“Imagine that your home is on fire. You’re allowed to save one thing.
Your family and pets are safe, so don’t worry about them.
Your Most Important Thing. Any size. A grand piano? Fine.”
For once we got good homework, not useless stuff like worksheets.
Best part is, Ms. Chang says we don’t have to write anything down,
just think about it so we can discuss it with everyone.
We’re supposed to pretend there’s a fire, and we can save just one thing.
Ms. Chang says size and weight don’t matter—it could be anything.
And don’t worry about family or pets, they’re already safe. Phew!
Makes things harder, though, ’cause I would’ve saved my nana first.
Arthritis—it hurts her to walk. If I tried to get her out,
I’d have to hurry her up and tell her she doesn’t need her good hat.
Wonder what May’s taking. Maybe I’ll give her a call—
HEY, THAT’S IT! MY PHONE! I’ll need it to tell all my friends,
and besides, somebody’s gotta call 9-1-1, right?
One thing? That’s impossible. How can I ever pick just one thing?
I’ve got so much stuff I’d want to take. My books, for a start.
My graphic novels and my manga, my Calvin and Hobbes—
heck, my Neil deGrasse Tyson books, seven all by themselves!
I couldn’t pick a favorite, every one of them is awesome.
Oh man, I hate this, I’m never gonna be able to decide.
“Promise you won’t think it’s stupid?”
“How can I promise that, girl,
when you didn’t tell me what it is yet? You tell me first,
then I tell you what I think, and you want me to be honest, right?”
“Okay. It’s a sweater.”
“A sweater? Which one—oh no. Not that one—”
“Which one? Bet you’re wrong.”
“It’s that nasty blue cardigan, right?
You can’t be serious! Why would you take that ugly thing?”
“I don’t care that it’s ugly—”
“But you hardly ever wear it!
I mean, when I can’t find my phone, it’s super annoying,
but that sweater, you wouldn’t even miss it, so why save it?”
“If you lose your phone, you can always just get another one.
All your stuff gets stored in the cloud, right? But my one gran,
she’s gone, my other gran’s eyes so bad she can’t knit anymore,
so there’s never gonna be another sweater like it
in the whole history of the universe, not ever.
Things that you can’t go buy another one, that’s what you gotta save.”