“I accidentally burned a friend’s house to the ground once.” That’s the first line of “British Columbia—1972,” a story by Cookie Mueller. It’s a story about what Cookie Mueller—who is high on cocaine, who has just tied her toddler to a plum tree outside a burning building—runs back in to save.
Cookie, along with her friend Howard, must make the value selections themselves. Their friends, the homeowners, are out of town. “Howard and I hysterically grabbed a huge plastic container with a lid on it. We carried it out carefully, whatever it was; we would risk our lives saving it. Later we found out it was the garbage.” Slipshod though their methods, they manage to carry out a Victorian blue-velvet couch, a Tiffany lamp, a radio, a mahogany rocker, selected crystal stemware … and three bottles of whiskey, for a well-deserved nightcap on the lawn.
