Sheltering in Place

[Drunk Monk]

So I’m watching the screener of The Continental like you do when you’re a professional media critic, and I’m ruminating over some of the soundtrack choices and an odd beeping. The episode ends but the beeping goes on. I peep out the back door at the two granny units in our lot and the beeping seems to be coming from back there. I wonder if it’s a CO2 alarm and one of my neighbors gassed himself to death. Then Stacy calls for me to grab Yuki. I go to the front of thr bungalow and it’s awash with red flashing lights. The fire department is here. They ask about the alarm. I direct them to the back yard and they determine that it’s Matt & Miles place (which is empty, as is Luigi’s place). I try to call Matt or Miles but only leave a message. They leave a window open for their cat and fire enters that way. They discover the fire alarm which has a dead battery (it’s one of those stupid 10 year alarms that go off at random that our landlord put in a few years ago). They can’t turn it off so they smash it. Then they leave a new fire alarm.

Yuki checks out the yard after they leave to make sure all is well. ‘I iz a gud dog!’ says Yuki afterwards.