semi-daily journal of my thoughts and feelings(hopefully) On my life living in the Rocky Mountains...
.
|
|
| rkymtnmusings semi-daily journal of my thoughts and feelings(hopefully) On my life living in the Rocky Mountains... .
|
|
|
11/02/2002 When I first moved my family to Colorado, I found an apartment to rent that was built in the early 1890's, and in the 1970's had been turned into a duplex, the owner living in one half, and I and my family living in the other. Our apartment had a "vegetable cellar", a basement with rock-and-cement walls and a dirt floor. At the top of the stairs that led to the basement was a walk-through pantry. From the very first day Halley, 3, loved to play in that pantry. It wasn't long before we found out she had an "imaginary friend". She and her imaginary friend would spend hours and hours in that pantry together. Halley would even "share" here meals with her friend. At one point, my wife and I discussed whether or not it was healthy for her to spend so much time with someone that wasn't there, but she seemed so happy in all other ways, we decided to keep just an eye open, and, if fact, her friends' visits became very much a part of family life. One early morning near the end of November, I was awoken by Halley shaking me. She was saying, in a serious voice, " Daddy, my friend says we have to get out of the house right now..." I told her I would get up and look around, and put her in bed with my wife. I searched the top floor, looking in all the closets, behind doors, not quite sure what I was looking for, and then went downstairs and repeated the procedure, finding nothing amiss. I went back upstairs,carried Halley, who had fallen back to sleep, to her bed, and crawled back into mine. A half an hour later, I found my self being shook from sleep. Halley, more insistant now, said " Daddy, my friend says we have to go outside, right now !!! ". I searched the upper level again, and then went downstairs. As I walked around downstairs, I began to get a faint "electric" smell-a smell of electric wires heating up the plastic around them. I was compelled to go out in the front yard. I went through the front door, through the mudroom, down the porch and out into the front yard about ten paces and turned around. Looking up at our section it appeared fine,but glancing over at the front of our landlords' apartment , I saw refections of flames flickering in the windows. I ran over and, to my horror, saw her living room engulfed in flames !!! I ran back to our apartment, flew upstairs, woke everyone up and got them out, then called Steve , who lived two doors down and was the Chief of the volunteer fire department, of which I was a member. After double-checking to make sure everyone was safe, I ran down to the fire station, a few blocks away. I met some of the other guys, started up a truck, ran back up to the house, and got the fire out in about an hour. We knew our landlord was in Denver for the weekend, so was safe, but the apartment was almost a complete loss. We ended up having to move out...across the street to a set of apartments, so our former landlord could have our apartment while her's was being rebuilt. Now, we had a discussion with Halley about her friend waking her, but talking to a three-year-old child, trying to make something like that simplistic, and yet glean the facts, was rather difficult, and so soon became a passing thing... That is, until one day we were in the Hot Sulphur Library, also a turn-of-the-century building. We were admiring some of the old photos hanging on the wall, when Halley suddenly exclaims, "There's my friend ! There's my friend !" Incredulously, I went over to where she was standing, gazing at a picture with the biggest of smiles on her face, as if seeing an old friend. My gaze turned to the old yellowed photo and saw, in black and white, with our old house in the snow in the backround, a lovely little girl, in a rabbit-skin hat, a jacket with rabbit-skin collar and cuffs, posing on ski's. The picture said " anonymous little girl on ski's, circa 1895." The librarian walked over to where we were and asked if she could help. I asked her if she knew anything about the photo. She said she wasn't sure about the girl in the photo, but she was sure that the summer after the photo was taken, there was an outbreak of typhus, and several members of the family of the house in the backround had died. Since then, I have become intrigued with all of the history of this county, this place they call "The Island in the Rockies".. I have not found out, yet, who that little girl is, but better than finding out who she was, I would like to "meet" her someday, thank her for being such a good friend to Halley, and for saving my family... posted by David | 11/02/2002 03:47:00 PM |
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||
|
 |
||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||
