This is a true story.
I once had to babysit for a family friend. I was about 12 years old.
The mom of the baby was recently split from her husband. It was a relationship that did not end well.
The only apartment that the mom could afford was in a very high crime neighborhood.
The fact that I was alone with a sleeping baby, in a scary neighborhood, afraid the dad was going to come breaking into the house at any moment… was a recipe for possible disaster.
The apartment was on the second floor and it had these special alarms on the door locks that made a weird chirpy noise if someone tried to break in.
The fact that I was babysitting in an apartment that HAD to have such devices was scary to begin with…..
I checked on the baby every so often.
The apartment had a pull out sofa that turned into a bed. I sat on that and watched TV.
I turned up the TV pretty loud. Loud enough to not hear creepy noises that would freak me out and enough that it would not wake up the baby.
I closed all of the blinds tightly. I mean, I REALLY turned that plastic mini blind stick as tightly as I could…
The time went soooo slow.
This was a new apartment for the mom and I had not ever been there before. When I agreed to babysit I had no idea her apartment was on this dangerous street. I had no idea it was going to feel so scary.
All I will say is the apartment was in midtown Kingston. This street is known for break-ins, murders, and drug arrests.
Well, here I am … 12 years old…. Trying to be a brave little babysitter. I was trying to really get into the TV show I had on to distract me from my fear..
After a while, I started to notice there was a red light that kept blinking between the cracks of the mini-blinds in the living room.
Oh great… another thing to make me nervous… I pretended it wasn’t there. I looked away.. towards the TV.
That blinking light seemed to have moved a bit and was brighter at times… and then softer at other times.
I really didn’t want to know what that light was. Based on the way the light was shining and blinking, it was definitely coming from outside.
I was way too scared to go to the window and see what the heck it was.
Over an hour had gone by and that light just would not stop blinking..
Finally, I convinced myself,……..I should say… I forced myself… into having a moment of bravery….
I walked over to the window,… I leaned in towards the window,… I took one little horizontal plastic blind strip, and I slowly moved it enough to see out the window…
You will not believe what I saw… You will not believe what that light was !!!
It turns out…
The building that sat caddy corner to the apartment house that I was in….was burning.
Up in flames. Fire engines everywhere, hoses, black smoke. The whole gammit..
The red lights that were shining though the mini blinds were the spinning fire engine lights.
Can you believe it?
The house across the street was on fire, like fully engulfed… and I didn’t even realize it!!
I later learned that no one was hurt in the fire…. I think it was an abandoned house that no one lived in.
The mom eventually came home and I made it out of there safely…. and with a new story to tell.
It was definitely a night I won’t ever forget.
I don’t think the mom stayed living in that apartment very long. So I never had to go back to that apartment again….