Change The Sky
uncle had just returned from Viet Nam. The uncle had left the car sit in the Garage during his Army tour and was anxious to have wheels under him. The Uncle walked away for something and the car some how exploded, igniting the interior of the garage. The boy would never see his September classmates. He was struck in the face with a large piece of metal that had been sitting on top the engine. My mother had heard the explosion and ran out to see the neighbors huddled at a safe distance from the garage now fully involved in flames-the boy consumed. The Fire Department arrived and brought the dead boy out. My mother told me what she saw. His clothes were burned off him and he had a gash across his face. His face was a mass of undistinguishable black and red. The smell of the burned flesh evident, onlookers covered their noses with handkerchiefs and pieces of fresh washed clothing were hurriedly taken off the clothes line to save them from the inevitable ash and debris cloud of freshly hung laundry.