Rohit was lying on his bed, it was higher off the ground than normal. Blue light brighter than usual from the T.V was falling on his face. Mohit was sitting beside him, looking at the T.V indifferently. For long they had been watching the screen, when finally Rohit rose deliberately from the bed and ran to the kitchen. Little Mohit followed his brother to the kitchen, standing at his side he looked down at him intently.

Rohit had been amazed by the beauty of this thing. It’s subtle curves rigged into this metallic hood drew their breath away. There was a peculiar boldness as of fire, in both the colour and the texture of the cylindrical curves.

“What is it?” said Mohit, fascinated.

“This is a Lighter.” said Rohit. “I saw dad light this thing up last night. He pressed this wheel thing I remember.”

“What does it do?”, said Mohit.

“It throws fire,” said the other appreciatively. “Hey! Lets burn some stuff!”

Rohit immediately left the kitchen, slid the coveted thing into his pocket and made way for the lawn in front of the house. Little Mohit trailed behind.

Rohit picked his way up the dust through the shade and on reaching an old mango tree, started gathering mango leaves against the gust. Little Mohit glared with amazement at the pile of leaves.  Presumably Rohit might have played with this thing before, he thought. Rohit pushed his thumb on the spark-wheel leading to a flash. The spark astonished the boys.

Under the tree to the left of its trunk there lay a wall, smaller than the brothers but tall enough to take their breath away as they crossed it. Besides the wall stood a large haystack, one that could be fed to the cows for months. They looked at the size of this thing for a moment but eventually went back to gathering leaves. Another gust of wind, swayed the leaves. Rohit leapt to the pile which kept scattering with every blow.

Quickly, As the wind stopped, Rohit struck the lighter and lit the golden leaves into orange. In a blip, the pile of dry golden leaves took pace. The boys were astonished, their eyes widened like a frog on prey. In another blip, a sudden gust blew the burning leaves in all directions. Rohit realising the danger tried to smother the fire by stamping on the leaves but to no avail. With another gust of wind, the fire met the haystack like forlorn lovers reuniting.

The boys ran as fast as they could through the crackle of twigs as the fire engulfed the haystack. Little Mohit ran behind his brother, fearing for life, scared. The boys ran out of the village, their heart thumping. If it had not been for the physical limits, they would have had ran forever. The dark ghosts of smoke, they could see from where they stood sent chills through their spine. Rohit held his little brother’s hand as the flames ate the sky. An involuntary cry had broken out of them. Rohit with tears raining, slid his hand in his pocket, grabbed the lighter and flung it as far away as he could.