Bob Wallace was 25 minutes from home in Tennessee, on a cold December night in 2015 when he got a cell phone call from his mother. “The mountain is on fire,” she screamed, “and Brian’s up there!”

Wallace’s family owned a dozen rental cabins (小屋) on Shields Mountain, and Wallace’s friend and fellow rental-cabin owner, Brian McGee, aged 56, was up there trying to put the fire out by himself. Wallace, 32, lived on the mountain too.

Wallace turned around and headed for a dirt road. He made it about halfway up the steep, winding path before his front-wheel-drive car gave up. He called McGee, who drove down in his pickup so they could fight the fire together.

They headed first to their rental cabins. “I wanted to make sure our guests were gone. They were,” says Wallace. At that point, he had a choice: try to save his cabins or rescue people renting other cabins nearby. “On the moun¬tain, you don’t have many locals. They’re mostly tourists who don’t know their way around,” he says.

Over the next two hours, the two friends drove through the smoky moun¬tain, knocking on doors and leading panicked people to safety. “I know that mountain so well,” Wallace says, “I could drive and know exactly where I am just by time traveled.” Thanks to their brave and immediate action, the two helped 14 people out of the danger.

Fourteen people died that night in Sevier County. But the fire didn’t take away a single life on Shields Mountain. And though his home and business were destroyed, Wallace remains calm. “I wasn’t worried about my loss, not when I saw those families trapped on the mountain,” he says, “I knew I was gonna help them.”

Cala didn’t like us. Any of us. We didn’t do anything to offend her and she didn’t know us but that didn’t matter; she still didn’t like us.

As new teachers in the Emirati school, we Westerners greeted her every day. She ignored us. She came into our rooms and bypassed us as she shook hands with all the non-Westerners. Whenever we saw her, she avoided eye contact with us. Eventually, we stopped trying to befriend her.

I wouldn’t say her nationality but her friends had been fired from the school. We had been employed in their places and that was enough for her to have nothing to do with us.

Well after 16 months in the school we had a secret friend gifting. To my surprise, I drew her name from the glass jar and that meant she was my secret friend. My role was to buy her a gift and say something about her when we publicly acknowledged who our secret friend was.

I decided to gift her a coloured bangle（手镯）. I added a postcard and wrote “Love and Blessings, Rose Marie.

Then came the day. We all gathered in the meeting room. When you gave your gift, you said a few kind words about your secret friend and passed the gift to her. What could I say? Everyone knew she didn’t like the Westerners. She taught music in the school so I said “My secret friend is someone who brings music to our ears every day.” She came forward with a huge warm smile. She hugged me and kissed me on both cheeks and accepted my gift.

Since then, she smiles often. We hug and shake hands when we meet. I have seen her wear my gift several times and I am so pleased.