June 16, 2020

fire at the Hideaway Cafe

We were driving to the grocery store for more coffee. At the far end of Shore Road, 
trucks were taking turns refilling at the closest hydrant, a small elementary school 
shuttered since mid-March. A young family had gathered near the baseball diamond 
with a bucket of whiffle balls. A teenage girl in shiny shorts was running soccer drills 
behind them. We could see the smoke rising thickly beyond a ridge of trees. 
The afternoon had kicked up a visible wind. The cafe had been closed for years, 
but someone was living in an upstairs apartment with her son. Later, the local paper 
reported a cockatiel had been lost to the flames. This morning,, the sun looked like a line
of fire. It was not hard to imagine a boy, waking in a strange house, thinking it was all
a dream, or his mother, arms brittle and fierce as wings, folding herself around him.