Fire in Germany

It was half past midnight and I picked up a smell of smoke. Walking around the apartment checking, I was sure that something was burning. I opened the door and there it was, misty white smoke in the stairway.

I went down to the third floor and rang the bell. "Fire," I said, and the black couple replied in German. I asked them to call the police. Only in recollection it occurred to me that the lady was half naked.

On the second floor, smoke squeezed out of a door but no one responded to the bell. I walked further down to wake up the first-floor neighbors and two ladies answered the door. "Fire," I said. They replied in German but I was not sure if they understood me. The smoke floated upward so there was nothing unusual at their door. "Smoke, smoke," I said. I left when they started to put on their coats.

All windows in the stairway were opened and a few neighbors kicked the unanswered door open. Smoke, more smoke happily welcomed us, and a flashlight didn't help too much. The police and the firemen came and took over. We waited on the pavement.

A stretcher was brought out, a smell of barbecue scented. Things were thrown out of the bedroom window: a comforter, a pillow, unidentifiable pieces and residues. I stared at the window of the second floor thinking, "No bus and no metro... If I am not allowed to go back in, I'll walk for ten minutes to wake Nandu up."

It turned out that Nandu was lucky. We got back to the building after forty minutes.

A friend later told me that "fire" sounds like "Feier" in German, meaning "party". I didn't know that I accidentally invited my neighbors to a midnight "Feier" with "smoke".