Candles are an essential part in making rooms homey. A room that is going to be your home for a year (or more) needs atmosphere and ambiance, and candles can help to fulfill that need.

Some time ago, two girls shared a room in a certain tall building in the central part of the Mitten State. This room was often filled with the pleasant fragrance of scented candles burning.

On one particular night, there were candles burning everywhere: on the dresser, on the windowsill, in the bathroom, and on a low table in the entryway. The roommates were preparing for an evening out, discussing wardrobe options, the happenings of the day, and various other things. They were happily getting ready for the evening, gathering necessary items and freshening makeup. One laid a music book on the low table in the entry, making sure that the book was a safe distance from the candles to ensure that it would not catch fire.

The other roommate began looking for a shirt that she had just seen the day before, but now couldn’t find. Drawers were opened and the contents searched thoroughly several times. Items hanging in the closet were searched piece by piece. The dark recesses under the bed were searched. As a last resort, she decided to search the dirty laundry basket, which was kept in the entryway. Random articles of clothing were tossed haphazardly out of the hamper in the search for the elusive shirt. The bin was emptied, but the missing shirt was still nowhere to be found. The girls racked their brains, trying to figure out where the shirt could be, while standing in the entry where the low table was located.

After a few moments, an odd sound filtered through their intense concentration. It was a sound like magazine pages being blown by a fan — a fluttering, sputtering sound. An odd smell began to fill the room —  somewhat similar to a campfire smell. This smell was foreign to their room, because their candles were apple pie scented, not campfire scented. And then their eyes fell on the low entry table where the nicely scented candles were burning.

There was a sweater, tossed onto the table in the midst of their frantic searching. The sweater was on top of the pleasantly scented candle. There was smoke coming from the sweater. The sweater was on fire.

The girls reacted at the same time, frantically grabbing the sweater and waving it around. They shrieked and squealed as they began to realize what could have happened — what almost did happen!

They smothered the fire in the sweater and then inspected the damage. Three holes were burned into the sweater, in addition to several scorch marks. The girls’ hearts were racing as they sat on the floor next to the low table where the nicely scented candles were still burning. They looked at each other, and, without saying a word, one of them leaned over and blew the candles out.

Quietly they sat on the floor and waited to see if any of the resident “drama team” would come into the hallway shrieking about a fire. They sat and listened for a knock on the door from the resident family that lived on their floor, who might have smelled the smoke. They waited to see if the fire alarm would go off. But all remained quiet.

When their hearts had stopped racing and they were sure that no one was going to come screaming down the hallway, the girls breathed sighs of relief and resumed their preparations to go out.

“I really did like that sweater,” one said rather mournfully, as she laid the sweater in its final resting place — the trash can. The girls never burned candles on that low table in the entryway again.