And looking out the back window I could see the reflected light of a bonfire.
It was two little girls and they'd set fire to something plastic in the yard on the other side of the alley. I wouldn't have cared, but the burning shit was right up against the yard fence and the whole lot was going to go up in flames if nobody acted. So, calling on Joe to give me back-up, I went out into the alley with a bowl full of dirty dishwater. The girls ran off. I slung my water and most of it bounced off the fence and hit me, but I'd managed to kill about half the fire. I made two more trips to the kitchen to refill my bowl and a neighbour joined in the firefighting with a bucket and a tea-cup. I got Joe to climb the fence and from there he dumped the contents of the neighbour's bucket on what was left of the fire and that was that. The two little girls crept out of hiding and Joe asked, "Do your parents know you're doing this?"
"Yes," they said.
The job was done but I still had a full bowl in my hands, so I slung the contents high up over the fence just to be sure and Joe got the benefit of most of it.