Page 28 of Shadows in Bloom

“Let’s talk about the fire. Okay. To make fire you need fire water like my uncle Don has in his shed.” I do a big sigh like Uncle Don does when I say fire water. “It’s called lighter fluid, Sal. Lighter fluid, lighter fluid. Sal, Sal, Sal.” My head goes side to side and my eyes blink very fast. “I think someone put fire water on the floor and on the shelves.” I scratch my head and say, “I think they sprayed it everywhere.”

“Can you tell me how you got the lighter fluid?” he asks.

“Fire water. It’s called lighter fluid, Sal. My uncle Don has little and big bottles of fire water. You can put it in a lighter, or you can squirt it on some wood and paper.” I lift my hands up very high and tell him, “Then you light up matches or a lighter, and whoosh, the fire starts.”

Doctor Hart does some more writing. “Your uncle Don showed you how to start a fire?”

I kick my legs out and open and close my hands. “Uncle Don showed me. Did you know it was my birthday? Mum made a cake with candles. Candles can make fire. Mum said Dad was coming to see me, but he’s not coming. He’s dead. Your Dad’s dead, Sal. Dead, dead, dead.”

Someone knocks on the door and opens it. I look up and see a lady, and on the other side of the hall, I see a boy in another room like this one. He has black hair and brown eyes, and he’s sitting on a bed like me, but he has a white jacket on that has no arms. I wrap my arms around myself and smile, and the other boy stares at me.

“Who’s that boy?” I ask the lady.

She turns her head to look out the door, then she tells me, “That’s Darius, you’ll get to meet him in a few days.”

“Darius. Darius.” He has a good name like Justice, but Justice is the best name. “Did Darius make a fire at school too?” I ask.

Doctor Hart does a big sigh like my mum when I ask her why I don’t have a brother like Justice does. “No, he didn’t,” Doctor Hart says.

“I wanna play with Darius,” I say.

The lady shakes her head. “I’m sorry, Salvatore, for now, you need to stay in this room.”

Two days later

“This isn’t a good idea, Loren,” a big man says to Doctor Monroe. “These three should be kept separated from each other, and from the other children. We don’t know how dangerous they are yet.”

Doctor Monroe crosses her arms and smiles. All her long, blonde hair goes all swishy wishy when she shakes her head. “Well, Colin, that’s not your decision now, is it? And I’ll be supervising the entire time.”

Doctor Monroe reaches for my hand, and I hold onto hers. “Come on, Sal, would you like to meet some new friends?”

I nod. “Come on, Sal.” When I punch my head, Doctor Monroe holds my other hand. “I’m going to help you stop doing that, okay?”

I nod. “Okay. Okay. Is Justice here?”

She shakes her head. “No, I’m sorry, he’s at home with his family.”

“I’m sorry. I wanna see Justice. Sorry, sorry,” I say.

Doctor Monroe takes me to the big playroom where there are blocks and toy cars, and some books and a giant teddy bear. “Darius, L, come and meet Salvatore.”

When I see Darius, I smile because I remember him from when he was wearing the white jacket. “Darius. L,” I say.

Darius looks at me and his eyes get very squinty. “Do you like dead blood?”

I shrug. “Dead blood. Do you like dead blood?” I don’t know what dead blood is, but Darius says yes. When I look at L, he’s standing near the window, looking outside.

“Doctor Hart said you didn’t make a fire at your school. Are you scared of fire?” I ask Darius.

Darius shakes his head. “I don’t know. I don’t go to school. I did school at home with my mum, but she wasn’t my real mum. Just a lady. She’s dead now.”

Darius’ words come out of my mouth very fast. “She’s dead now. She’s dead now. Dead. Dead. Dead.”

Darius nods. “Yes.”

He doesn’t care that my words are the same as him, and I smile because he might be my friend like Justice. “Justice is my friend,” I tell him. “Do you want to be my friend?”

He scrunches his nose. “What does that mean?”

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