Fahrenheit

burn

Many people catch a cold, many people catch the bus, but so little do we hear about someone catching fire. The burns start as a little pain, nothing a little ice can't fix. As the temperature goes up so does the damage, from blisters, redness and swelling to the chard black, numbness of damaged skin. Fire is something you should run from, but can never escape.

In front was a pile of the dead, all waiting to be burned. The dead lay like dirty laundry waiting to be cleaned. The dead burned. You died, you burned with others. The flames always rise like birds as the fuel is added. Did you know it true some flames roar, but most scream. The dead at my feet were, well, dead, some drowned, some hit by a car and some burned. We knew what they did, They looked at the books. They kept them. They didn't fear the 451 degree flame that burned their beloved book. Have you watched a book burn? It starts at the cover. The binding of the books is thick and hard, I have never seen a 'soft' book. They burn for the outside to the core of the lies books hold. Sometimes the dead come in with a book the firemen missed, good at their jobs aren't they? We always throw them in first, nasty things. Then the dead. Always when it is cooled, you can tell what was a book and what was your neighbor Clarisse.

Fire represents many things, it just depends on where you're looking from. Fire can mean wisdom, knowledge, heat and rebirth. Fire gives us so much, the heat that keeps your house warm in the night, it gives us energy to thrive off of it. Fire can also symbolize death and pain. All I see is destruction. That's all it leaves. It leaves the charred remains of forests and life, it continues without a care in the world. Not caring about the chaos it leaves in its wake. Like the bllack chards of the family in the parlor.

Walking out of the train station, everyone at the same pace, the sounds of the souls of the people's shoes never stopped. Some clicked like a hand of a clock, some so heavy the floor shook, and others so quiet you would never know they were there. The sky and I shared the same audito today. The rumbling thunder clouded with the clacking sounds of the train rails, split seconds of blinding light. Nobody stopped to see the rain, nobody stopped to get an umbrella, they kept walking, pulling them out as they walked down. I walked under the hollow bridge that would lead me to my home. The steps echoing. Another sound sang along, sirens. The sirens of the firemen. Who did it this time? When was my last goodbye to them? Will they run in like the others and soon be ash? Now walking down the street the sirens cried out like little birds. A constant reminder they were there, but like birds they became one with the background. I thought nothing of it until I got to my street. Looking down the hill I saw them, I saw the bulky flame monsters standing at my neighbors house.

I kept the same pace as I walked to the scene. My neighbors came out to watch, not speaking, just standing there like ghosts. We would all come to watch the flames, I never knew why but it called for us. A group of fire monsters curled around like herding prey. One monster held a flamethrower in their hands and a kerosene tank strapped to their back, that was where the Montag's lived. Quiet people kept to themselves, Mildred, the wife, I had seen around at events. We never talked but we new each other. The door opened and Mildred walked out, the monster dropped the machine and ran to her. She just stuck her nose in the air and kept walking. He called her name over and over again but like the sirens, they were nothing but background noise. That was Guy, he was about to burn his house. One of the monsters cackled at him. This was a scene nobody else would ever see. It would not ever be shown in the parlors of people's homes.A fireman burning his own house! It's ironic, you should know better, they see it first hand but he was an idiot like the others. I was too engulfed in the scene that I didn't hear a word he said. Guy's movement was robotic. The flames burned, they grew. This fire was one of the rare ones, it cried. It cried for the Montags', it cried for their failed marriage, it cried for Guy's mistakes, the house had watched it go down and it was now the end. The house took a bow as it crumbled to the ground. Guy looked at the remains of his life then snapped.

In front of me was a body, the body of the other fire monster. It didn't even fight back. It watched as Guy burned him. He smiled, both monsters did. The body lay on the ground steaming as fluttering pages from the books flew down in heaps of flame. Guy had ran for his life, they were after him, but I didn't care. I never really liked him anyway, one less idiot on the streets if you ask me. Something inside me told me to leave. I didn't want to be here. I turned on my heel and walked away towards the city limits.

I don't know why I'm outside the city limits, I can see the building glowing and can hear the people laughing. I start walking back. I close my eyes. Flames, heat rushed to me. I open my eyes and scream, the world we loved so dear was dead. The city in flames by the atomic bomb that was dropped. I know I won't survive. I won't die from the blast but the effect. I just keep walking towards the city. The flames will be the death of me.