Magic Water

I know I have stated before how much I am entranced by fire; it’s just a part of me. My spirit animal would be a Dragon. And, believe me or not, most of my really close run-ins with fire happened in Bristol. (That’s the same house I almost burnt to the ground lighting 1000s of matches at the same time, read about that hear.)

The good ole summer time, ah, cookouts and swimming pools, fireworks and lazy afternoons around the campfire. These are great ways t spend summer. Not me, I was digging mine shafts, crafting weapons from trees and rifling through the treasure trove of junk that was the basement. Today was different I had found a mason jar on the back porch. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

We had finished cooking our hotdogs and were waiting for the fire to die down so we could go inside. The food was good; the smores were especially good, even if a few of them were lit ablaze. What could make this day any better, than to go inside and watch some T.V.? The answer to that is nothing, some show we wanted to see was coming on and we all wanted to go inside, so rushing into the porch, I had precious little time to see what would happen when a mason jar full of some black substance would do when poured on a fire. Rushing back outside I opened smelt (paint thinner) and dumped. The ensuing fireball would make any Indian Medicine man proud. Unfortunately it did not make my father proud to see the 15-25 foot fire ball licking the limbs of the tree above us. ***side note*** I felt really bad for this tree, it bore the mark of my folly forever, and to this day still most likely has the scorch and burn marks on its lower limbs.

My sisters, who could ever be trusted to relay what had happened to my parents, promptly began the raid sirens....."MOMMY!!! DADDY! Sometimes I swear, the RAF could not have done a better job warning of ensuing trouble than my sisters.

I was punished, and my defense of "It looked like water" didn't fly. I decided then and there I would be a bad lawyer. I didn't get to watch TV that night, or the next few nights. And I’m pretty sure I missed a camp-out that weekend as well. My parents were nothing if not experts at punishments.

The morale that I hope everyone takes away today is that Paint Thinner is very flammable, and can burn tress. Don’t burn trees they only want to help you.

Hope today’s a good one,
austininva