Never a dull moment in Hillmomba. I was discussing The Pony's texts about his new benefits as a regular City Carrier instead of a City Carrier Assistant, and Farmer H couldn't be bothered to pay attention.
"Um. Am I boring you? You can't go five seconds without looking at your phone. I am TRYING to tell you about The Pony and his 401k."
"I hear you. The Pony just sent me a text."
"He didn't send ME a text! Not since last night."
"He's asking me what's going on in Hillmomba. I said I don't know. I left my Storage Unit Store early, to go down to Bill-Paying Town to look at their flea market. What could be going on in Hillmomba? He says there's traffic all over the place."
"I don't know. Is there a fall festival? I hope it's not busy when I go to town."
"Oh. I think it's just a football game."
About an hour later, I started to town. I had just gone over the long high bridge that is still all scraped down and full of holes, but not being worked on. Up ahead, over the richie rich houses before you get to the prison, I saw smoke. Thick smoke.
"Huh. What in the Not-Heaven? Is somebody burning leaves? There aren't enough leaves yet. Such thick smoke. Maybe burning tires?"
On I went. Around the curve, past the richie rich houses. THERE! On a side road to the left were two fire trucks blocking the turn-off. And two sheriff's cars. And a BLAZING WHITE SEDAN, with flames shooting 15 feet into the air! I don't know if it was a convertible, or if the roof was just black from the fire.
By the time I started home, the emergency vehicles were gone. The smoke had dissipated. All that was left was the charred white sedan, now topless, a middle-aged woman in jeans shorts standing back watching, and a flat-bed car-hauler wrecker getting ready to load the remains.
I don't think that's the kind of excitement The Pony was talking about. But excitement still the same.
It could be the same excitement, traffic might have been backed up while people stood and stared at the burning vehicle, probably filming it on their phones too.
ReplyDeleteWe've had a lot of burning cars on the news here, mostly at night, arsonists going around torching them, or thieves torching the car they stole, used to ram raid a bicycle shop then torched it when they were finished.
River,
ReplyDeleteOoh! I didn't think about it being stolen, and then destroying the evidence. They'd have needed an accomplice to pick them up, though. It's at least a mile out of town. So nobody was around taking pictures. The Pony noticed the hubbub IN town, not on the outskirts. So two different excitements going on!
Reminds me of the time the car carrier truck was in rest area across from our campground. It caught fire and they pulled over to wait for a fire truck. Most of the cars on the back ignited and when they did the air bags would explode. everyone in the campground was on the berm by our pond watching this event. Someone even brought a pizza to share! Doesn't take much to entertain the lookie-loos!!
ReplyDeleteKathy,
ReplyDeleteHeh, heh! The pizza was a nice touch!