I gazed upon my charred room with tears welling up. It was burned beyond repair. One thing stood out among the rest. It was almost like an altar. It suddenly dawned on me that it was the remains of my ‘experiment’. Memories flowed freely, like my tears.
“Come, come, ‘Gor Gor’ wants to show you something,” I cooed. My baby brother immediately got on all four and crawled towards me. That bundle of joy was just too cute to resist! I gingerly picked him up and ran to my room. I placed him on the floor while I stuck a candle on some melted wax.
“Are we ready?” I asked my brother in a sinister voice.
Giggles and toothless grins were his answers.
“Let us begin!” I cackled.
Again, he flashed me a toothless grin.
Lighting the lighter, I put it on the wick and it started burning with a brilliant light, bathing us in it. My bundle of joy simply clapped hands as he stared in the fire, as if waiting for a reply.
As the flames crackled, I began scanning the room with my ‘X-ray’ eyes (or as my father said with sarcasm) to look for flammable items. “How ‘bout the newspapers?”I asked my little assistant. He nodded. That was what an assistant was for. They always agreed with you.
I ripped a page out and held the end to the flame. The paper burned quickly, turning into a pile of ashes.
Giggles and occasional snorts escaped from my assistant’s mouth.
That was when I decided to go a little overboard. I grabbed the gigantic stack of newspapers with every ounce of energy (Mind you. That was a big stack and I was not a wimp!) and threw it on the candle.
Obviously I imagined the candle burning the newspaper but I was wrong. In frustration, I lit the newspaper with the lighter and threw the lighter at the newspaper.
Unlike just now, the papers burned slowly. Then a sickening smell filled the already hazy air. I gagged for more oxygen and yanked my brother off his throne in his make-believe castle.
The papers then burst into greater flames. I had created a monster! The raging inferno inched closer to us as I moved out of the door. It consumed everything in sight.
By this time, my parents had arrived home.
“Holy moly! What happened?” the hissed when they saw the flames.
In three long strides, they reached us. Mother ran to get a pail. Father leaned over to me and whispered with sarcasm, “What a good job in cleaning your room. Is the sauna an extra feature?” (Like I said, sarcasm is a foreign language to me.)
They snatched pails and flung water in the room.
“Why won’t this fire die” Why, you- “ Father screamed. (He threw some bad words at my creation that would make Granny wash his mouth with straight bleach for a year.)
Minutes passed before they killed my creation. Of course, they scolded me and took away my pocket money. Sigh. If only I had not tried that crazy experiment. My assistant got away scot-free while I got hit again with a two-week video game ban.
Maybe I should direct my energy to being a bookworm and not a mad scientist.