The girl in that house burned to death. Her father was burning leaves.

She was pirouetting round the fire.
The hem of her dress swirled over the flames, just long enough to ignite.
She didn’t feel it until she stopped, dizzy with her dancing.

She shouldn’t have, but she ran.

Jennifer M. Smith is an author and adventurer. She is working on a memoir of her sailing adventures, a tale of 40,000 miles at sea with her husband aboard their sailboat Green Ghost. She also enjoys writing creative non-fiction short stories about her childhood.