Fire. I remember as a child, sitting outside around a tiny campfire, with my dad. I loved how the flames would glow, and warm my cheeks. I'd sit there, staring, mesmerized. It seemed so beautiful. The way the flames danced, I mean. Graceful. Harmless. Right in the second, I felt myself leaning closer, my father would gently jerk me backwards, breaking the spell.
The fire was breathtaking. That's what I remember the most. And no, by breathtaking, I don't mean beautiful. It was far from that really. I meant it was hard to breathe. Maybe it was the way the flames kept trying to grasp and tear at my cheeks. The back of my throat burnt. I would try to cool it with air, but I found that every breath I took.. The burning only thickened.
"Sonny! Oh.. Baby! No! Where are you?" I heard her cry.
She's worried.
I remember thinking that. I pulled at the air, trying to fill my lungs. My attempt to scream, came out in a muffled cry. Maybe if I had gotten her attention, she would have found me sooner. Knowing what I do now, I probably would have tried harder. I would have tried again. But, instead I laid on the floor.
Funny how such small things, change your entire life.
I began to feel lost. My body seemed too hot to be mine. I must be a flame.
I was a flame, quickly burning out.
"Sonny?" Daddy.
"Sonny?!"
It sounded so broken. It made the burning in my throat thicken. I looked up and saw him in the door way. Our eyes met at the same time. He ran forward, sweeping me up in his arms. He hugged me to his chest as we stumbled through the crumbling house. Everything was specks of burnt dust, now. We were going to make it! We were okay.
As we got to the door way, he noticed it was blocked off by pieces of fallen lumber. The walls around the door were burning.
He quickly put me down, and began digging away the burning boards until a small hole of light shone through the corner.
Then things happened too fast.
He pushed me through the small opening as the house began to collapse.
"Run, Baby."
And, those were my father's last words to me.