Lack of foresight

I was pushing the ripe old age of five when I had my first direct encounter with fire. 

Ironically, I was in a church. We went to a big fancy church and that day the service was a particularly fancy service where everyone held a candle. I was sitting with the Callisons because my mother sang in the choir and my father was an usher. The Callisons made a big mistake – they allowed me to hold a candle like everyone else. 

I vividly remember my hair falling into my face as I looked down at the candle. This inspired the game I created for myself to pass the time. The rules were simple: get the flame as close as I possibly could to my hair without having them come into contact with one another. It seemed like a fantastic idea while it was happening. Maybe I didn’t understand that I may lose my game, or maybe I didn’t understand that hair easily catches on fire.

My nose began to realize that there was something wrong.  "Burning, rotting death is not a normal church-y smell..." it thought to itself.

I looked around for the source of the odor, thinking that maybe it was bad incense.  Bad incense can sometimes smell like burning plastic, probably.  In a matter of seconds, my theory about the bad incense was discredited based purely upon the raw strength of the smell. At this point, I was thoroughly confused.

Unsurprisingly, it turned out to be my hair.

I jerked the candle away from my face. I thought I had the problem solved. When I realized the hair itself was on fire, I began to grasp the severity of the situation. 

The rest was a blur of confusion and terror. I’m told that Cleave Callison valiantly put out the fire by smashing his sweater against the side of my head and carried me out of the sanctuary.