Fire!

From my point of view at 9 years old:

My parents are leaving me to babysit AGAIN.  I swear they're never here at all.  What's the point of having parents anyway if they're never around?  And Mom expects me to fit all this bread in the oven when it's done rising.  It's never going to fit...

There, I knew these loaves of bread wouldn't all fit. Half the time she can't get them to fit with the oven door closed.   Well, that's the best I can do.  The oven door is just not going to quite close, and they'll just have to bake that way.  I'm done messing around with this, and I need to use the bathroom anyway. Where's my book?

Okay, now that I've had a little break, what are the kids up to.  THERE'S A FIRE IN THE OVEN!  What should I do?  I know we're supposed to leave the house, but it's not a very big fire, and I think I can put it out.  It would be so embarrassing to call the fire department over this, and I can get it out before they even get here.  "Quick, Bekah and Benji, go wait outside.  Reece, grab that bucket and help me put this fire out.  If we can't get it out in just a minute, we'll go out and call the fire department."

Good news--I saved the house.  It turns out that one of those stinking kids (none of them will confess who) decided to try to rearrange the bread so that it would all fit in the oven properly.  They were successful, but left the hot pad in there.  I save the bread, but the hot pad is a dead loss.

My parents are so unfair.  First, they leave me to babysit all.the.time.  Then, just because I had to use the bathroom, so I didn't stop the hot pad incident, now I am in trouble.  Since no one admits to leaving the hot pad in the oven, we're all being punished, but me most of all because I was "in charge and should have known better."  What the heck?  I can't use the bathroom while I'm babysitting?  They seem more upset about Mom's best hot pad being destroyed than about the fact that the house almost burned down.  And I saved it!  With just a little help from Reece.

From my younger sister's point of view:

Hmmm...Lauralyn left this bread all weird in the oven.  I bet I can make it better.  Turn this one.  Put this one over here.  I'm being so careful; I won't get burned.  Mommy always says that I'll burn myself if I get too close to the oven, but I won't.  Look, I did it!  I can put the bread in the oven better than Lauralyn...

Lauralyn is screaming and making me take Ben outside.  I think she's mad about the bread cause I did it better than her...

Mom and Dad are really mad because somebody left the hot pad in the oven, and it started on fire.  No one knows who did it, except me.  I left it in there when I fixed the bread, but I'm not telling.  I'm not getting in trouble for this.

(Rebekah finally confessed twenty years after the event, so now we all know who is responsible for the great hot pad fire of 1983.)