set the night on fire

We dig on New and Exciting. The only problem with that is, New and Exciting is most often not Free; most of the time it is Downright Expensive. Imagine my surprise then, one Friday afternoon, when I stumbled across the information that a meteor shower would be taking place that very weekend. Not just any run-of-the-mill meteor shower, either. The Perseid shower of 2007 promised to have the best viewing in quite a number of years, due to the fact that the new moon would not detract from the meteors with the long, bright, multi-colored tails AND early morning viewers (around 4 am, to be precise) would be able to watch the rise of red Mars in addition to all the other technicolor mayhem in the atmosphere. Brilliant. And Free.

Nine pm Sunday evening was clear and not as hot as it could have been. After a dessert of ice cream bars, we gathered the Neat Sheet ™, a stack of inflatable ReadyBeds ™, citronella candles and a firestick, bug repellent, water bottles, a long tether for the dog, and the guitar and loaded up the minivan. Destination: the baseball fields behind the elementary school. It was the only open place we could think of that would be relatively darkened, but close enough to get home at a decent hour. The kids were excited at the prospect of “camping out” under the stars on this beautiful clear night and I had planned on telling them all about the meteors and how to spot them as the night grew dark enough.

Setting up in the almost pitch-black was harder than we expected, having only 2 citronella candles to use for light. Of all the things I thought of, “lantern” never once sprung to mind. Oh well. All the kids settled noisily onto their little inner-tube beds and squeaking and giggling, intently watching the sky and asking, “where are the comets?” literally every ten seconds.

The littlest little pointed “Hey the school’s on fire!” and I gullibly turned in the direction of the school reassuring her with a “No it isn’t silly, that’s just our cand- Oh, shit.” I was on my feet and dialing 911 on the cell phone before the rest of the kids had even turned to look. Running across three baseball diamonds (and their subsequent outfields) as well as the soccer field, I could see the lone silhouette of someone near the second grade wing. The school wasn’t just on fire, someone was setting it on fire. On purpose.

The blaze was half the height of the school. As I got closer, the flames fizzled out, but I kept an eye on the person walking the perimeter of the back of the school now. I still hadn’t crossed the soccer field and into the playground, but I was close enough to see the person was carrying a red gas can and pouring some kind of liquid onto the ground by the school. I could not yet smell what it was. I relayed all this information to the 911 operator, including my fuzzy and darkened description of what I could see of the person, which admittedly wasn’t much. I didn’t want to get too close, not knowing if he also had a weapon, so I stayed back far enough, holding my cell phone flat against my cheek to block the light and hoping he wouldn’t see me.

The Fire Department arrived first with one short blast of siren. Dude jumped ten feet into the air, dropped the gas can, and quickly walked towards the parking lot, doubled back and headed in the direction of the nearest trees. Right where I was standing. Then he saw me and took off. I ran to the fire truck, still on the phone with the police telling them which direction Dude was running. I showed the fire fighters the gas can and the scorch marks on the sidewalk and up the side of the school. They called in an Arson Investigation team and asked if I would stay and give a statement. The police called me back on my cell and asked me to meet them around the corner to ID someone. Damn I was tired of running, but away I went.

I didn’t think I could ID him. The clothes partially matched the description I gave, but I had told them I thought he was wearing a hat, because it looked like his hair was sticking out of the bottom of it. Dude here had a curly mop fringe going around the bottom edge of his hair…..could be him, but I never got closer than 50 yards. He was caught sprinting out of the trees right near where I lost sight of him though, really nervous and sweating like a pig from running. Dude claimed he was with two friends and they all split up because they thought they were being chased by a dog. While they were taking his info down, lo and behold, there went a meteor. I was asked to go back to the school to meet with the Arson team at that point. Man, can’t I get a ride with one of y’all????

I got permission to go let my husband know I was OK and that I would be up by the school for a little while longer. Then I sat and answered questions from the Arson team for a while. When no one was talking to me I had my eyes on the sky. Dammit, I was missing the show! You know, the meteors I actually came out here to see?? At some point, a call came through on the police scanner that a neighbor near the school saw a lot of activity going on behind the school and was worried someone might be vandalizing it back there. Ummmm, it was us. We all had a laugh at the caller who had just noticed that an investigation had been going on for an hour. Nigh about 10:30, the police finally got into contact with the two friends Dude said he’d been with all night. They hadn’t seen him since school let out. The police booked him.

I stumbled back one more time across the black fields in search of my family. I called “Marco?” several times, before hearing my husband’s return “Polo.” Both of the boys had already fallen asleep, the girls were hysterically exhausted and my dear darling abandoned husband was about ready to choke everyone, including himself in frustration. No they never saw a meteor, not even the bright one that I’d seen. They spent the whole time asking questions and fighting while Daddy tried to answer them. He tried to sing them songs and play guitar to pass the time and they kept shushing each other to the point that there was no point in continuing to play the guitar. He was tired, the dog was wired and we still had to wake the boys and drag them and all our stuff back to the car…..across three baseball fields, the soccer field and the playground. OK, so it wasn’t such a great place to choose after all.

But would the school have been damaged if we’d not been there? Possibly. Would the little bastard setting my school on fire have been caught? Most likely not. I just heard that we might be able to catch a glimpse of the last remnants of the shower next Monday morning. I’ll set an alarm and watch them myself this time. Too much New-ness and Excitement can be a bad thing.