“I’ll come over soon and finish that display case for you, Dane,” Shane said after Alice had found a documentary on whales on the huge new TV in the living room that she and Jenny were enthralled with.

“That’d be great, but you don’t have to rush,” I assured her.

“It’s not a really big deal, I just need to figure out something for the wall that’ll hold all your trophies and the other case I made. It shouldn’t take very long, though.”

“That other case you made is really nice. I mean, like…really nice. I didn’t know you made stuff like that, Shane.”

“Well, usually I don’t. I just went out and looked at cases for you because you always used to put them on those stupid shelves that always looked like they were gonna fall over. I didn’t see anything that I thought you’d like, so I figured I’d just make them. It’s not a big deal, they’re just shelves and they have a door,” she said with a shrug.

“Yeah, but you laminated all those old pictures of me and lined the back of the case with them. It looks awesome.”

“Seriously, Dana, it wasn’t a big deal. I just found them and had them laminated, and then I glued them on. Hell, it could have been a seventh grade shop project, quit making it a big deal. I just didn’t see the point in buying one when I could make it for a lot cheaper and have it hold up better,” she said.

“Okay.”

We sat and watched the whale documentary for a little bit until I started to smell something weird coming from the kitchen. “Al?” I asked hesitantly.

“Yeah?” she asked, her eyes still glued to the TV.

“Is something burning?” I asked a little nervously. She spun around to look at me, and then looked at Jenny. Jenny met her eyes, and they might have stared holes into each other’s heads if Shane hadn’t gotten up to run into the kitchen. Smoke rolled out the swinging door after her.

“Don’t you guys have a fire extinguisher?” she yelled.

“Fuck,” I muttered and ran in after her. “We do, but I don’t know where it is!” I told her as she tried to get to the stove to turn off the heat. Smoke was coming through the cracks in the oven door, and there were visible flames inside.