Halloween scare

As I parked at the vet's just now, with both felines in the car, I turned off the engine & looked up to see, reflected in the door in front of me, the car we sat in, with flames coming up from under the hood. 6-, 8-inch flames, plain as day, FIRE. After the briefest of internal-cognition doubletakes (maybe partly cuz I didn't hear or otherwise sense it) & then an "Oh my god" I'm pretty sure was aloud, I thought ever so fleetingly of a fire extinguisher & then something roughly like "Oh shit I've got to get two other living creatures out fast too," and I leapt from the car as I very rarely leap.

Running around to the other side I looked back at the hood and saw no fire. I looked again. No fire. But then fire in image in door. But no fire under hood. But fire in image--- oh -- oh--- the image. It's an image. It's a reflection? There's maybe a Halloween decoration with fire? No, it's a fire in the gas fireplace of the waiting room, lined up just "right" at the location of the crack between the hood and the passenger side of the windshield. It is not a fire even in the reflection; it's behind the reflection.

Now *that* was scary.

I wasn't petrified. I just moved to deal best I could, knowing through-and-through, with my whole body, that the odds of a most undesirable outcome were great. But brothers and sisters, that was a scare. I'm still adjusting to the reality that that danger was a phantom.

Halloween scare

As I parked at the vet's just now, with both felines in the car, I turned off the engine & looked up to see, reflected in the door in front of me, the car we sat in, with flames coming up from under the hood. 6-, 8-inch flames, plain as day, FIRE. After the briefest of internal-cognition doubletakes (maybe partly cuz I didn't hear or otherwise sense it) & then an "Oh my god" I'm pretty sure was aloud, I thought ever so fleetingly of a fire extinguisher & then something roughly like "Oh shit I've got to get two other living creatures out fast too," and I leapt from the car as I very rarely leap.

Running around to the other side I looked back at the hood and saw no fire. I looked again. No fire. But then fire in image in door. But no fire under hood. But fire in image--- oh -- oh--- the image. It's an image. It's a reflection? There's maybe a Halloween decoration with fire? No, it's a fire in the gas fireplace of the waiting room, lined up just "right" at the location of the crack between the hood and the passenger side of the windshield. It is not a fire even in the reflection; it's behind the reflection.

Now *that* was scary.

I wasn't petrified. I just moved to deal best I could, knowing through-and-through, with my whole body, that the odds of a most undesirable outcome were great. But brothers and sisters, that was a scare. I'm still adjusting to the reality that that danger was a phantom.