TONY VILGOTSKY'S
BOY WITH THE MATCHES
There is no any other pleasure like to observe the game of flaming tongues. That's what I'm doing right now. Forgot myself, enchanted, enjoy the furious dance of ferocious orange beast. Millions of sparks are flying away to the sky with howling. Who knows - maybe these sparks are dreaming to become the new stars? But their dreams are useless. It's not easy to become a star in our cruel world.
But I have managed to do it. How? Oh, you still don't know? Even though it's a talk of the town? The cows are mooing about it. Dogs are barking about it. Police siren howls about it and the church bell ringing about it too. New born babies are screaming about it. Even the voiceless people are silent about what I have done.
What, you really haven't heard anything? Well, I will tell you. But not right now. A bit later. Now let's talk about the thing I love much more than anything else. The fire. Would you like to know what I have found in it? Oh, for me fire is not a simple natural phenomenon. For me fire is a brother on reason. Almighty majestic animal which simultaneously lives in thousands of different places.
Right now it is born out from the match ignited by the hand of drunk Portuguese football fan who celebrate the win of his national team. Flows down the slope of Etna volcano. Devours tropical woods in the heart of Amazon Basin. Explodes from inside the nuclear reactor in Russia. And dies in the mantelpiece in a room of ill Polish old man. Who of mortals can be compared to fire?
Well, except me at least.
When I'm going to walk, I always take the fire with me. It can be packed into a box of matcches or hidden inside of a lighter. The level of our common deeds doesn't depend on physical form.
When fire smells the prey, it gives me a sign. I'm letting it out and then the wild dance begins, the dance that I like to observe so much. Sometimes I'm standing close, sometimes move to the safe distance. I am fire's friend but in these magic moments it doesn't feel the difference between friends and enemies. That's why my skin is always covered by variegated burns. But I'm not mad about it. Pain and marks on my skin are negligible price for the spectacle that fire can show me. My life would be raw, boring and empty without opportunity to see how it jumping from object to object with merry crackle. The fire is growing bigger, stronger, and soon it will spread on the house next door.
Now remember - I told you about important thing I've done not so long ago. Here it is. That was I who burned down a half of town during last night. Tonight I will burn the rest. Then, when the last house will ignite, I'll step into burning room, to become the whole one with fire, become the fire itself, become the soul of the flame.