Four Matches

‘I done it,’ he called up the stairs. ‘I used four matches – all at once,’ he added. I zipped up and charged down, a deep bass drum pounded inside my chest, and there it was, in all of its flickering amber glory, growing, climbing the sooted chimney, before my white-soled sandal stomped its frightened authority on paper and kindling. As it crackled and spat, and fire clung to my scarred sole, extinguished only by a dance on the tiled hearth, and I asked, ‘What d’you do that for?’ And my little brother replied, ‘Coz you couldn’t do it with … Continue reading Four Matches

How I Loved

How I loved those cosy winter evenings, with the screeching wind  slamming rain onto the living-room window. Me and my brother in pyjamas,  dressing-gowns pulled tight, snuggled into the warmth of our mum,  as she hugged us close, and heat from the glowing coals  tingled my unslippered toes. But how I hated the rolling of the closing credits of the latest Columbo mystery, knowing it was nearly time to leave the only heated room in the house. Continue reading How I Loved