Guess Who's Coming For Dinner?

Back when we were dating, M lived in a 20 story building overlooking the downtown skyline. We had three children between us, his charming 12 year old son, my imaginative 10 year old son and adorable 8 year old daughter, and we often had "family dates" at my suburban place or at his hi-rise apartment.

One weekend evening I was making blackened salmon for dinner, and I warned that the apartment would get smokey. M went out for a walk with the kids while I turned up the heat to sear the fish.

As was expected, the smoke alarm went off, so I opened the windows. I knew it take only a couple minutes until the smoke cleared out of the apartment and the smoke detector would stop. But it didn't stop.

Then I heard the sirens. Looking out the window, 19 floors down,I saw the hook and ladder truck pull up to the building. Several firemen loaded with gear made their way through the crowd of 40 or so people out standing on the lawn looking up toward the open apartment window. Our apartment smoke alarm had triggered a building-wide fire alarm that also automatically called the fire department. Before long came a knock on the door. The firemen couldn't reset the alarm or let the apartment residents back in until they saw the source of the smoke: my dinner.

The firemen clomped into the kitchen with their heavy boots and gear as I opened the lid on the pan to show off my pitiful little blackened salmon fillet. It looked like the firemen's eyes would pop out of their heads as they struggled to choke back their laughter.

M and the children made no such effort after they and our neighbors were allowed back in.