A note from the present: I have a journal entry dated February 11, 2002, but it turns out to be an e-mail I sent from Montana to all of my friends Adrianne and Carla's friends and relations.
It was strange to read the February 7 entry that talked about the lawsuit Adrianne and Carla were involved in, because it was that night that someone came into their house while they were sleeping and set it on fire (very thoroughly, I might add). A little after nine on the morning of February 8, Adrianne called to tell me that someone had burned their house down. "I need you to come to Montana," she said. She told me later she didn't quite mean it, that she meant something more like, "I wish you could come to Montana," but I went. I remember covering the mouthpiece of the phone and saying to David, who was sitting beside me holding Eric, "Someone burned Adrianne and Carla's house down. They're not hurt. They need me to fly out."
David said, "OK."
I said to Adrianne, "I'll call the airline and let you know about my flight." She gave me the phone humber of their hotel (and the secret code I would need to get through to the room, since the arson looked like a serious murder attempt and they had no way of knowing whether the arsonist might still be after them), and I didn't talk to her again until I walked into their hotel room sometime after 11 that night.
Although it is entirely typical of David that he hesitated not at all in agreeing that I should get out there as quickly as possible, deciding in one second that I would go to Montana on no notice at all remains one of my finer moments.
I spent about four days in Montana right after the fire, and visited several more times before Adrianne and Carla returned to Michigan later that year. I don't want to post the update e-mail I sent to their friends and family members a few days after the fire to this weblog, because it contains too many details that belong to them to share or not. But I'm sure the fire will be mentioned in upcoming entries, and readers here should at least know about it.
Posted by Su Penn at February 11, 2004 11:41 AM | TrackBack