Jump Start Your Writing Challenge – An Accident

Rory C. Keel

This week i’m posting the first of my 2017 Jump Start your writing challenge from last week. this piece is of an accident, one I remember as a child.

One of my fondest memories is roasting hotdogs and marshmallows over a fire pit in the backyard. My Grandma would let us weave  hotdogs onto the hook of a wire coat hanger, and my brothers and I would hold them over the fire and giggle with delight as the flames licked at it searing it to perfection.

Marshmallows naturally followed as the best dessert for a backyard campout. When I had worked a mallow onto the hook,  I would slowly rotate the hanger in order to evenly toast the soft sugary puff until the dark brown color indicated it was warm and gooey.

On one occasion my younger brother, with his hunger for the sugary delight and a tendency toward being a pyromaniac, jabbed the sweet treat deep into the heart of the red-hot fire. Deciding he needed to rescue the melting goodness when it erupted into flames, he jerked the hanger catching it on the wire grate. Panic set in. As he twisted and pulled to save the mallow, he yanked and the hook let go flicking the flaming marshmallow toward my brother.

After pealing the goo from his face, Grandma bolted into the house, picked up the receiver and dialed my mother informing her of the emergency. The urgency of the situation suddenly changed with the laughter of my mother when she heard my Grandma’s high-pitched voice say, “We need to go to the hospital. Your son has been hit in the eye with a marshmallow!”

Write about an accident you remember!