So it looks like there’s a fire in the apartment house where Michael, Deanna and the kids live. (My guess is the unfriendly neighbor downstairs, who smokes cigars, started it) So they get the kids up and out and Michael goes back in! And for what? His just completed book manuscript!
Sheesh, I know it’s been hard work, but he’s got a wife and two kids that need him, and nothing material like that is so important as to put yourself back into danger like that. He did the book once, he can do it over.
I want him to get hurt just enough to realize how stupid he is being.
Back when I was at Infantry Officer’s Basic Course at Ft Benning, GA, I was putting the finishing touches on a science fiction novel I’d been writing for 3 years. This being before computers were cheap and ubiquitous, and me being a poor typist, I was HAND-WRITING this novel. When I checked out of the BOQ at Benning and headed home for Christmas pursuant to going off to my duty station in Hawaii, I somehow managed to leave the manuscript in the drawer of the nighstand at the BOQ. I realized it when I got home, but by then the housekeeping crew had thrown it out.
Words cannot describe the punch in the gut I felt when I realized it was gone.
I’d make sure my family was safely outside, then I’d go back in the attic. (Of course, I’d have the fucking thing backed up on a flash drive and would have stuck it in my pocket the minute I knew there was a fire, but that’s another argument.)
Ditto. That’s why I have copies of my current book (and JPEGs of the photos) on my home computer, my work computer, and two zip drives. Not too neurotic . . .
Plot line stolen from The Waltons, where John Boy has just finished his first novel and promptly sets his house on fire. Manuscript is burnt to a crisp and John Boy has to come to grips with starting all over again, when he just wants to quit. Of course, he rewrites it, it’s even better than the original, and all is happiness again.
C’mon, there’s no visible flames, just a little smoke. He’s going alone, quickly. How long could it take to pop in and grab the damn thing? Even if by some stroke of bad luck he got trapped inside, he just lives on the second floor. He could easily escape through a window.
Mike may be either foolhardy or brash, but he’s not an idiot.
He got his wife and kids out first. Now he’s taking a risk to get some very important papers. It’s a fire in a unit above his apartment. Flames and smoke go UP. Assuming the fire hasn’t eaten through the floor yet, he should be able to dash in, grab his stuff and get back out.
“Take calculated risks. This is quite different from being rash.” George S. Patton.
He’s an idiot. Smoke can overwhelm you long before the flames get to you. And his wife and kids aren’t “out” yet; they still have to go down that rickety fire escape.
And he’s an editor. Surely he knows how to save his files.
Sure, but the laptop and the printed copy are still upstairs, as evidenced by him not carrying either when he came down and first discovered the smoke. It should take him at most a few seconds to grab the computer. Actually, he could have done so easily while talking on the (apparently cordless) phone.
Comic-strip tragedy being what it is, though, I bet the family will survive but the manuscript will not.
My own plan for a fire is to just grab my whole computer, rip out all the cables and go. I could even toss out the window if necessary, hoping that the tower’s frame will protect the hard drives. Michael could do that if need be; just wing the laptop through a window like a Frisbee and hope for the best.
Oh, wait. I misread the OP and didn’t click on the strip. The DOWNSTAIRS neighbor started the fire, Mike and his family live ABOVE the fire. Plus, he’s going in the attic? That’s a who-o-oole lot riskier.
Okay, okay. Y’all are right, i’m wrong. He’s an idiot!
Actually, we don’t know how the fire has started. In the OP I have simply assumed it’s coming from downstairs, likely the nasty neighbor who smokes. Still, being resident on the second floor, with no evidence of fire in their place, it’s likely coming from downstairs, so he’s going above the fire.
Nah. Michael will hear one of the neighbors choking on the smoke and have to make the decision to rescue either his manuscript, or someone he hates. He will do the right thing, and bitch about what he has lost, until his wife and kids remind him of what he has saved. Much more treacle-y that way.