Walking on Gravel

Fire

Daisy Jane Walker burnt down that barn.

She stared down at Amelia Sweet lying there dead on the dirt floor. With the tip of her boot she gave her a little nudge just to make sure she was gone. A wise man named Cotton Wilkes once told her, "if you gonna shoot, make sure they's dead 'cuz a dead body can't talk." Sure enough, she'd done what she was told and Amelia was dead.

Bo Varnum was a scary sight. His whole head had nearly been blown off, so she didn't bother kicking him to check for life.

Daisy looked around the empty barn wondering what to do next. She spotted the drums of Matox. She knew from experience that the pesticide wasn't necessarily a fire starter, but would explode under extreme heat. She rolled the 3 drums to the center of the barn in between Bo and Amelia.

Then, she climbed into the hayloft and threw down as many square bales as she could.

Daisy grabbed containers of kerosene from shelves and soaked the barn. She walked to the door, lit a Pall Mall, took a few deep draws, and threw it.

She drove a few hundred feet away, parked, then laid on the hood of the car. She watched as the clear Kentucky sky filled with a dark thick smoke. A tiny explosion caught her attention. She sat up and looked at the barn just in time to see the Matox drums exploding. If this was the fourth of July people would have clapped at the enormity of the explosion and the beauty of the orange and golden flames. Daisy took a deep breath and let tears stream down her cheeks.