Entree for Ghibli's Writing Contest 1#

[center]Explosion[/center]

I remember the first time I witnessed a true explosion. It was horrifying, the way the smoke surrounded the area; and me. The heat was intense, I was too close. I still have the scar on my thigh from two degree burns, but I refuse to do anything about it, despite the pain it brings to me every second of every day.

I guess I should tell you how I got burned, and how I witnessed this explosion. You see, I was a dumb kid in my day. My father was an alcoholic, my mother died of tuberculosis, and the only one who loved me was my deaf 4 yr-old brother. My father got drunk every night, and he never even explained why. But my guess was because our mother died.

Anyway, my father always abused my brother and I. And when I was at school, I always wore long sleeves or jeans to cover my bruises. Sometimes both, even if it was 95 degrees outside.

Only my two closest friends knew what was wrong with me, and one day they made me ditch school. They were always so happy and gleeful, but not today. I still remember the day, July 22nd 1991. They forced me to leave school, even though it was private and almost no bullies. I wanted an education, school was my solitude.

"Jackie," my guy friend Alex said, "don't you hate your dad?" he said to me once we were hiding in his dad's auto-repair shop. "What? Why do you care..?" I replied to him. I knew the answer, though. He had a huge crush on me, or at least that's what his sister Ella told me. To prevent Alex from spilling his "secret", Ella replied, "Because we have a huge prank to play on him. He's always drunk when you come home, and something is always broken [if not your brother]. And he is like, obsessed with cars, right? Well, we have a plan to stop him from drinking." she talked with a low tone, a smirk creeping upon her face as her lips moved to every word that emitted from her mouth.

Something in my mind told me that something wasn't right. But, anything to keep my brother Joshua from getting hurt and possibly dying, I would give in to. However, I wasn't prepared for what Alex tells me next. "Let's blow up one of his cars." he said with a smile that did not fit the mood of this conversation one bit. "Wait, what? Are you fricking crazy?" The two siblings looked at each other and laughed. "No!" they replied simultaneously. "We have a plan," whispered Ella. "Our mom runs a firework shop and she has those big official fireworks they use in shows for July 4th. Remember that? Anyway, she'll let us borrow one as long as we set it off in a wide open field. But, just between you, me and Alex, we'll set it off in one of your dad's old cars. You know, the one he was planning to sell? It's just sitting on the lawn doing nothing, so we should put the firework in the backseat, and tell your dad something doesn't seem right inside the car. He'll come out, and watch the thing explode!"

That was a stupid plan. But, I was shrouded by their idiocy. I didn't want to be abused anymore, and neither did Joshua. So we did it.

The next day, everything was set up. We got the big firework and a match, and stole dad's keys during one of his hangovers.

"Hey, dad!" I called out to him as I entered the living room on July 22nd. Fortunately, my dad wasn't drinking today, and Joshua was at a friend's house.

"What?" my father yelled from across the house. "There's something wrong with the car you wanna sell. There's black stuff on the seats." I shouted back. He finally stomped out in his shorts and black shirt. I handed him the keys as he walked out, me following shortly behind. Ella and Alex were standing by the car, and Alex was obviously hiding something behind his back. They both called out, "Hey Mr. Loaner!" as my dad walked past them and unlocked the car.

'Wait...' I thought to myself, starting to panic. 'He wasn't supposed to open it!' I gave a startled and worrying look to Ella and Alex, but they were scared too, and just stared at him. "Dad! Wait, I--" I was cut off as the sound of the firework went off. Pop, pop, crackle, bang, bang, pop, bang! But the only sound my ears received was the scream of my father as he got hit with fire and sparks, burning and emitting the cloth seats inside the car on fire. I ignored the pain I received from some of the sparks as I ran towards my dad, but I was too late.

The firework tried to set off inside the car, rocking it back and forth. My dad's screams finally died out, and his body went limp. Some neighbors ran towards us after hearing the cries and the firework, and all they could do was scream as well at the sight.

I had some burns on my face from trying to pulling my dad out of the car, but they pain was too much for me to bear. My leg was burned, but I ignored that pain now. All I felt was embarrassment. Loneliness. Guiltiness. And now only I stood by the car, and my dad's unconscious and burned body laid in one of the seats. My friends, completely responsible for this, have vanished.





Sorry if that was so sad or something. I never really wrote anything even similar to it(I guess I just like writing tragedies ) But either way, I hope you enjoyed it. Ta-ta for now! Oh, and sorry if it's over 3,500 characters. Can't figure out how to count them all >_>