A matchbox clutched in my fist, I stand and watch my house disappear under billows of black smoke. Flames tear up the walls, licking and slurping like rabid dogs, and smoke pummels into the air like a beacon for the whole town to see. Debris falls like snow as all me and my parents' stuff goes up in flames, crumbs of white ash and black leaves drifting to the ground. Wait. No. I didn't set fire to any leaves. I see it then: that flicker to the left, beyond the melting corrugated iron of my bedroom walls. The bush is on fire. I've caught the bush on fire. ~*~**~*~*~~*~**~~**~*~ After burning down his family home and accidentally starting a bushfire, Pavo flees to the desert. His past looms like a churning black cloud of smoke, figuratively and literally, and the last thing he expects is to form a life-changing friendship with another traveler. He's convinced his life is over, but this traveler shows him another side of life - a tender side - and Pavo realises that maybe he has a life to fight for after all. But will he be able to outrun everything he's done?