Fred Is (Not) an Arsonist

Nathan Alling Long is the author of The Origin of Doubt, a Lambda Award finalist. His stories and essays have appeared in over 100 publications. He teaches at Stockton University.

Fred is an arsonist—and, Fred is not an arsonist. Let me explain: Fred has thought of fire, its power and grace, for a long time. Perhaps since he was a child. He often watched fires, mesmerized by them. He dreamed of owning matches, of striking them one by one into a field of dry grass, into a garbage can full of paper, into the basement of a house or office building. It is not all he thinks about. Most of the time he does not think about it, but often enough he does. In this way, he is an arsonist.But Fred has never lit a fire that harmed or destroyed. And he is committed to never doing it.

© Short Édition - All Rights Reserved

11

You might also like…

Short Fiction

Knox

Jason Sc.

Knox had been hanging around 8th street since before they put in the ATMs. We didn't know where he lived, but that's where he'd been ever since I'd moved here about ten years ago. He used a cracked ...  [+]

Short Fiction

Absolution

Jeremy Gl.

It was real cold that night, not just Miami cold, and it was late. I'd had to wait until the girls were asleep to go out into the pre-Christmas lunacy of the mall because my wife and I were keeping up ...  [+]

Short Fiction

Spring's Sign of Faith

Georgia Co.

When my kids were little, back in the late 1980s, we bought our new house and took on a bigger mortgage. I was a stay-at-home mom. After moving in, my husband John got permanently laid off from his ...  [+]