Finding the Fire
It’s fire season here in Central Kansas. Before moving to Hutchinson, I was not aware of a fire season. I had never heard of a “controlled burn” and I’d never seen hundreds of acres of land purposefully set ablaze. Where I come from, if you see a big column of smoke in the sky, it means a building is on fire. Someone’s home is gone. 300 jobs lost unexpectedly. Local schools evacuated because of haz-mat fumes. Before moving to Kansas, a big column of smoke on the horizon was a weeknight tragedy, in retrospect, an event marking the end of my childhood and the loss of my religion. It was a Thursday evening the summer after my freshman year of High school. Classes had just ended for the year, and I had just gotten my restricted license. Those first hot days of my first summer as “real” teenager were full of promise and temptation. My parents had just gotten home from work, and we decided to go get something quick for dinner. As we drove out towards Woodruff Road – a major comm...