The smell of smoke burned my eyes and nose. I stared at my burning house as tears ran down my cheeks, though I hardly seemed to feel them. Almost everything I cared about had been turned to ashes; my dog, my books, and the house I had lived in for my whole life. My mother weakly squeezed my hand. She seemed just as stricken as me. My two year old brother sat in front of me throwing a horrendous tantrum. No one seemed to really notice, we were all lost in our grief. "What are we going to do, Mom?" I said, my voice faint. She didn't answer, her eyes seemed as if she was off in a world I couldn't even begin to dream about. I grabbed my still crying brother and inched closer to her. I heard my dad running towards us. "Thank God you're okay!" He shouted as he smothered me and mom in a fierce hug. He pulled away first. "My brother has room for us in his house, so we'll bunker down there for a few days until we can find an apartment. Capeesh?" I nodded dumbly. He kneeled down. "I know it's hard to move on, but we need to. A house is just a building, okay?" He gave me a bear hug, then shouted to our whole family. "Let's get a move on! My brother might come to his senses." I cracked a smile and hopped into our car which had miraculously survived the fire. We could do this.