An incessant ringing of the phone tears me out of a heavy sleep.
“Pat, can I come over there, there’s a gas leak in my back yard”. The anxious voice of my neighbor has me immediately awake.
By the time I reach the door in my slippers and housecoat my neighbor is already there. She too had been sleeping and had pulled a heavy jacket over her night attire.
“I’ve called my son, he’s notified the fire department” she explains.
Through the open door I can hear the gush of gas and smell the faint odor that accompanies it. She hadn’t been kidding.
Together we head for the TV room and peer out the large windows overlooking both our back yards. Light, from the porch and kitchen, spills across the trees. The quiet is shattered by the door bell.
“You have to vacate the house” said an RCMP constable. “Dress warmly” he advises. I head for the car. “Don’t start that car” he admonishes.
A small group of adults and children are now huddled across the street. Finally someone opens their car door and pushes it in neutral, over to a group of mothers with little ones. They crawl inside.
We watch as shadowy figures cross the street while police lights alternate from red to green.
Finally, a kind neighbor away down the street, invites us in for coffee. Except for the gushing of gas, there is hardly a sound and there is a surreal feeling as the street lights wash over us as we walk to her house.
The coffee is so good and the warmth of the house so much appreciated. We hadn’t realized how cold we really were. Word is passed around that a back hoe has been brought in to shut off the main valve, the scent of gas is still present and we realize this isn’t a TV story we are watching. This is real life.
The crisis is finally over and we all return home. We thank the firemen and then I asked my friend who had called me, “When did you notice the gas leak?”
Her voice quavered as she explained, “I went to bed early as I had a cold. I woke up because my throat was so dry, so I got up to get a glass of water. That’s when I heard the noise. I thought I’d left the outside hose running. If I hadn’t woken up when I did the house would have been filled with gas.”
I gave her a warm hug and whispered, “Doesn’t God work in wonderful ways, to keep us from harm?” She hugged me back and we rejoiced together.
