Playing with fire
Hedley, a two-year old boy, was watching the bright fire of the chimney dancing in front of him. He was amazed of its warmth and vivacity. The fire never got tired. It always danced; eating the already dead wood slowly as if to show how much it could make something suffer; menacing him to jump on him to eat him too after it would be done with its wooden supper. Its flames were hypnotizing; they were smiling maliciously. They wanted him to become its slave. Fire was evil...
But here came his father who sat down beside him to reassure him. Then suddenly the fire would become scared, obedient and shy. It blessed his father as he was their God. He was the master of fire. Flames were under his control. He forced them to give warmth and comfort to his child. He was the one who then menaced the fire, hypnotizing it. The fire danced for him, praising him. Hedley had never felt so secure and superior to the fire. He wanted to learn to control fire too, when he would grow up, like his father.
His father looked around them to see whether someone was watching them, but no one was in the room apart from them.
"Do you want me to show you something Ed?" he asked.
"Yeah!" Hedley answered, feeling the excitement of his father spreading around. He had the feeling that his father would show him something very important.
"Whatever I do Ed, you must not tell it to mum, okay?"
"No tellin' to mum! Okay!"
"Right, good boy."
His father suddenly
put his hand into the hot fire. Hedley was shocked and wanted to
scream because it seemed to him that the fire was eating his father.
But he saw in his father's eyes that he was still controlling fire
and that fire would not hurt him. Hedley, fascinated, reached out to
touch the flames too but in one brutal movement, his father got hold
of his hand before it could touch the fire. His eyes were alarmed.
"Don't do anything! Don't touch! Only watch! Okay?" he said.
"Okay..." Hedley answered, a little shaken. His father hardly ever scolded him; if he scolded him, it would mean that no jokes would be involved, only dangerous risks.
His father smiled to make him relax. He then removed his hand from the fire, which danced more fiercely. In his hand was a big red flame dancing at its ease. It seemed happy to be free. Hedley fixed it with excitement. He would never have imagined that his father could hold fire in his hands, as for him it happened only in the cartoons he used to watch. He was dumbfounded.
The hands which held the flame closed onto it. It had been such a quick movement that when the hands opened again to let flames in the form of flowers fly around them, Hedley thought that his father just transformed fire into flowers without doing anything. He thought that it was all in the head. To him, his father had thought either about flowers or about a magic spell.
After contemplating avidly the flying flowers, his father moved his hands over them to change them into butterflies. It was magic. The butterflies were throwing fire powder firstly around them, then on Hedley only, as if they were blessing him, giving him the necessary protection against evil. The fire powder didn't burn him; he didn't even feel anything when they came into contact with his skin, as if they were only an illusion.
The butterflies were dancing around him and he also found himself dancing with them too. He sometimes jumped in trying to catch them, played with them, laughing with joy. His father was moving his hands in a particular way; he was controlling the butterflies.
"As you see Hedley, I'm a Mastermind, someone who is born to be the master of something in this world, so that it doesn't become uncontrollable in the future because of all the harm people are doing to our planet and die. A Mastermind has the duty to control his element and keep the equilibrium of life on this planet. People depend on those elements to live; if those elements become affected, we would all be doomed to die in a tragic disaster. I'm the Mastermind of Fire; I'm the one who controls the path of life of this element throughout the world. I try to educate fire to prevent it from destroying the planet. I will live as long as I like, until someone kills me. You can recognize a Mastermind when he's manifesting his power as his eyes will then become a colour related to what he masters..."
Hedley did not really understand what his father had said; he only thought that his father was a magician like Merlin. But when he looked up into his father's eyes, in his mind he understood everything. He knew exactly who he was. He was also a Mastermind. He was a master... of what? He was too young to know. The importance was that he knew that he was not a human; he was different, powerful and important. He was wise. Maybe he did not really understand what his mind had been registering as he was only two, but his father's words would stay in his head forever... and later he would understand; when his mind would open the door to this memory more clearly.
"I a magician!" Hedley exclaimed.
"Yes. You are a magician and when you'll grow up; you'll discover your powers and make tricks like I did with the fire. But for you it won't be fire, it'll be something else as there can't be two Masterminds of fire, okay?"
"Okay..."
But of course Hedley did not really listen. He was still playing with the butterflies, thinking that he would be able to touch fire without getting burnt, just like his father. He was determined to learn how to control fire.
"HEDLEY!!!!!"
His father and he jumped. The butterflies vanished. To their horror, mum was there, in front of the opened door of the room, aghast. She had been the one who had shouted.
"Darling, I'll..." his father began to say.
But it was unecessary for him to go on as she had fainted on the spot.