In the shadows, where the TV lights didn’t quite go, Tamika could see a lot of people crying. Some were crying, but others were angry and shouting. One woman was pacing about in the snow wearing only a pair of house slippers and her pajamas. A policewoman came and placed a silver blanket over her shoulders. Some people were crying and hugging each other. The silver blanket lady didn’t cry. She just paced back and forth in the snow and wouldn’t let anyone hug her, but then another lady in her silver blanket came and hugged her anyway. When that happened, both ladies started crying and they just stood there crying and crying until someone came and took them where the TV camera couldn’t see them.

 

All this was going on right behind Julie as she spoke into the microphone. When an old man, also in pajamas and a silver blanket, came up to her, Julie let him talk into her microphone. Tamika couldn’t understand what the old man was saying because he was very upset and talking too fast. The whole scene was very unsettling, and it made Tamika feel afraid. Whatever the old man said, it made Julie cry. Julie knew she wasn’t supposed to cry on TV, but she just couldn’t help it. When Tamika saw her friend crying, she started crying too. She looked up at her mother, and yes, even her mother was crying. It was all very unprofessional, but Tamika and her mother couldn’t help it, so they just kept crying. Only her father, Brandon, wasn’t crying. Her father was too angry to cry.

 

Embarrassed, Julie had to step away from the camera, so José, the cameraman, did a live shot of the whole scene. He panned the camera very slowly. A house appeared. It was on fire. Then firetrucks came into view: first one, then two, then three firetrucks could be seen squirting water onto the burning house. It was very strange because all around the eves of the burning house, icicles were forming. They were also hanging off the firetrucks and even the firemen. José moved the camera closer, and you could see the hoses shooting streams of water high into the air over the house. The water froze in the night air and fell, at first like snow and then like rain onto the burning house. As the camera continued to pan, other firetrucks came, and police cars too, all with their lights spinning and flashing.

 

Inside the TV, the twinkling lights made the police cars and firetrucks look like Christmas toys and the burning house like a doll house. The toy firetrucks squirted lots and lots of water on the doll house, but it continued to burn just the same. Suddenly flames exploded through the roof of the house. They also came shooting out through the windows. There were terrible screams, and everyone inside the TV started crying again. Two firemen came running out of the house. They fell down and began rolling around in the snow because they were on fire. Other firemen had to go and help them. After that, everyone just stood and watched the house burn.