Coda

When I was 12 and a half, lightening struck my house.  It was a three-story Victorian house in a working class neighborhood. It had five bedrooms, one bathroom, cost a fortune to heat, and had no air conditioning. So there was one window air conditioner in my parents' bedroom where we all would hang out in the dog days of summer. One of those days in the late afternoon we went to pick up my brother from his little league game in the midst of a giant thunderstorm and then went straight to a party at my aunt's house.

When we came back a few hours later there were fire engines everywhere. It wasn't obvious when we were driving up what house had had the fire. But when we rounded the corner, there it was.  My mother said, "Oh my God, Peter, it's our house!"  (Peter is my dad.)

We learned later that the lightening had actually hit that air conditioner, which had been plugged in, and caused some kind of explosion and electrical fire. This burned out my parents' room entirely. The rest of the house suffered smoke and water damage. 

We were homeless.

Also, we'd lost many of our possessions.  All the books. All the photographs. All the clothes.

After a night at a neighbors and then a week at a hotel, my parents took a tiny apartment nearby and sent us up to spend the summer with relatives in the country several hours away. My parents worked to fix our house all summer.  I spent my pre-teen awkward summer away from my parents and suffering from chicken pox.  I was angry to be in the country away from my friends. I missed my home. I missed my family.  I was sarcastic and annoyed. I was itchy from the red spots that covered my entire body.  They would wake me up at 4 am, and I would slip down to take a baking soda bath. Really, as summers go, it wasn't the best.

Once you've had chicken pox the virus can lie dormant in your nervous system and reappear, often in middle age, as shingles, a painful rash that can last from two to six weeks. This is what the doctor told me my new painful rash was.  And it made me think of that shitty summer long ago.

Comments

[Eva]

Oh, that really sucks. So sorry.

[Aurelia]

Ouch Jess, I'm so sorry. Can they give you anything for it? I hope it won't last too long.

[magpie]

Crap. I had shingles a couple of years ago - the baby was about seven months old, and we were just about to move. It can be triggered by stress.

Hope you feel better soon.

[isabelI]

Wow, sorry that happened and sorry about your rash now. All your photos? Your family must have been really upset.