Burning Down The House

Sam and I watch the news. Another house has burned down from an e-bike catching alight when it was charging. This family had only just bought the bike the day before.

These bikes seem to be burning down a house every week. 

It would be so awful, I think. Oh, could you imagine. A nightmare. Your life would just end for a time. You'd go into stasis. Suddenly homeless.

I casually say to Sam once the news report is over. "Do we have anything with a lithium battery that we should be concerned about?"

"Charlie's bike," Sam replies.

"Charlie's bike?" I question.

"Yes," said Sam.

Charlie's bike that he locks up to the front balcony uprights out the front. Charlie's bike that is secured to 150 year old wood work. That bike?

"I've told him not to leave it on charge over night when we are all asleep?"

"And what did he say?"

"He agreed," said Sam. "What do you think he'd say?"

I wonder how easily he could forget? I think, even if we were all home, being a terrace house, the first we would know that the bike had caught alight would probably be when the flames from the front of the house were billowing smoke inside.

"How often does it need to be charged?" I asked.

"Ask him," said Sam, seemingly irritably.

Oh, I thought, Sam had come to the end of the discussion, even if I hadn't.

So, I stewed on this over night and for most of the day. Charlie wasn't home, so I was just left to stew.

Even if we were all home, which is the recommended way to charge an e bike, as I have already said, we wouldn't know until the front of the house was well alight, the bike being secured to a multi-storey wooden balcony, which would just go up like matches.

Charlie can take the bike around the back, where there is power and charge it away from the house. Surely, that isn't too much to ask? Surely that isn't an unreasonable request? A house literally burns to the ground every week from an e-bike charging mishap. Was I being too dramatic?

Anyway, I couldn't get it out of my head. I'd just have to tell Charlie my decision, and he is just going to have to like it, or not, but he's going to have to comply. I'm going to put my foot down. This is not something to piss about with.

I couldn't really concentrate on anything else.

Anyway, Charlie came home late in the afternoon. Sam was cooking turnip cakes for a snack.

"Do you want some turnips cakes?" Sam asks.

Grunt, from Charlie, which means no.

"Remember, not to leave your bike on charging overnight," says Sam. I think he said it for my benefit. You know, he was doing his bit. Whatever, it gave me an 'in.' And an 'in' is all I need.

"I think you are going to have to take the bike around the back to charge it," I say.

"It's okay, as long as you keep an eye on it," says Sam.

"No, it's not," I say. "If it caught a light we would have no chance of putting it out."

Charlie looks at me.

"A house burns to the ground every week," I say to Charlie. "There was another one just yesterday. It is just too dangerous."

Charlie doesn't say anything, but Charlie is a man of very few words, so that is not unusual.

"There is a roller door opener in the cupboard there," I say. "There is power out the back at the roller door. You could charge it there away from the house."

I get up and show Charlie where the spare roller door opener is, I'm determined to make him realise I am serious. He follows me to see where the spare roller door opener is.

"How often do you need to charge your bike?"

"Once every two weeks," says Charlie.

"Okay," I say. "You can charge it out the back, but you can continue keeping where you do now when it is not charging. Just don't charge it against the house."

Charlie looks at me. He should be a professional poker player, he gives absolutely nothing away. I have no idea if he hates me, or if he thinks it is fair enough. 

I really need him to agree.

"Okay?" I say.

"Okay," he says.

And why am I stressing over this, I hear you ask? I must want Charlie to like me more than I had given it credit, I guess. That seems stupid really, he’s Sam’s relative, not mine, and I guess he’ll be gone in a year and half, once his uni is finished, never to see me again. I guess, it doesn’t really matter if he likes me, or not.

So why? Just trying to keep the peace. Maybe?

Shane says I am not good with confrontation, and it’s things like this that make me wonder if that it true, but it’s not. But then who does like confrontation?