I walked to the end of the street but I couldn’t see him. I walked across the park near our house but he wasn’t there. I looked everywhere but I couldn’t find him. I sat down on a bench and felt terrible. That was when I heard the sirens and saw two –maybe three- fire engines driving past very fast. I knew immediately that something had happened and saw them disappear round the corner into our street.
‘I ran as fast as I could and all the time I was thinking, It’s my fault. I told Martin that I wished he was dead. I’m guilty. ‘When I got to our street , there were people everywhere. The fire engines were in the middle of the street and the fire I walked to the end of the street but I couldn’t see him. I walked across the park near our house but he wasn’t there. I looked everywhere but I couldn’t find him. I sat down on a bench and felt terrible. That was when I heard the sirens and saw two –maybe three- fire engines driving past very fast. I knew immediately that something had happened and that Martin was responsible. So I ran after the fire engines and saw them disappear round the corner into our street.
‘I ran as fast as I could and all the time I was thinking, It’s my fault. I told Martin that I wished he was dead. I’m guilty.
‘When I got to our street , there were people everywhere. The fire engines were in the middle of the street and the fire fighters were breaking down the front door to our house, trying to get inside the burning building. Our home was on fire and there was nothing they could do to stop it. Forty minutes later the house was just four walls with an empty black hole inside.
‘So…that was the famous ‘incident’. It was in all the newspapers and on TV. You probably saw it. I can still see the newspaper headlines-“Pyro Burns Down Broken Home” I had to look the word up in the dictionary: “Pyromaniac someone who wants to start fires because they have a mental illness” It’s an ugly word. An ugly word to describe people who do terrible things.