“Fire!  Fire!” I yelled.  The villagers in their nightclothes ran frantically with buckets of water.  But what water could ever kill this ominous fire?  The fire that laid raging upon my sister’s breast?  No, no holy spring, no cooling water, no living hailstone could ever cease this fire.  This was the fire from within, not the fire from without.  This fire from without my sister could bear.  It was the fire from within she could never contain.  This fire was doomed to last forever. 

The more the villagers poured water, the more the fire burned.  It was like throwing oil into fire.  After a while the villagers just put their buckets down.  They just stood there and watched the fire spitting sparks.  “Rain!  Rain!”  I called “Rain!  Where is rain when you need it?”  Though I knew bring a thousand seas, a thousand wells, and many and many a rainfall— if the universe says fire— fire will be.  Skye embodied that will of the universe.

I felt weightless and powerless in the face of what would be called the face of doom.  I took two steps backward while the villagers remained standing still speechless.  I ran to the sea and swam straight into the rundown boat unable to hold myself.  A wave of flying insects zoomed on my face.  I kept coughing and wheezing.  I could smell the smoke that traveled all the way to the seashore.  I stayed up all night sitting in the dark in a corner of the boat my head down on my knees.  I could hear Skye’s voice in my head: “Burn! Burn! Burn! The devil will burn!”  Her face looked forever more haunting as I struggled to grab her.  She stood in the blaze, her arms stretched out like a burning icon who couldn’t feel.  I waited for her to come out.  That was the longest night, the longest hours I’ve ever lived.