Nicole Robinson

Intro to Fiction

Flash Fiction Story 

"How We Burnt the House Down"

Mom and Dad never left us home alone. We knew it must have been important; they weren’t coming back til late. All we had to do was ‘stay away from anything breakable, flammable, priceless, or essentially destructible in some way’. We heard it all before. The family cat was the first incident; it wasn’t our fault it didn’t know how to swim. Then came our first car and our second garage door; who knew the gas was the one on the right? Okay, so we had caused some damage in the past, but we were seventeen now and certainly more responsible. Our mom always said she wanted twin boys and that’s what she got.

So we decided to stay in the living room with the pillows and soft carpet. Nothing could go wrong there. The game was on and the chips were still neatly in their bag, the coffee table still perfectly aligned in front of the sofa. We even refrained from putting our feet up. Glasses of water instead of coke (the carpet was white), a blanket instead of turning the heat up (we killed the boiler once) and the volume down low because Mr. Willis from next-door came onto our lawn with a gun last time the Pats lost: something about how ‘Nom’ must have been starting again with all the ruckus. We all knew he had PTSD so we gave him the benefit of the doubt. Plus it wasn’t as loud as the time the cops came to ‘rescue the screaming woman’. They didn’t think it was funny when we explained to them we were just practicing wind instruments to try and break the world record for the loudest two-person orchestra. This time though, we wouldn’t mess up… until Brady got sacked… about three times.

            Who knew a lost Super Bowl and a spilt glass of water could cause such a big fire? They should make those outlets more kid friendly. Well, okay, maybe the fact we used the cotton blanket to try and pat it out didn’t help, but it really wasn’t our fault when the fire extinguisher didn’t work. The flames crept up the wall and engulfed an entire side of the room so we decided to bail, but there was still something we could do to fix things. We took grandma’s vase, mom and dad’s wedding picture, the money stashed under our beds, our favorite video games, some of the small furniture and array of other things onto the front lawn, a safe distance from the fire that had now erupted throughout the entire house. We even thanked the fire department for showing up in good time. We tried to explain this all to our parents when they came home to a lawn full of assorted goods and a sizzling house, but they didn’t seem to notice when we presented them with the second family cat we held behind our backs to surprise them with and they certainly didn’t want to listen to how we burnt the house down.

          

Notes: Can't indent the first sentence. I don't know why, but it's bothering me. I know this is the same theme I wrote about in class, but for some reason I really wanted to continue it and make it better. AND I just wanted to say that I had a lot of fun in this class and it was nice getting to know all of you! Have a great summer everyone!