Wildfire Insurance

Autumn in Los Angeles, with a hint of dryness. The distant hills begin to smoke, like a kettle of boiling water.

An old man sits on his rickety wooden chair, gazing at the distant firelight, clutching a crumpled insurance policy in his hand, his last hope. His name is Carl, one of the few remaining residents at the foot of the mountain, the other neighbors having either moved away or gone bankrupt.

The map of this area is divided into two parts by insurance companies, one red and one green, red representing high risk and green representing safety. Unfortunately, Carl's house falls within the red zone.

"What the hell is this map!" Carl curses at the empty valley, the wind scattering his voice.

The wildfire is coming fiercely, like an angry beast, greedily devouring everything. On the television news, experts are still analyzing the causes of the wildfire, discussing climate change and human factors. Carl thinks they are all talking nonsense, he only cares about his dilapidated little wooden house.

This house was left to Carl by his grandfather. Although it is old, it carries all his memories. When Carl was young, he also fantasized about renovating the house, marrying a beautiful wife, and having several children. But now, he doesn't even have the money to repair the roof.

"We can redirect the fire!" On the news, a man in a suit says to the camera, his face beaming like a salesman. Carl recognizes him, he is the boss of the largest insurance company in Los Angeles, his mansion on the top of the hill is currently located in the green zone.

In the news footage, fire trucks and bulldozers are busy on the hillside, not putting out the fire, but creating a firebreak, a firebreak to protect the green zone. Carl knows that this firebreak will completely abandon his red zone.

Carl had consulted the insurance company, wanting to change his house to the green zone, but the insurance agent coldly told him that he needed to purchase "wildfire redirection insurance" and provide proof that he had some influence over the path of the wildfire.

Carl was speechless, an old poor man, what influence could he have? At most he could only curse at the sky at night.

The fire is getting closer, and the air is filled with the smell of burning. Carl's heart sinks little by little, like a stone falling into the abyss. He turns on the radio, which is playing soothing music, as if it has nothing to do with them.

Carl picks up the radio on the table, wanting to smash it on the ground, but finally puts it down. He puts the radio to his ear, listening carefully, and suddenly, a strange smile appears on his face, he mutters to himself:

"So that's how it is, so that's how it is!"

Carl puts down the radio, walks to the small hill behind his cottage, and finds a shovel in the toolshed of the wooden house, he begins to dig. He digs very hard, like a gold prospector, he knows that he is not digging for gold, but a passage to the "green zone".

Night falls, and the wildfire is still raging. In the distance, the boss of the insurance company is leisurely drinking red wine in his mansion, watching the distant firelight, he feels that he has mastered the rules and his destiny.

Suddenly, he finds that the direction of the flames is a bit strange, not just at the firebreak, it seems that the wildfire is also burning towards his mansion from another direction. His face begins to pale, and the wine glass in his hand also falls to the ground.

The next day, the news reported the final direction of the wildfire. To everyone's surprise, the wildfire did not spread along the firebreak as expected, but changed direction in the middle, swallowing part of the green zone, including the insurance company boss's mansion.

People are discussing and speculating about the reason for the change in the direction of the wildfire, while Carl sits quietly in his undamaged wooden house, holding the radio in his hand.

"It turns out, what affects the direction of the wildfire is not just the firebreak." Carl murmurs to himself, pointing to the small button on the radio, "There's also this."

It turned out that yesterday, Carl did not dig any passage, but dug a shallow diversion channel on the hillside. This channel connects to the abandoned water pipe in his house, and an abandoned reservoir on the top of the hill. The water in the reservoir came from a small abandoned reservoir a long time ago, Carl used to go there to play when he was a child, he remembers the switch of the reservoir.

When the wildfire approached, Carl turned on the valve of the reservoir, and the water from the reservoir flowed into the channel, and then rushed to the hillside. The firebreak opened by the firefighters and bulldozers did change the direction of the wildfire, but the terrain and water flow also changed the direction of the wildfire.

Carl knows that there will always be rules in this world, but there is never only one rule.

The radio is still playing soothing music, but this time Carl hears a different taste, the absurd notes, and the melody of resistance.