Whoomph!

Had it been a “whoosh!”? Or maybe a “whoomph!” Dusty couldn’t tell. All he knew was that one
moment everything seemed fine and the next Gramps was standing there with a blank expression, his
whiskers, eye brows, and the hair around his face tipped in small curls of an ashy kind of tan. In all his
nine years Dusty could not remember anything like it.
“Well, if that don’t beat…” said Gramps.
“What happened?”
“You okay?”
“Ya, okay. But what happened?”
Gramps wiped his brow with the back of his hand. Much of the ashy tan fell off and floated slowly
down or mixed with his sweat. “Don’t rightly know. Unless…” He looked at the piles of leaves. They
were burning as planned, though smoky. He looked beyond them at the flag hanging limp, yet seeming
to move as the hot air swirled above the fire.
“Guess I should’a thought that through better,” said Gramps as he moved to check Dusty out. “There’s a good lesson for us both there, Dusty, my boy.”
“What lesson?”
“Well, let’s see if you can figure it out, so’s you remember it better. Tell me everything we did out
here.”
“First, we raked all these leaves together. Then you tried to burn them, but you couldn’t get them to
keep burning. The fire always went out.”
“And why do you think that is?”
“’Cuz they’re kinda wet. But I thought it would be easy, since it’s so hot out.”
“It’s hot, for sure. But it’s also humid. There’s a lot of water in the air. So then, what?”
“Well, you went to the garage to get some gasoline and sprinkled it all around.”
“Yes, and…?”
“You took the gas can back to the garage so it wouldn’t be close to the fire.”
“And how long did that take.”
“Only a couple of minutes. Maybe five, ’cause Grandma brought us brownies.”
“And what do you think was happening to the gasoline on the leaves during that time.”
“I guess it was soaking in.”
“Some, yes. But what does gasoline do when it’s warm?”
“It evaporates.”
“And then, where does that gas go?”
Around, I guess. Just blows away in the wind.”
“What wind?”
Dusty looked around. He looked at the flag. His eyes opened wide and his mouth formed an O as he looked back at Gramps.
Gramps looked at him and nodded. “There was enough gasoline in the air over the leaves that I didn’t even have to lean over to light the fire. All I did was strike a match, and WHOOSH!” (or was it
WHOOMPH!?)