell her everything's gonna be okay and that she needs to calm  down and just listen. She does but she continues to cry. She lives near where the smoke is coming from. She was scared. I hold her untill her teacher orders me to put her down and go to my class. My class is kinda evrywhere. I'm in the eigth grade, and our responcibility is to guide the kids and show them how to act, so we were helping all the classes. There are already some at the high school. I go to my teacher. I turn around not seeing my friends. They were still inside when I left, they were with the teacher. I get worried, thinking only the worst.

At The High School

When we arrive at the high school, there is no sight of the annoying kid with a crush, or my best friends. I turn my head and see a little boy walking in the street. He is going g from one side to the other crying. I see a car on the wrong side of the road and it is coming to the boy fast. There is a woman inside, on the phone crying. If I'm gonna help this boy I've gotta move now. I start running. I am about five feet away from the boy when the woman finally sees and presses on her breaks. She is too close though and even if I do get to him on time she will have either hit my leg or hit me. I lunge myself forward and I grab the little boy, grab his head and pull it close to me so he'll be safe. I land on my back. The little boy is just panting. I unwrap my arms around him and he gets up. I am up, ignoring the pain from my foot. I walk to the field where I was headed before I saw him. I look back and the little boy smiled and look confused. No one else saw me, that's the only thing that confused me.

I spot my class and run to them. I hug my friend Amber and I do the same to everyone else. I look around for my two friends. No where to be found. We stand in line for two minutes befor i see my teacher. The smoke there is getting heavy and it becomes to much. I get dizzy and fall to my knees with my vision blurry and Amber at my side. I turn and see Liz's mom. My eye's shoot open and I get up stumbling a little and run to her. She offers me a ride and I accept. I go to her van and I see Liz. I run to her, rapping my arms and round her. She says my sister RaeAnne and Taylor are both looking for me. I see them give her one last hug and go to them. We go home, worried. My dad drops us off and goes to the store to get gas.

The Last Moments In My House

I run inside bringing Adrianna, a kid we were baby sitting, inside with me. I go outside and turn on the sprinkler, on full blast. Scared that something g may happen I go to my sisters dogs and give them hugs. I go inside then I hear the dogs barking. I turn around and go to see what they are barking at. It's Jason, the father of the kid we Andre watching. From the moment I saw the look in his eyes, I knew that something bad was gonna happen. The look was fear. I have never seen him worried.

He told me that the mill is in fire and that Weed is being evacuated. I nod and he follows me inside. Adrianna sees her dad and runs to him. He tells us that we need to pack some bags up of things we want and clothing. He realizes out pretty dad is gone and asks where he is. We tell him and he says he will drives us to his aunts with him.

We pack up while he goes home and packs his things. I grab my duffle bag and load it with what I have in my dresser which wasn't much. I grab my favorite shirt, socks, my favorite pair of pajamas, and other things that I just shoved in. I can't find my stuffed bear. I love that thing. I got it when I was going through a hard time It was given to me a couple years before around Christmas. I was picking out a toy at a Christmas Light show and I picked out the biggest one they had, which wasn't very big. The I was walking to the hot coco stand and the owner came up to me and d traded me a big one for the tiny one. It was this act of kindness that made me realize there is a light in this world full of darkness.

I look at my guitar and think, nothings gonna happen, so I ignore it. I look at the things my great grandma gave me before she died and said nothings gonna happen. I put my bag outside and look for my cat inside. I can't seem to find her.mi can't seem to find any of them but one, Samson. I am worried but I must go, so risking it I leave. I regret it today.

Leaving My Town

We load up in Jason's truck and I see there kittens. We have a dog in the front seat and she does not like them. We contain her, I turn seeing my mom's friend Katie. She parks in the street and we get out to hug her. She says she has our brother at taco bell, with her boyfriend and she's gonna bring us to him.

We arise at taco bell and I see my brother Nolan. I run to him. And I almost cry saying we couldn't find Jakey. He hugged me back and we hadn't actually hugged for about four years, so that ment a lot.

Inside all I could do is think, what if? What if this is a dream? What if my cats die? What if I lose everything? There was to many what if's. I would not take my eyes off the burning hill. We were in South Weed and on the other side of the hill. The wind and the fire was heading north, so we were safe as long and the wind didn't change directions. My mom and Katie were on the he phone and my mom said she was on her way. She came and did did picked us up and we headed to her work.

Her work was empty other than her boss and us. My mom called my dad and we got water and tried to calm down. My dad told us to come to my aunts and if she wasn't home to go to my grandmothers. Her boss made me prety angry saying bringing up what's happening in Happy Camp and saying it's all fine and that they've been on stand by evacuation for weeks so we should be fine. This wasn't stand by evacuation, this is happening now.

