I sat there, breathing in the silence and looking out at the field, switching my grape soda from one hand to the next until I worked up the courage to look back at the house. I gasped and dropped my soda, hearing it land with a loud and unpleasant crack.
A glowing orange and red carpet of heat almost seemed to cover the small house in the distance. Thick black tendrils of smoke reached up into the sky like monstrous skyscrapers.
I just sat there, my mouth gaping as I looked back at the burning house, the burning house at least a few miles away, the burning house that I had grown up in. The burning house I had argued in, the burning house I had taken for granted. The burning house I prayed my mother wasn't inside of.
Brushing my hair back behind my ears, like I always did when I was scared, I jumped down from the tree and ran, my heart racing faster than my legs could keep up with. The heat from the sun seemed to disappear and a wave of cold washed over me, but I knew that was just a raindrop compared to what could happen next if I didn't call the fire department.
I kept on running towards the burning house I used to call home. It was already crumbling into dust and fading from my mind. I thought of the fringed carpet, the yellow couch, the grey room, and the cracked window. I thought of my mother's wild red hair and dangerously blue eyes as I ran.
When I finally stopped running, I felt a shiver stroke my spine. The small house was now nothing. The massive flame I had seen from my tree house was now just a few sparks in a dry field. It was a wonder, I thought, that the whole field wasn't burning to bits as I stood here. A pile of ashes was all I had left of my home, just a pile of ashes and a few scraps of blackened wood.
I couldn't do it anymore, I couldn't hold back the tears. It had all happened so fast. I sank down and wept, hoping my mother's love would embrace me again like it used to, even though somewhere deep in my heart I knew I would never feel that again.
A little later I thought I heard consoling voices as a blanket was draped over my shoulders. Somewhere, deep in my mind, I wondered who those voices were. But the numbness I was feeling blocked out my questions and made me compliant as I was guided to a white and blue car, with silent flashing lights.
