It seemed like months ago. I was sitting on the floor in the living room of my house. The little one story house had been all I had known form as far back as I could remember. I loved that house. I was sitting on the floor playing with my stuffed teddy bear when my father came in from the cold. It was December outside and I could see the white ground as he came inside. The blast from the wind made me shiver. My father carried with him some brown logs. Yea, he was going to build a fire. I loved fires, the way they warm me, and the tingling on my back from sitting on the hearth too long. Today was a little different when my father had a good fire going, he went to sit down in his favorite chair and smoke a cigarette. I felt something looking at me as I watched my father and mother talk about things I did not understand.

I turned around to lights and dancing. I never knew that fire was so wonderful; the colors of red, green and yel

low could hypnotize my senses. A good hour went by before my mother's call of dinner broke the spell. That night I dreamed of being in a fire, the warmth and colors surrounding me, and dancing with the flames to an ethereal rhythm. After breakfast the next morning I stole away to the pantry where my father kept his matches, I had to watch those dancers again. After "borrowing" several packs of matches, I ran into my room and locked the door, giggling at my mission. There room was still dark because my window faced away from the sun. I sat in the middle of my floor and opened one the books.

All those little black and red matches just stood there like soldiers ready to go to war. I tore one out like my father would do, and closing the match book, lit the match. A small "whoosh" followed by the smell of magnesium excited me. Another and another match until one remained. I then lit the empty match book on fire and watched it burn. The burnt cardboard smell was not to my liking, but the glowing remains radiated, and as I blew on them they grew brighter. I wandered around my room looking for other things to burn, I never thought about what happened to the charred remains. My favorite teddy bear would not burn after four or five matches which did not make me happy. But, my glow bug which I had before my teddy bear went right up. I felt the warmth and I held it closer to me as the flames rose. I strangely felt too warm, soon the warmth changed to pain. I threw th

Some common words found in the essay are:
, teddy bear, glow bug, sitting floor, match book,
Approximate Word count = 1000
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)