Christopher to the Rescue

The old wood house

There were no fine brick homes in the country I grew up in.  It was so many years ago.  Our house made out of wood with shingles as its siding.  The neighbors all had similar dwellings.  The house was open door in the summer time with a screen door to keep flies out.  It was only latched at night.  It was hot!  But it was something we got used to as we had no air-conditioning or fans.  But winter brought a different story.  The door stayed shut as the house was always so cold.  The front room had its open fireplace and half way in the middle of the seven room house was an old wood burning stove.  The attic door always left open with hopes heat would rise.  Upstairs was where the boys slept.  I still remember how there never was enough cover to keep the toes warm in bed at night.

            In the day time everyone fought for their place in front of the fireplace.  The old wood stove was seen as dangerous.  The fireplace was not seen that way until that one day.

            We had just come in from playing outside in the snow.  It was bitter cold.  It seemed everyone was as always fighting for their place in front of the fireplace.  With six of us fighting for a spot, one was sure to get pushed.  And so it happened, six year old David got pushed right into the blaze.  He was left standing, but his pants leg caught fire.  In panic, David went to shouting and then went running.  He opened that front door and ran outside.  An older sister came running from the kitchen.  She saw the front door open.  She took an instant head count as she was babysitting that day.

            “Where’s David?” she asked.

            “He ran outside!  He’s on fire!”

            It was not only the sister who ran after David.  But before her, went running our dog.  He tackled David and had brought him to the ground.  Whether that dog was playing or whether he was in a rescue mode, I really don’t know.  But he stopped a running kid from getting more seriously hurt.  It made it easier for the older sister to get to David and roll him on the ground putting out the fire.

            The pants that burned away from David’s leg revealed one awful burn on the back of his leg.  It was a burn going all the way down from the knee to the ankle.  It appeared deep in the flesh.  Since Mother did not believe in taking anyone to the Doctor, David’s burn was treated by her.  It was a lot of pain he suffered until eventually the burn healed.  But it left a forever lasting scar.

            What I saw from the whole experience was someone taking all the credit for rescuing David.  The older sister, who was babysitting and supposed to be watching, took all the credit herself.

            “I saved David,” she said.  And it is like a sibling never to let anything die down.  She constantly reminded David of her heroic conduct often. 

            It has been said, “If you are too close to something, you don’t always see the truth.”  Simply stand back and you see.  The only hero that day was not my older sister.  After all, she did not act alone.  Maybe her taking full credit was to stop any repercussions by mother who had left her in charge.  Regardless, I saw the actual hero as being our dog, Christopher.  He was outside.  He was in the right place at the right time to stop the running boy.  Some dogs don’t seem to do anything outstanding.  But when a real emergency comes about, I wonder how many of them would jump into action?  I think any dog is about protecting its master.  After all, the dog got the name Man’s Best Friend somewhere.