Estelle Louise Short Story

A Family of Flames Michelle K. once explained, “some women are lost in the fire; some women are built from it”. In Jeannette Walls memoir, The Glass Castle, she tells her long, adventurous story about growing up in a poor family who lived on the road for a majority of her childhood. Fire seems to be the only constant thing in her life, destroying but also building Jeannette as it grows. After Jeannette learns to control the fire that consumes her life, she obtains her own flame.

As Jeanette reminiscences of her childhood she spares little to no details about the faults of her parents, least of all the faults she finds in her father. As Jeanette recalls to her earliest memory of the illogical thought process of her mother is instantly brought to light. Jeanette catches herself on fire while attempting to cook hotdogs a toddler and her mother rushes her to the emergency room and her severe burns are treated. However, when the rest of her family enters into the scene, her story becomes more complicated. After almost six weeks in the hospital the family decides to check Jeanette out “Rex-Walls style” and Rex runs out of the hospital with his little girl in his arms to the car in with the rest of the family waiting for him inside.

     The fire spread from the O’Learys’ barn to the yards nearby. Soon it was spreading throughout the neighborhood. William Lee, a neighbor a block away, saw the fire and ran to Bruno Goll’s drugstore to turn in the fire alarm. Bruno Goll refused to turn in the alarm because he said the fire truck had already gone past. So instead of arguing, Lee went home to his family. At the courthouse the lookout on duty saw smoke, but thought nothing of it, thinking it was just Saturday's fire and there was no reason to be alarmed. Then he looked up and noticed it was a different fire and had his assistant strike the Box 342 for the fire department. Soon fire trucks were at the scene and attempted to put out the fire. The fire department’s Chief Marshal, Robert A. Williams got the engines to circle the fire to contain it. They got as close to the fire as they could until their arm hair was being burned and their

She noticed the Lee's cottage nearby where she could get some help and maybe shelter. Upon knocking on the door and no one answering, she broke in hoping to find a telephone. Unfortunately, the telephone lines were down. She then started a fire in the wood burning stove to keep warm and fell asleep. While she was sleeping a fire started on the roof and the roof burnt down causing $35,000 in damages. She was arrested.

She opens the door to her childhood, beginning with when she was 3 years old and boiling her own hot dog by standing on top of the chair to reach the stovetop. While doing that, her pink dress catches on the fire because of which gets her horribly burned. She spends a few days in the hospitals and enjoys it too, because she is getting food on time and is not left starving. One day her dad shows up and they run off out of the hospital without paying the bills of her treatment. That night her family leaves the town and move to another place, taking as much stuff as possible with them. Most of her childhood memories involve her whole family- mom, dad, Jeanette, Lori, Brian, and later on Maureen -moving from one desert towns to another, settling in as long as her dad can hold the job. This happened more frequently due to the dad’s alcoholism coupled with his paranoia about the organized society and the state. One of the towns they stayed in was Battle Mountain, Nevada, where they spend a few months. Jeanette and her brother Brian spent many hours exploring the desert and collecting rocks. Even their mother got a job as a teacher and

We also learn that fire has a tendency to follow Jeannette. After the whole hotdog incident, a year or two later a curtain in a hotel room that they are staying in sets on fire and basically burns down the hotel. Rex, after almost running over his wife several times settles down in Blythe, California but moved again because his car had a stolen license plate and he didn't want the cops to find out. On their journey, the kids almost fly out of the back of the U-Haul truck they have. They end up in Battle Mountain, where the mom accidentally puts two giant holes in the house pulling a piano outside, Brian and Jeannette are almost burned alive while playing with fire, and Jeannette is continuously thrown into deep water where she almost drowns about four times. The story begins to go downhill when Rex loses his job. Jeannette becomes defiant with her mother because of how hungry she is, and this is a moment of realization for Rose Mary, and her and Rex start to argue more and more frequently. Then one day, one of Rose Mary's paintings came flying out the window and as the neighbors watched, Rose Mary also came out the

realizes that she may have forgotten where the house really was, after she got the kids excited

The film starts slowly with the happy scenes of a family of four. The earthquake comes and the young mother wakes up afterward acknowledging all of her beloved ones are trapped under the collapsing houses. The rescue team finds her husband dead, but informs her that the twins are “trapped together under a slab of concrete.” Unfortunately, they also declare that “lifting the slab in any way will kill one of her children.” She denies to make a decision at first, but later chooses to save her son.

However, they stood side-by-side; holding hands, and scrutinize the firefighters as they fought the fire. In due time, the paramedics emerge from the back of the house, carrying a stretcher with the injured truck driver on it. Nevertheless, Estelle Louise and Clemmy Sue somberly prayed for the truck driver, as the paramedics placed the stretcher in the Ambulance, and drove away. By now, they are somnolent and their footsteps sluggish as they staggered towards the pickup, their friend Sheriff Johnstone drove over, and motioned for them to join him. They wearily slide into the back seat, when Estelle Louise closed the door the Sheriff says, “The driver of the semi was not seriously injured. He was out of the truck when the fire started. He said he lost control of his rig when it took off like a wild stallion. Estelle Louise, he takes full responsibility, for the accident and promises to set everything

So she goes decides to do something and a city hall is burned to the ground. The building is empty and no one is hurt and attention is brought to her little town. Her being charismatic and having a vision that she is willing to act upon doesn’t take away from the fact that her parents

Louise Beal was done. She was worn out. She was over it. Louise tired and coming home from work. When she turned down her street and saw cop cars and ambulances everywhere, with blue and red lights flashing and sirens blaring, Louise got scared, worried for her children’s safety. She got increasingly more worried as she got closer to her lifeless, dull home, when she saw Ian’s commodore out the front she broke into a hysterical run. The police officers looked at her, their faces showing sympathy and concern. She only stopped running when she got to the front door, about to enter only to be held back by an officer. Louise thrashes around, screaming out for her children, to be released. Louise only screams more when she sees a body bag on a stretcher

None of my kinfolk wants me cause they be saying I be a hand full. So they puts me in the county home for kids who ain’t gots no parents. I be fifteen, when I be runs away from that there place. Well, I had me some nickels, dimes and quarters and gots me a ticket on a Greyhound Bus heading nowhere. I be meeting Orville James on that there bus and we be falling in love. As god be my witness we gots off that there bus in Wrongberight and Clemmy Sue’s daddy, preacher Jarvis be marrying us that night. I tell you Orville James be the love of my heart and the breath of my soul. He be treating me like I be some kind of prize he be winning at the State Fair. Orville James be my bright shining penny. Why he could read, write and be signing his own name. I be pleasing proud of him. Now our

Choi took his daughter’s arm and drives to the nearby station, only to nearly crash into an oncoming horde of ambulances and police cars. Je-eun reaches out the car window and catches an ember in her hand, prompting Choi to notice the burning building in the distance.

After a while, she begins to wander about Estelle Louise and decides to go check on her. Fighting the storm, every inch of the way she finally reaches the mailbox, but it’s not there nor is Estelle Louise. She looks towards Estelle Louise’s trailer and it’s on fire. As fact as the storm will allow she runs back to the pick-up and drives up the driveway. From the headlights of the truck, she sees that a Semi-trailer truck has crashed into Estelle Louise’s home and flipped over. Clemmie Sue jumps out of the truck and frantically begins to search for Estelle Louise, while doing so she never notices the middle-aged man climbing out of the wreckage. Blinded by the rain she trips on a piece of mangle mailbox, falls to her knees, buries her head in her hands, and mournfully

During the beginning of Leah’s freshman year, she was a duckling learning how to swim.