Dallas

from There Is No Play by Arthur M. Jolly

Genre: Drama

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Dallas, a high school student, explains the origin of their fascination with fire. 

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DALLAS

When I was six, I burned our house down. I was playing with matches on the living room carpet. I don't think it affected me, you know—long term or nothing—but I can tell you every different kind of smoke. That wildfire a couple years ago they couldn't put out? You could see it—it looked like mist everywhere. I loved it. Just knowing that you're breathing in actual particles of trees and brush and life. The ghosts of trees. But when my cousin leaned too far over her birthday cake and burned some of her hair—that smell. That did it. Just a tiny breath of burnt hair, and it all came back—being so scared, and the fire racing up the wall, and the ambulance and the fire engines and my dad crying and we didn't know where to go or where we would sleep that night. I think the carpet musta been wool—makes sense. Burning hair. That smell.