Matches

There are too many instances of fire in my life, I wouldn’t be able to include them all in this short story. Maybe I acquired this infatuation because we had a wood burning fireplace in the house I grew up in. Or maybe I acquired it because it was wrong for little kids to play with matches and I just wanted to be a dissenter. I have a history of rebellion. It’s like I have this crazed side of my brain sort of like Jekyll and Hyde. If you can keep this Jekyll and Hyde image in your head during this next story, it might paint a pretty picture. Or maybe it will just make you think I was a disturbed little kid. Either way, these circumstances for sure shaped a part of who I am.

I remember Quinn and I used to get gasoline out of the tank they had down by their shop. We used to fill a gallon ice cream bucket partially full and take it up to his burning pit. We torched all kind of things, we could have just lit the stuff on fire, but we had to make it fun by pouring gasoline on everything. Needless to say we had plenty of singed hairs and minor burns, but it was worth it to see the flame in all its majesty grow high and feel the powerful heat. Now that I think of it, maybe Quinn’s house was the place I grew this fascination with fire.

There were other places I liked to light fire. During the month of July there were always lots of fireworks, matches, and lighters to find. I remember Benjamin teaching a couple of us little kids how to make dynamite out of ground blooms. He always had the best fireworks! Fourth of July is still right up there as one of my favorite holidays. Family, friends, barbeques, being outside all day long, and watching fireworks at night what’s not to love about it? The bad thing about July is that everything starts to dry up and burn. It’s never fun to see the mountains catch fire, which I never did thank goodness!! But there was one instance of starting a fire when Shelley and I were in my parent’s chicken coop. There is no worldly reason why that place didn’t burn to the ground. I think magically it stopped burning. I don’t remember all of what happened there, but like I said it should have been toast. There were other structures that weren’t so lucky.

I remember one day I was with Scotty and Stevie wandering around town as we would do quite frequently. (I just realized these stories make my parents look really irresponsible, that wasn’t the case. Remember my rebellious nature? They probably thought I was collecting the eggs or picking rocks in the garden). We wandered into a little shed across the street from my house and to the side of where the Dahlkes used to live. We decided to make a campfire inside the shed so that we could roast marshmallows. It seemed logical at the time. The only problem was that we didn’t have any marshmallows and we had already started the fire. Scotty and I scrounged together what money we had and left Stevie in charge of the flames. Now, Stevie at the time was probably only about 5 or 6. Smart right?

We walked down the hill about a block away to the store and bought our large jet puft marshmallows and as we were walking back we could see smoke up ahead where the shed was. When the shed was insight, we saw a bunch of people from the town using hoses to put out the enormous fire that had engulfed this poor little building. It was an old shed, but nicely structured. It was a shame it ended up falling down. So there we were standing in the middle of the street, staring at the mess we had just gotten ourselves into and wondering where Stevie was! Seemed he had run off. I remember thinking to myself maybe we won’t get caught, quick come up with a story of where we were. Right then everyone looked at us holding the marshmallows in our hands and we knew we were done for.

Rebellion comes with consequence, but so does every other choice we make whether it be good or bad. Rebellion ALWAYS comes with BAD consequences. Trust me, I know. Sometimes we don’t always learn our lesson the first time, I know I didn’t. We ended up burning out another building the next year. I’ve had to deal with all sorts of consequences in my life, after a while my parents had to start getting creative. One thing is for sure though, in the moment, playing with fire can seem harmless and mesmerizing, but if you play with it for too long or become careless, you will eventually get burned. So you may want to ask yourself next time you’re faced with those temptations, are the roasted marshmallows really worth it?