Candles in the Dark

They played with the candles in the dark. Lighting each one so they wouldn’t be scared. The woman had left them again. Alone. Just so she could talk to that man. If they were quiet enough, they could hear her footsteps on the gravel of the road. The sound was comforting, but the dark was still scary.

They had gotten the candles the week before. They had gotten all dressed up and the woman had taken them to the big building with the painted windows. They had to be very quiet while the people were talking. The man dressed in black had told them to come up front and then he sprinkled water on their heads. When they were done, he gave them the candles. They didn’t understand why the man had to put water on them, especially since it was cold and snowy outside, but the candles were beautiful.

They heard her footsteps. The woman was on her way back! They couldn’t let her catch them with the candles or she would be mad. The boy blew them out and they ran as fast as they could back into the house and waited.

The woman came into the house. She was smiling. They had to get to bed. They had to go to school in the morning!

The little girl remembered about the candles. She gave them to the little boy. He put them under his bed. The little girl didn’t realize he also put the matches there too. As she lay in bed, she prayed to Jesus. She prayed that her mommy would not leave them alone anymore. Especially in the dark. It was so scary. And since her daddy had left, there was no one left to protect them. She knew Jesus heard. He always did. She closed her eyes and fell asleep.

She coughed. Why was it so hard to breath? She coughed again. Her little eyelashes flitted open. She couldn’t see her nightlight! She knew it was on when she went to bed. Why couldn’t she breath? She sat up and saw it. A grayness filled the room. Something was wrong! “MOMMIE!” She tried to yell and ended up coughing it out. “MOMMIE!” She crawled out of bed and pounded on her mommies’ bedroom door.

The woman came out and told the little girl to open the windows. The woman went into the little boys room and found more grayness. The little boy had been playing with the candles in his bed. He had caught his mattress on fire. The woman pounded on the fire until it went away. The woman opened up more windows until the smoke went away.

The house was so cold but the little girl was glad that she could breath again. The woman told the kids to go back to bed. The woman took the little boys to her bed to sleep and the little girls went back to their beds. Their room had the nightlight. They fell back asleep not realizing that some of the candle wax had fallen down into the furnace vent under the little boys bed. The furnace vent went straight down into a tank full of fuel oil.

The little girl coughed and her eyes instantly opened. Something told her to wake up! She heard the crackling. Something told her to get out! She started to scream, the smoke making her cough. “MOMMIE, the house is on fire!”.

The woman told them to get out of the house fast! The two girls ran to the kitchen door, but they couldn’t get the lock to come open. They ran downstairs. The door wouldn’t open! The lock was so high up! The little girl climbed up on the chair and moved the lock just like she saw her mommy do. The door opened! The two little girls went outside. Where could they go?? “We are going to Grandpa’s house!” the little girl said. They ran as fast as their little legs could take them. Later they would realize that they had no shoes on and they were running on frozen gravel roads. But tonight, their little feet were clad in the shoes of angels.

As the girls were halfway down the driveway, they heard a loud explosion. They didn’t look back. They kept running. They heard the woman yell for them. They answered, but kept running. Later they would come to realize that the house they were growing up in had exploded. They would come to realize later how close they had come to dying. But for now, they kept running until they got to Grandpa’s house.

The woman left them again that night. The fire was so traumatic on her that she had to go to stay with that man. Their mother left the four little children. One little boy grew up and got married. He had 3 little girls of his own that were eventually taken from him. One little girl grew up and put her daughter on drugs so that she wouldn’t have to work. One little boy grew up and discovered baseball and rainbows and the last little girl would grow up to find a Father that would never leave her.


03/10/06