It is a dark, hot, summer night. The stars are shining brightly, dancing around the sky, and behind you are seemingly threatening woods. In the dark of the night, images flicker through your mind of bears and the sounds that would feel amplified if you headed back towards home through the forest. You can see a farm that’s at the top of the sizable hill, and you can hear laughs from the town, even though you know that it is very, very late at night. The voices from the town remind you of music that is so soft and disconnected from the scene that you can barely hear it. This hightened path that you're walking seems to lead on forever. You believe that if you walk far enough in this eastwardly direction, you might just discover the sunrise.
Directly in front of you is a building that is difficult to delineate. It’s large, looming, and frightening in the night. It’s like a gigantic barn, and you distinguish that it is empty now. But you shiver, despite the warmth, for you can almost hear voices from inside this intimidating building, though you know that you are imagining them. And you’re scared, suddenly, wishing you hadn’t come here. You decide that you will go back to town, and you back up the hill, not turning your back on the building. This barn is on one side, and the dark, deep, unknown woods are on the other side. Your eyes dart back and forth from the forest to the barn that for some reason makes you uneasy. You decide that you'll walk on the side of the path that's closer to the barn. You walk away, looking back every few seconds, and suddenly something catches your eye and you jump. You stop dead in your tracks and turn to look at the barn. A spark, a flame, you are sure that there was something. You stand there, thinking of how ridiculous you are standing alone and pondering the origin of something that your paranoid self had thought that you'd seen. Your eyes look to the barn, the farm up the hill, and the farm that you were heading. Suddenly you see a flame rise from the ceiling of the barn, leaving the enclosed building and entering the crisp night. It spreads savagely and as hungry as a lion, greedily chewing up everything in its path. It is like a wildfire, it rages through the building and rises over the top and it burns patterns into the roof. You turn to run, to stop gawking and head towards your warm home. But you hesitate as you think of the woman who you yearn so much to meet. Suddenly, her farm seems extraordinarily far away. You hardly ever have a chance to see her and you are much older than her, so you have to meet her in the dark. You hate that you are letting go of an opportunity to see her, but you just want to run from the savage fire that takes everything in its path. You run and run some more, not giving staying a chance; you believe that if you stayed, the fire will take you too.
Because you know that you’ll smell the smoke for a long, long time.
