Ebony glanced at the blackened monkey bars and she remembered that dark day.

"Dad, look, I have think I have finally mastered these things!" Ebony recalled her thrill as her legs dangled down from the brightly colored playground equipment.

Her father's eyes were distant and did not recognize Ebony's joy. He focused on a figure off in the distance. A poorly dressed figure carrying a small backpack.

"Dad?" Ebony tapped her father's shoulder. Worry lines creased her forehead.

Her dad's gaze did not move from the figure as he dropped a lit match from his backpack on a nearby tree. A wild smile carved on his face.

"RUN!" cried her father. The families ran terrified from the man who looked startled as his eyes moved around frantically. Ebony's father took her in his arms and ran as fast as he could. Nearby they took shelter in a bakery. The pair peered out the window as the angry flames spread from building to building coming closer and closer. Before they knew it the bakery door went up in a hot fire.

Ebony ran towards the baker and took a rolling pin from his shaky hands. She smashed the biggest window she could find.

"Okay, Ebony, GO!" her father shouted. Ebony backed away from her only escape. The window was too small for her father to come with.

"I'm not leaving you, dad!" she screamed. Ebony's father shook his head.

"Go! You have so much more of your life, my child! Go now or I will never forgive myself!" terrified, tears streamed down Ebony's cheeks as she felt the family friend Pablo grab her waist and pull her through the window. Grabbing the hot metal frame she screamed.

"No! I'm not leaving you to die! No, no, no!" Ebony tried to get back to her father who hunched on the floor coughing but Pablo was stronger.

As they ran away. The burst of flames that finished the bakery was the last memory Ebony had of her father. 

Now, she stood and looked out at her father's park. A bird chirped and she looked up to see it cuddling in a nest in one of the skeletal trees.

Memories have been burned...

But new memories will be made...

And a fiery comfort shall keep me warm.