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This is a warm day in February. Mom and Dad have gone shopping or visiting a friend. They left Hank, Ray and me alone in the house. I was possibly thirteen or fourteen years old, old enough to have a little sense. As a matter of fact, my parents told me to take care of the house and watch Ray and Hank. The three of us were in the basement. I was playing with an electric toy train, Hank was playing with a few lead soldiers and I don't remember what Raymond was doing. The Christmas tree was taken down and was still in the basement. Dad didn't take it out to the trash in our alley. But, for some weird unknown reason I decided to check the furnace. It was almost out and I thought I might put the tree in the furnace.
I opened the small black steel furnace door and began to push the tree into the furnace when all of a sudden it caught fire instantly. The noise of the fire was unbelievable. I thought for a split second and began to pull it out of the furnace and knew right away that it was the wrong thing to do, so I shoved the whole tree into the furnace. Imagine hearing a whole Christmas tree ablaze in a basement furnace. I yelled to Hank and Ray to get out of the house, but they were too scared to move. I held the door shut for a few minutes, which seemed like a few hours and it was red hot. Finally, Yes, finally it slowly began to burn quietly, but the basement was filled with smoke. I opened all the windows and the outside door and
at that moment my Mom and Dad walked in. First they didn't realize what happened. Dad thought something was wrong with the furnace. He opened the furnace door and realized what I had done. I knew what was going to happen. Hank was so scared he just stood there looking at Dad. Ray kept saying, "Dad it was Ralph, Dad it was Ralph." I Stepped up to Dad. I knew what I did and I knew what was going to happen. And Dad didn't saw a word. He just walked up to me and slapped me off my feet. Just once.
I deserved it. He didn't yell at me or lecture me. I stood there looking at Dad expecting more punishment, and he just said,"sweep the floor, stoke the furnace, and take out the ashes, son", which I abruptly did. After that I went up to my bedroom and stayed there until the next morning. He didn't have to tell me, I knew I better play it safe and keep out of his way. Good Idea.