Last Tuesday Luke and I were eating lunch after his morning class when the doorbell rang. It was one of our neighbors. He said, very nonchalantly, “Your car is burning. Maybe it makes sense to put it out?” My jaw dropped to the floor in shock, both to the news and the way he delivered the news. When I didn’t reply, he just said, “Well, um, bye” and he walked down the hall to his apartment. What!!?? Maybe it makes sense to put it out!!??

Luke raced to the window to look down at the parking lot and called out en route, “What did he say?” I said, “He said our car is on fire!” Luke said, “That’s what I thought he said!”

Luke looked down at the car from our window, and it was not on fire. There wasn’t even any smoke. Then I burst out laughing, as I realized that we must have missed one little word which changes the meaning of “Your car is burning” to “The lights of your car are on”.

So Luke got his coat and boots on and went down to turn off the headlights.

No harm done, except that now our neighbor thinks we are crazy.