In “Like a House on Fire,” Cate Kennedy tells the story of an ordinary man whose whole life is turned upside down when he has an accident at work. Suffering daily from the excruciating pain of his back injury, the unnamed narrator is unable to work and can barely move. After nearly sixteen weeks confined at home, he spends his days watching his family from the living room floor where he lies to rest his back.
The story begins with a description of the humiliation the narrator experiences as he watches his wife and children drag their newly purchased Christmas tree to the car. The narrator is unable to help but be embarrassed by his own uselessness. When they return home, his wife Claire rushes off to the hospital—where she works as nurse—while the narrator is left to care for his three children, Ben, Sam, and Evie. Again, he is reminded and ashamed of his ineptitude when acknowledging that Claire has had to take extra shifts at her job because he is unable to provide for the family financially.
Unable to dissuade his three children from watching television, the narrator climbs the stairs to the attic to find the Christmas tree decorations. His doctor has warned him against any physical exertion, and as the narrator pulls the nativity scene towards him, pain soars through his body, causing him to drop and break the contents of the box.
Determined to salvage what is left of their family Christmas traditions—but miserable from pain and humiliation—the narrator orders his children to turn the television off and help him decorate the tree. When his youngest child, Evie, notices how much pain he’s in, she hands the narrator a cushion and tells him to lie down.
Once Claire is home, the narrator shares a brief moment of laughter with his wife about the nativity set, but it is obvious that she is tired and frustrated. When the narrator complains to her about the mess in the house, she snaps, telling him to get over his obsessive need for control, and reminding him that he should have recovered by now. The narrator bemoans the distance and tension growing between him and his wife, as he remembers how happy they were before his injury. He reflects on how their marriage is “like a house on fire”—in danger of going up in flames at any minute.
On the night of Christmas Eve, while Claire is working at the hospital, the narrator looks up his symptoms on her laptop and notices that her previous Internet searches include “back pain psychosomatic.” Over dinner with the children, the narrator laments how quickly they are growing up, and likens this painful fatherly experience to the physical agony he is experiencing with his back. Later, while carefully climbing the stairs to deliver the Christmas stockings to his children’s bedrooms, he considers whether his injury could be somewhat psychological. Once upstairs, he shares a tender interaction with his son, Ben, who sees him bringing in the presents. The narrator feels an excruciating soreness in his back, but ignores the pain so as not to spoil the moment.
When Claire arrives home from work, the narrator asks her to stand on his back to relieve some of the tension. Although reluctant at first, she cracks a joke and obliges. Laughing together and in close physical proximity, Claire and the narrator share a rare and intimate moment of affection. The story closes when Claire laughs gently at her husband and in return, he lovingly removes her hair clips.
