"When you're hot you're hot, you really shoot your shot"

The other morning I get to work around 7:00 and as I'm climbing the stairs to my classroom, my cell phone starts ringing. Who in the world is calling me at 7:am? One of the kids must have forgotten something. I answer the phone and it's my neighbor. "Black smoke is coming out of your basement. I just called the fire department. You'd better come home." So, I put my stuff in the classroom and hightail it out of there. As I'm driving home, luckily only a five minute ride, I remember that Braden didn't go to school and was sleeping up in his bed. I frantically try to call his cell phone, no answer. I call the house phone, no answer. I call my neighbor back, no answer.
I'm driving like a mad woman. Crazy thoughts racing through my head. If the fire is in the basement, Braden will wake up before the upstairs is engulfed in flames, wouldnt he? What about the dog and cat? Thank God Renee and the baby aren't still in the basement. If my house really is on fire, and everyone gets out safely, it better burn all the way to the ground. I don't want to have to deal with smoke and water damage for months only to have to turn around and sell it. God, Braden wake up. I try to make all the calls again. No answer.
I finally, after what felt like an hour, make it to my driveway in under five minutes. I can't get in. There's three fire trucks, two police cars and an ambulance. A ton of people in my driveway. Including my neighbor, still in her robe. I see a familiar cop standing there. "Officer Dempsey, Braden's asleep up in bed!" "Not any more he's not. It's all clear in there, but he's awake in the living room."
Apparently something backfired in my furnace/water heater, causing black smoke to billow out the vent. In the half-light, it looked to my neighbor that it was coming out the window. It was all cleared up already and they recommended that we get our furnace checked. My neighbor apologized a thousand times, but I told her it was the right thing to do. If it had been a real fire, she could have been responsible for Braden being alive.
Good news: No one was hurt and my house is still in one piece. No smoke/water damage.
Bad news: My water heater is shot and two months past it's warranty protection. Over a thousand dollars to replace it.
Braden said, "mom, it's scary being woken up by a policeman and a fireman."
I am probably SO the talk of the street. In the past month I've had at my house an ambulance, the police twice and now every community vehicle the township owns. If we move, I'd be willing to bet no one can offer them the kind of excitement we have!