Danced in Fire

From: 
Story type: Angel
Location: Home
Source: Form Submission
Date submitted: Sun Jan 11 04:57:56 2009

I think I really do have a guardian angel...and this story I've only told to a couple people, but have remembered it all my life.

When my cousin and I were about 5 or 6 years old, he had this idea of making "cherry bombs" he had seen on TV, by putting gasoline in the glass Mountain Dew/Pepsi bottles they made back then, then running a soaked rag down to the gas. We found a lighter (they weren't child-proof back then,) some paper towels, old rags & pop bottles and a full gasoline can in the garage...and we went out into the field by my house.

We kept soaking the rags in gasoline & filling the pop bottles 1/4 to 1/2 full, then leading the rags down the fuel...but when we'd light them (in our hands; we didn't know any better) -the rags would fire right up & shoot into the bottle & hit the gasoline, but would burn out INSTANTLY when hitting. We got where we started throwing them in time so when they'd burst, the rag would still be on fire to meet the fuel bursting all over...but the flaming rags would immediately be put out.

We stunk like gasoline & had it spilled all over our hands & were getting it spilled on our clothes.

Cherry Bombs got boring so we made a bonfire from sticks & poured some gas on, which of course flamed up fast in a big swoosh...but 5 or 10 minutes in, my cousin noticed that the fire wasn't hot. We didn't know why, but it was fun to pretend that it was "magical" and stick out hands in & out...and we started playing like "indians" in a "fire dance." We jumped all through & over that fire, and had our hands in and out of it until it burned out. It did NOT burn our feet or hurt at all and I'll never forget it.

When that burned out, we thought it would be "cool" if we made a cherry bomb out of the gasoline can since the pop bottles & bonfire hadn't worked at all, which was still about 1/2 full. We soaked a rag in gas & fed it down the larger of the two holes on the can, then lit the rag & ran. The soaked rag would flare up really fast & go down into the can, but then would burn out like hitting water. We went back several times to make sure it was still lit or we had it fed down to the gas...which it was every time. (we ran away a few times after peeking in & finding the fire WAS IN THE CAN)

Later when we got CAUGHT and got in HUGE TROUBLE for what we did, my Grandpa had asked if the air inlet (second little hole) on the can was open (to let air through and allow combustion.)

It was; we couldn't get it to pour well into the pop bottles with it closed, so we opened it & then it poured really easily. He then said it was a wonder it didn't immediately explode when the ignited rag led down into it. He didn't know that we repeatedly got the ignited RAGS (plural) & rolled paper towels to go into the gasoline can but just couldn't get it to burn...but I knew at that point that something that maybe wasn't part of normal reality, was there that day with us.

I've though about that experience a lot over the years, and why we didn't die or get severely burned...when by all reality, we should have. We even had it soaked ON US and were reaching into the bonfire. Getting older, we realized that none of that day was NORMAL AT ALL. Hah.