Then we left to my aunts. My aunts house was miles up north but not the hehe no far away, a boy only a thirty minute drive. On our way there we saw our dad jeep and pulled into and gas station to see him.

Within The Next Week

I saw a girl in my school and I got out and ran barefoot to her. I stepped on some thorns making me bleed. I gave her and hug and didn't say much, we went that close. And she had to leave so I went inside. I picked out and didnt snack and got in line with my mom. The door opened. I turn to see if it's and didnt not her kid from my school because I saw others too, and it was, but not who I wanted to see. It was the kid with the crush, Sean. He saw me he waved and I didn't and wave back instead I had my mom hold my things and walked over to him. He must have thought I was gonna give him a hug becase he opened his arms. I shook my head no. As I approach him he takes a step forward. I stop and I have tears on my eyes. I slap him. 

"Is this really the happiest day of your life?" I ask. He shakes his head. 

"I could lose my house today, are you really the happiest boy in the world?" He shakes his head and I turn around exposing my bare feet. I go back to my mom. She pays, we leave.

We decide to go to my grandparents house instesd. We arrive and wait for them. They're not there but there door is unlocked and they know we are there. My papa gets home and I run out to him. I hug him for about thirty seconds not letting go saying I love him. We go inside and he gets a call saying that they are getting a evacuation notice. The fire is many miles away but if it gets bad enough it could reach there house. They lives in monague and they are about 25 Mikes away but with the wind that fast there may be nothing that could stop it. 

My mom decides to takes us to a friend from churches house in Mt. Shasta. When we arrive to their house we are welcomed. Their dog got so hyper when it saw us. We chose our bedrooms and we put our things away, but it was really different from what we were used to. Their house was big and it was worth over 1 million dollars, unlike my mom and dad's which was a house they rented for $650, and that had mold, and a horrible upstairs heating problem.

We went to bed but I doubt any one could even sleep. I remember that when I finally went to sleep I had cried more than I had for years. I kept saying it was my fault because something bad always happens around my birthday. My birthday was 11 after the fire.

The next morning my mom said she had gotten a call from someone saying that we had lost our house. I was thinking that I would cry but I didn't. I called Liz and she was happy to hear from me. I was happy to hear her. We talked for like three minutes and she was bummed that we lost our house, we lived near each other, she said she didn't know if she lost her house and we both hoped not.

I Survived...

For the rest of that day we just kind of needed to calm down. 

The next day we went to the Humane Society. And we put in reports of what our animals looked like. I heard a kitten meowing that sounded like mine but I didn't ask to see it because that would be impolite. We went to a friend's house after and I checked my Facebook and I got a message with a picture of a cat asking if it was mine. I looked at it and I knew it was. I started crying, I was so happy. I yelled that it's her. I was the happiest person at that moment. 

We picked her up and brought her to my sisters. We got her back a month later and since then we've been together. I like to call her my imperfect, perfect kitty. We were alike, she has battle scares, like me, abandonment issues, like me. We are together, fighting together. She shares my bed with me and life, more her bed than mine though. I do my best to keep her happy. She is living proof that black cats are not bad luck.

I got a lot of new things, which was kind of overwhelming, because all of my things before the fire were hand me downs. But I did go to the donation places. They had a lot of nice clothing too.

When we saw out house I was shocked seeing what I once knew as home, gine. I searched through and I look up and saw something. A biker? No not a biker, it was Liz. I sprinted to her and hugged her for a long time. She said she would be right back and that she was gonna tell her mom that she's gonna help me look for things that survived. She came back with her mom, dad and brother. We I saw her mom I ran to her and she hugged me longer and tighter than anyone else. She  almost cried seeing my house. And she had to leave because she just needed to calm down. We went to her house later that day. She kept saying that I'm like her daughter and that is true. She was happy that we were okay.

Later there was a town meeting saying when the school is opening. We went and I saw so many people I knew. I was happy to see them but overwhelmed at the same time.

When they opened school again I saw my class and I hugged a lot of them. I was happy. I saw my best friends too. I even saw the other people who lost their house and didn't feel obligated to walk away.

 

It's now months after the fire and from October untill December I was okay with what happend to my house, but then I started thinking. I remember where my bear was. It was  in my closet. I could've grabbed my laundry hamper and I didn't. I still wake up crying, still wake up, almost crying, thinking that it still is September 15, 2014, and I still cry thinking about my stuffed bear. I still think about my cats. Samson and Rodney, I have seen them around angel valley. I have seen Jakey and Macy around the steets together where the once roamed looking for us. And Misty, well I think I've seen her, but I miss her as much as everyone else.

 

So, I guess I survived this, with battle scares but, I got through it, not alone but with others at my side.

Impressum

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 11.05.2015

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