At the End of the Day I Burst into Flames

Начало книги

My eyes explode.

I feel inferno in my bones, like my father before me. I’ll be flame soon enough. And I’ll be ash shortly after.

I have a story to tell before this happens and it is happening soon. Going to be blunt when I want to be. May wander a bit as stories do.

As life does.

And death.

In the lateness of a white, Midwest winter, I broke the red door’s latch.

Few students, and even less faculty, were present at the high school, as it was well after regular hours. The two of us, she and I, we were part of the high school’s freshmen thespian department, painting sets in advance of that year’s musical. She was not my girlfriend, only someone I considered a close friend.

Inspiration, the kind inherent to youth, took hold of me and in turn I took hold of her. Up two flights of stairs, quickly and quietly, unobserved and not missed by anyone else. The door was small, the latch was weak, and once broken I led her out onto the rooftop of the school. The lone street lamp may as well have been some meager candlelight.

Читать дальше →