flashing the mirror

Playing at the edge of the woods behind Dick’s house we came upon a little spot where trash had been dumped for years. Fun for kids to rummage around in junk like that. In the pile we found cardboard boxes, springs, assorted metal, cans, bottles, wood and things, and a large piece of a full length mirror. Immediately we pulled it out, and after looking at ourselves for about ten seconds, we used the heavy afternoon sun to flash the mirror.

Before long we decided to target old Maude Barn’s house, the nearest one, just up the hill from us. She lived alone, might have been sixty-five but looked a hundred. We flashed the mirror on her old wood house and could see a remarkably bright spot of sun that the mirror reflected. It blasted a beam of light. Then we flashed it right into the window of her kitchen. We played for a while taking turns flashing the mirror. Then heard the big town hall siren all the way from the fire house. Where could the fire be? We heard the truck siren coming closer. Soon the fire truck was at the corner and rambling down the street. Oh, my God, it went directly to Maude’s house. We could see her outside in her robe, waving her arms as the truck and men arrived. We were in trouble. They ran in and a few minutes later came out.

In a short while the excitement died down. Neighbors were out standing all around. Some were pointing our way. Oh, no. Tom’s dad was on the team of volunteer firefighters and soon came down the hill to where we were playing. He looked like he was going to say something to us. We were looking as inconspicuous as we could.

“Did you boys shine that mirror at Maude’s house,” he asked. We said we were just playing, found it in the trash and didn’t mean to, but we might have.
“Maude saw the flash on her coffee pot and thought the house was on fire.”
We put the mirror back in the junk pile and that ended our play.
The crowd went away, the fire tuck left and Maude went back into her house. We saw her glance out way before her door closed.