Evacuating

LA is on fire.

We live in the hills, so we pack, ready to evacuate, our exit route planned.

The call to go comes.
We go.

George calls, he too is out of the hills.
”yes! we have the pup”.

I lay down at our safe harbor and gaze at my bag.
One bag. That’s it.
Yes, it’s small, incase I need to abandon the car and walk.
It’s a distillation of all that truly matters to me… this is just things. Dead children shift priorities.
A change of clothes, passports, a ring, a pen, a page of passwords and… Luke’s ashes.
It’s like the lead-in to a riddle.

I can hear Luke in my head laughing “Mate! makes no difference to me, I’m already ash”
But it matters to me.
It matters very much.

One day I will find a place to scatter him.
It’s just not here in the violence of these fires.
and
It’s just not today,