The Miracle of Fire

 Two sticks rubbed together can produce fire, as can steel striking flint. The flame is not a combination of the two sticks or of the steel and the flint, but comes from out of nowhere, a miracle created out of action rather than substance.

Call the TV Crew!

Fiorella is a connoisseur of driveway stones. It's a born-in trait. When she was a little girl in Waco, she searched out the glossy little red and yellow and black and brown pebbles in the driveway, much to her mother's despair.  Since moving out to the boondocks, she's been enamored of flint, but seven years of prospecting the driveway have pretty much dried up that supply.

Her latest mania is sparkling rocks, which Husband says are probably calcium carbonate. She has a collection of them on the window sill over the kitchen sink and a plastic shoebox of them outside on the back porch, where she also stores her flint collection, and every day, when Fio takes Sonia out for a walk up the driveway, she fills her pockets with more of the rocks.

OMG, Fio's a hoarder!

Back to the Caves

Walking down the driveway after the recent rains, Fiorella found another fine piece of flint to add to her collection, which covers two shelves now. She has informed Husband that when the bomb is dropped and they have to head for the hills, the flint goes with them.

Husband is dubious, but Fio figures they'll need flint to make arrowheads to hunt for food and to make fires to cook it. They'll also need flint to clean animal hides for clothes and shelter. And they'll need it to make knives to defend themselves against thieves who don't have any flint of their own.

Of course, Fio has no idea how to chip flint into tools or even strike up a fire with it, but there's enough on those two shelves to lose a few to experimentation and still stay ahead of the game.