| fire." Then the cancer took him. We never even hugged. He kept making me repeat
|
| it.
|
| The next day, I got in a wreck. |
| I suppose you heard this on the news.
|
| Exchanging info, I was suddenly
|
| overwhelmed and tipped a lighter to the pool of gas beneath my car.
|
| Took care of that problem! |
| And
|
| when I got home, my landlord started nagging me about the rent I was behind.
|
| Problem: rent. |
| Solution:
|
| fire. |
| I watched the blaze from across the street.
|
| Day two. |
| I hid from the cops and kept fixing problems. |
| This alerted them more
|
| quickly. |
| The answer to
|
| the cop car was gasoline. |
| Then I solved a dog that barked at me.
|
| I scorched all my hair and went to the
|
| store to get something for my burns, but had to burn down the store instead.
|
| Sure, problems turned to
|
| ash, but fire has a way of catching.
|
| Today is the third day since dad died. |
| Mom, I know he found me disappointing,
|
| and I was only looking to
|
| say goodbye, but what did he mean—mean about the fire? |
| I think the problem
|
| might really be me. |
| I’m
|
| the problem. |
| The problem and the fixer. |
| Problem: me. |
| So- lution: fire.
|
| I know what he was trying to say.
|
| «Boy, you were always a problem. |
| Fix this with fire.» |