The kitchen door was unlocked.  I already told you that.

I was out driving because it was too hot to sleep. Yeah, I do that lotsa nights, ever since Irma told me to haul ass. Just cruise around, close to where my house is. Was. I can't drive there in the daytime. Restraining order. I make bank payments regular and suddenly I can't put my foot inside my own house.

I would call up and the girls would say, "Sorry, Daddy, I can't talk right now." Claimed they were eating supper. Doing homework. Whatever Irma told them to tell me. I had no hard feelings. I just wanted us all to get back together.

Irma held a grudge though. Okay, so I shoved her around a little. That don't mean I didn't love her. She never learned when to back off. My mom never gave my old man any lip, she showed respect, but Irma, she was like a dog with a bone, had to win every single argument, man.

I am sticking to the facts. It was four a.m. I saw flames coming out of the upstairs windows. Nellie and Susie's bedroom. What? They were eleven and nine, do you think I don't know how old my own kids—so why did you ask? No, the baby slept in our bedroom. With Irma. Yes, that bedroom was upstairs too.

Yes, I'm sure. I checked my watch when I turned the corner. They musta opened the windows because of the heat wave. There musta been a backdraft.

That three fifty-two call to the fire station is news to me. But I can tell you one thing, those hotshot firefighters would have been frigging surplus if the windows hadn't been open. I would have run up there and rescued them all.