It will trigger what she now calls the biggest change of her life. Except for a stint when Chaos was in jail, Cricket says, it’s the longest the two have been apart in their five years together.

Because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, he can’t visit her in the hospital. But the paramedics won’t let Chaos ride along. Finally - mercifully - an ambulance finds them.

“He backed it up off the hill, and then we realized the car was going donk-donk-donk,” Cricket recalls. “I was told I looked evil, like the devil,” she says.Ĭricket and Chaos roar off in their Camry toward a hospital, but they miss a turn and skid up an embankment. The blazing generator, still attached, bounces alongside.Īgain and again, Cricket screams, “I need to go to the hospital!” The pain is excruciating. and their Chihuahua, Buddy, Chaos gets back in and drives away from the flaming pavement.

After running for a moment, she stops, drops and rolls, then rips her pants off. But, she recalls later, “I wasn’t fast enough and it splashed the burning gas all up on me.” Chaos grabs the generator, and Cricket hurries to get out of the way. “Let’s pull the generator out so we can save our home!” The couple has several vehicles that they park there, including another R.V., a GMC Yukon, a Ford F-150, a Toyota Camry and a Corolla, and a boat. “I’m coming, I’m getting water, I’m getting water!” Cricket yells as flames engulf the machine’s lidless gas tank, in an exterior compartment of the R.V. The mercury has fallen, bringing new hardships for everybody living in Cricket’s community - three dozen rickety mobile homes perched along a busy arterial bordering the airport in Portland, Oregon. Then she hears him scream, “No! No! No!” She jumps up, looks outside and sees fire. She is lying on her bed, playing with her cell phone in the 1991 Allegro Bay mobile home she shares with her boyfriend, Chaos. The moment Cricket’s life flips upside down begins with a spark, and a gasoline generator.

Rickety cricket revolution