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Fire balls and Buckets

I was 15.  Dad was in the Congo or the Sudan or Ethiopia .  Mom was upstairs in her bedroom on the double bed chatting to Inge Neilson , our neighbour. The twins were at the front driveway playing with Jeanette and Tom and Joe and I was at the back, in the garden, feeling rather bored and destructive. I decided to light the barbecue and get it ready for lunch. I could cook something. Why not? But I wouldn't tell anyone until the barbecue was lit. I'd have to hurry because they were going to start getting lunch ready soon.  I found an open sack of charcoal and poured it out rustling onto the large metal pan. I took the newspaper -  The Daily Nation - and then I tore it and rolled it up - 4 double page spreads - into firelighters. I stuffed them into the coals and lit the wads. The sun was bright. It was around 11.30 am, and I couldn't see the flames. Perhaps the fire hadn't taken, so I went looking for something more flammable: fire lighters, paraffin,