Page 12 of Like Fathers, Like Son
Blaze’s family might have been a little different from mine and my friends’ families, but at least they seemed happy. Happy sounded like fun to me.
8
Blaze
Itwasascarynight. What had started off so beautiful and exciting had turned into a nightmare. After dad’s arm caught fire, he managed to stop it burning by throwing himself on the ground and rolling until it went out. By the time he was sitting up again, I could tell that it wasn’t just his clothes that were burned.
His eyes were squeezed tightly shut, and he was breathing really fast, his hand on the other arm clenched into a fist. The burned arm was hanging by his side like he didn’t even want to move it.
“Dad?”
He groaned and held up his other hand.
“Gimme a minute, kid.”
He took longer than a minute, sitting there breathing in that funny way, like he wanted to cry or something. It was terrifying, seeing my dad in so much pain like that.
“Dad?”
He nodded, rubbing his one hand over his face before he opened his eyes and looked at me.
“Here’s what we’re gonna do, kid. We’re gonna get in the car, and I’m gonna drive us home. Right now. We can’t stay and watch anymore.”
I watched as he struggled to his feet, using just the one arm to push himself up.
“The bag’s burning.”
He caught my arm with his good hand and shoved me along in front of him.
“In the car.Quickly.”
When he climbed into the car, he let out a sharp hissing sound, and rested his head back for a moment.
“Should I call mum and dad?”
“No! We’re going there right now. Look, I’m gonna need you to put the car in drive for me, as soon as I’m ready, okay? Thank fuck it’s an automatic.” He showed me what to do and then we were driving, and he was driving faster than normal. He was still breathing funny, and I was so scared.
I couldn’t bring myself to look at his burned arm again, even though it was the arm closest to me. I’d had a quick glance at the time, and knew that the fabric of his hoody was melted and sticking to his skin.It was horrible.
“Blaze, when we get home, I want you to run in and tell your dad I need him, okay?”
I nodded, feeling tears burning my eyes, because I was so scared. We’d never been burned before when we went out to make fire, and I didn’t know what to do.
“Blaze, hey, it’s okay. This was my fault, okay? I wasn’t being careful enough.”
“I got too close. You were trying to protect me.” Tears rolled down my cheeks then, and I felt ashamed of crying like a baby when dad was the one in pain.
“Hey, look at me. I’m okay, Blaze. It’s just… it’s just a little burn, okay? We’ll rub a bit of butter on it, and it’ll be fine.”
“You need to go to hospital, dad.”
He shrugged, and then let out a string of curses I knew I’d get grounded for using.
“Okay, we’re just at the top of our street. Remember, as soon as I park up, run in and get your dad, okay?”
As soon as the car stopped moving, I ran to the front door, and started banging my fists on it, my tears making the door blurry. I had no key, because it was on dad’s keyring in the car. My chest was burning with how frightened I was. I started yelling for mum and dad as I kept banging on the door.
“Jesus, Blaze! What’s… are you okay? Where’s your dad?”
