After Boyfriend Let Sweetheart Release Lanterns, They Regretted Madly

On a Labor Day weekend road trip to a century-old mountain village, my boyfriend's childhood sweetheart decided that, to pray for every stray animal in the world, she absolutely had to release nine hundred and ninety-nine sky lanterns.

I looked at the century-old timber buildings crowded all around us, every one of them tinder, and snatched the lighter out of her hand.

"You send those up and you're setting the whole mountain on fire. Are you trying to get everyone in this village killed?!"

Carmen Fox dissolved into wounded tears and threw herself into my boyfriend's arms.