A Wilbraham Cautionary Tale

This morning, I burned my hand on the teapot and immediately went for the ice . . . but the experience brought back a 20 year old memory . . . 

Pre-tornado photo: Marash Boy builds a fire in the fireplace in Wilbraham (As Marash Girl is the photographer,
there are no photos of her building a fire.)  N.B. The tornado deconstructed the fireplace which is no longer.

Marash Girl loved to go barefoot in Wilbraham -- over rocks and leaves, grass and soil. . .  even when she was preparing the fire for shish kebab.

As it happened, the fire was almost perfect, coals ready to be rearranged for the shish kebab, when a coal fell off of the open end of the fireplace, and Marash Girl's bare foot stepped on that coal with her full weight.  The burning coal burned the bare foot, as burning coals on bare feet are wont to do, but Marash Girl knew just how to proceed, or at least thought she did.  She grabbed some ice from the ice bucket, limped to the front porch, and,  for the next 8 hours.  watched the view of the valley from her seat on the porch, placing her burned sole on ice, and replacing the ice as it melted, until at long last, the burn disappeared.  No pain. No scar. The moral of the tale?