Lani Williams and her mother, Sincerity, have lived in the historic town of Lahaina on the Hawaiian island of Maui for most of their lives.

Last week, as wildfires began to destroy their beloved town, both the mother and daughter jumped in their car to escape.

Embers (灰烬) were already falling down on them. So Lani got her mom into the car. But then the traffic already stood still. Then she saw another fire beside them on a whole house. Lani thought they were going to die in the car.

Lani and her mom determined the only way out of the fire’s path was to get out of their car and climb over a nearby seawall, into the ocean water.

That escape route, though, proved too difficult as Sincerity has trouble walking and uses a walker for assistance.

As Lani and Sincerity was thinking what to do, a man, a complete stranger, came to their aid.

The man, later identified as Benny Reinicke, told Sincerity to lean on his back so that he could carry her over the seawall and into the water.

He said, “Auntie, put your weight on me. I got you there.”

Reinicke carried Sincerity on his back over the seawall, and then stayed with Sincerity and her daughter in the ocean water for over eight hours as they waited for the fires to die out.

“I just kept thinking to myself, like, this is a young guy that could have just left. He could have swum around to safety, leaving us behind,” Lani said. “But he didn’t. He stayed with us the whole entire time and made sure that all of us were safe.”

After they made it out of the ocean to safety, Lani and Sincerity lost touch with Reinicke.

When everything came to normal, Sincerity told her daughter that they should find Reinicke and say thank you to him. Lani tried her neighborhood for some information about Reinicke but she found nothing.

So Lani decided to turn to the social media.

Lani told Reinicke that she and her mother would arrange a face-to-face meeting with him.

Molly and her husband Rex ran a used bookstore in a small town. People, mostly kids, came here to read books, sell books and buy books. The morning had been full of rain, and passers-by were walking with narrow eyes under umbrellas. Molly rested both her hands on the counter and leaned（倾斜）forward to watch the world outside in the rain while Rex was busy sorting out books on the bookshelves. Rick, who sat on the floor burying himself in reading a hardback illustrated book, was the only customer in such a rainy day. Rick was a regular customer to the bookstore and he never sold a book or bought a book. He just read books.

“Can you keep this book for me?” Molly heard a shy voice and looked down to find it was little Rick that stood before the counter, holding the illustrated book and asked.

“Sure!” Molly nodded encouragingly. But the uncertainty remained on Rick’s face. “I’ll be back really soon. Promise. Tomorrow if I can.” Molly nodded to him as seriously as she was treating an adult. Molly wanted to ask him if there was anything difficult, but she kept silent. Anyway, she put the illustrated book in a drawer in case anyone else would take it. Most of the secondhand books in her store were unique. If it was sold, she would fail to keep her promise.

Rick didn’t return the following day, or the day after that. Molly was somehow disappointed. Rex suggested placing the illustrated book on the bookshelf so that others could read it or take it. In Rex’s opinion, children made promises all the time and they promised all kinds of things. When they came to a store and was attracted by something, they promised to come back and they asked the shopkeeper not to let anyone else take the things they wanted away. It happened all the time.

But Molly insisted that they should wait and keep the book.

Rick pushed the door open and rushed to the counter holding his money box.

My teenage son, Jordan, always complained about having to be home earlier than all his friends. He would tell me that he was already seventeen, but still had a curfew (宵禁). He believed he was practically an adult. I pointed out that he was not an adult as he was still in high school.

“You don’t trust me!” he yelled. Before I continued, he rolled his eyes, slammed the door and walked away. I sighed. How could I make Jordan see that I only wanted to keep him safe?

I decided to go for a walk, hoping the December air would clear my head. I opened the front door and nearly stepped on her: a small black cat, just like a meatball. “Hi, Meatball,” I said, bringing her into my arms. I walked back in, touching her neck gently. Meatball seemed happy enough to come in the house, but after an hour or two, she sat by the door, meowing to go back outside.

“Why won’t she just stay in with us all the time?” Nathan, my youngest son asked.

I explained to him that she was happy here but she liked being able to come and go as she pleased.

“That must be nice,” Jordan muttered from the other room, complaining why the cat, not him, could come and go. He even asked me to give Meatball a curfew.

Meatball became a regular.

One night, temperatures were unusually low. Meatball stood at the door, meowing to go outside.

I shook my head at her, afraid that she might freeze to death. She stared at me and meowed again. I patted her head, “I know you’re not happy, but it’s for your own good.”

“Mom’s not being mean to you,” Nathan told the cat. “She’s just trying to keep you from turning into a frozen meatball.” We both laughed at his joke.

The next morning, I couldn’t find Meatball. I asked the kids if anyone had seen her.

Jordan nodded, “I let her out last night.”

As I drove to the animal hospital, Jordan sat in the back, holding Meatball inside his coat.