False Alarm #SOL19

I am participating in the Two Writing Teachers Annual March Slice of Life Story Challenge.  

Some things just spend their life doing what they are supposed to do. They don't ask questions. They don't complain. They just go about doing their business.

This week we were all standing in the kitchen while I was making dinner when all of a sudden, our smoke detector in the basement went off.

"I wonder what that's all about?" I asked my husband.

"I don't know," he answered and opened the basement door to inspect.

We have electric detectors in the living levels of our house, but we have battery operated in the basement and in the upstairs storage where we installed a separate heating and cooling unit. This detector was going off for real, and not the go-off-in-the-middle-of-the-night-because-the-batteries-are-dead-and-drive-you-crazy kind of beeping.

My husband goes down, pulls out the battery and tests it with his tongue. "Nope, batteries are good. Not sure why it went off."

I had the dryer going, and I went downstairs to check on it. As I approached it, I could tell something was not right. As I got closer, it smelled differently. Not burning, but just a stronger clean laundry smell. Then I heard something strange. I looked behind the dryer, and the hose on the vent had come off.

Ah-ha! That smoke detector didn't detect smoke, but he knew something was wrong.

Yep, just going about his business of keeping us safe.