Six years old and a Fire!

For as long as I can remember I was a little Pyro. The fire fascinated me. I loved them. How they danced. The sound of the spark they made when being born to life. I also love the fact that I knew how to work a lighter. The lighters I’ve always had had never been child proof. A non-child proof lighter and a pyro unsupervised is not the best combination in the world!1

My grandma, sister Vanessa and I were all sleeping in the living room. The grey couch was next to the living room windows and the off-white curtains. Across from that was a blue chair. A multicolored brown dresser was on the opposite wall of the couch. Next to the brown dresser was a green chair. The living room was a bit messy. My grandma was and still is a pack rat, so there was stuff all over the place. We still had room to move to one place to another.  Vanessa was sleeping on the couch. How she slept on that couch I have no idea. It wasn’t exactly soft and firm. If anything it was bumpy and it swalled you whole! My grandmother Lydia was sleeping on the chair next to the dresser. Me, I was sleeping on the floor. Like our couch it wasn’t no cloud. The floor was red and hard. I could’ve just slept on the tile floor. I didn’t mind though. I’m the one that gets stuck with the second hand stuff. From the ages between five to ten I almost always got up early than my family. This was one of those fateful days. 2

Every kid’s excuse when something goes wrong is, I didn’t do it! Too bad for me I got caught red handed! So this is the story that I’ll tell you, but you got to promise me that you won’t ever repeat what I say. Nah, I jokes! I was six years old when I almost burned down the inside of my house, well a good living room proportion of it. 3

I was six years old wearing blue jeans, a lose light blue t-shirt and some socks that were way too big for me. My hair was wild from just waking up. It was about seven or eight when I woke up and got the stupid idea of playing with the lighter. Hey! I was bored all right. And I knew I couldn’t wake up my grandma or sister. They were working hard last night and they are bad morning people. Besides they wouldn’t get up until ten a.m.  So I ran into the kitchen and grabbed a cup of water. You can here the little pitter-patter of my running.  I came back out and put the cup on the table. I then went to the blue chair to find the lighter. 4

“Found it,” I shout. 5

Realizing my mistake I quickly tun my head to see if they heard my shout. I  sigh in relief as I hear their peaceful breathing and a startling snort from my grandmother. I take a deep breathe and walk over to the cup of water with the lighter in hand. I grab the cup and tiptoe over to the curtains. Without even thinking about the consequences I light up the curtain! It’s only a little fire. I know when to put it out. When it starts to get too high for me to reach! Once it was lit I’d watch in amazement. I stood there memorized by the red-orange fire as it danced across the curtain, dancing it’s way up the curtain. Absentmindedly I grab the cup and put out the fire, snapping back to reality. I look around just to make sure no one noticed. They’re peacefully sleeping. I figure that I can keep this up for a few good minutes before I get caught. Well I was right. The third time I light that curtain on fire I couldn’t control it. I was short. So I couldn’t reach up and put it out. I was terrified. What was going to happen? Better question was I going to get the beating of my life? I was so horrified the only reaction was to hide. I hid under the table not seeing what was happening, rocking back and forth, to scared to cry. Bad idea! My grandma and sister wake up the next minute. Even though I was hiding I could see my sister get up startled and frightened. 6

I hear my grandma shout at her saying, “go get the kettle of water and put it out!” 7

From underneath the table I could see Vanessa run past and get the kettle of water. I see her run past again and dose the fire with the water. I was terrified. I didn’t want to breath. It sure didn’t feel like I was breathing. It felt like eternity. Everything was going so slow. I snap back to reality when I hear my sister’s voice screaming and hollering, asking where I was. I start to take deep breaths and rock back and forth. I didn’t want Vanessa to find me. I had dozens upon dozens of thoughts coming and going through my head. What was going to happen? Am I going to be in trouble? Will they hit me, yell at me? I didn’t want to be found. Five minutes later I see my sister right in my face. Anger and exhilaration were written all over her face. She grabbed me by my shoulders and dragged me out. After a minute or so of just staring wide-eyed at her. She bombarded me with questions. Shaking and yelling at me for being so stupid. If she only knew that I’m the one that caused the fire. BAM! There was the question. 8

“Did you start this?!” she asked. 9

I shake my head yes and meekly add a I’m sorry in. 10

She’s yelling at me. Saying “You are so stupid to hide under the table, what if that caught fire? What if that fell on you? You’d be dead!” 11

I started crying and hold on to her saying,” I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” 12

After things get calmed down for a while they issued my sentence. I was to be grounded for one week, with no T.V. and the worst one! I was to do five of the chores!13