The day I almost burned my house down.
Makes you think, doesn’t it?
Everything you’ve ever owned… gone.
And it’s all your fault.

Making tacos with my mother four years ago,
I had one job:
Heat up the hard shells.
I pressed the wrong button,
and set it to “toasting”, not “heat”.

A few minutes later,
I hear my mother scream.
I run into my kitchen,
and see a flame brighter than the sun.
I panic as I run into the other room,
looking for a fire extinguisher.

My mother was the bravest person I had ever seen.
She reached her hand into the flame
and pulled the shells from the burning oven.
One flew from the tray and landed under
a dry, wooden table.
She pounced on it like a puma.

The fire went out on its own when
nothing was there to fuel it.

My mother saved us.
She saved me.
And all because I was making tacos.