On the hot, steamy, middle of the heat wave, 4th of July morning, no air stirring, Danny was up before any of the rest of boarding house had even quit snoring. He tip-toed out of his room. The door squeaked. He froze, held his breath, and took his shoes in his hand and went down the stairs, walking on the outside part of each step to keep them from creaking from his weight.

Danny and his best friend, Alfie, had bought some fireworks together. Alfie had put up most of the money. Danny kicked in money he had saved by not getting ice cream for a whole week from the ice cream man when he came by on his motorcycle cart. He showed up every twilight and sold his popsicles and dixie cups for the nickel Danny's dad dug into his work pants to give him most nights in the Summer. Those ice cream nickels could get yanked away with the slightest mistake on Danny's part, so the money he put into the fireworks purchase was no small deal as far as Danny was concerned.

Alfie made it clear that he would shoot off the big firecrackers. After all, he was the big investor. They had planned to meet up at the gravel pit. Danny needed to be really far away from his house, because if his mother ever got wind of this caper, it would be curtains for Danny. That was one of the rare things he knew for sure.

Alfie was already there when Danny came over the ridge of the gravel pit. They waved, and Alfie held up a big box of wooden matches. He had laid out the firecrackers, by size. "We'll start small" was all Alfie said. Danny wanted to touch each of the precious cylinders, but he didn't. For a couple of weeks they had gathered tin cans, cigar boxes, and a few glass jars and bottles. Their plan was to blow them up with the fire crackers. Noise was only part of what they were into fireworks for.

Being the pro, Alfie already had a Tuna fish can propped up by one of the small firecrackers. "I'll let you put the mach to the fuse on this first one," he said. "Thanks," Danny said, "But maybe you should do the first one." "Hey, I'm a generous kind of guy," Alfie laughed.

Danny, a little nervously, struck the match on the side of the box, and it flamed. He tried to hold it steady until it was really burning, then he touched the fuse with the flame until it started to sputter, only then did he drop the match and they both sprinted away at full speed, looking over their shoulders, ready to duck. The fire cracker went off, and the tuna can went soaring up into the air. The boys looked at each other, and simultaneously said, "Not bad." Alfie added, "Not bad at all for one of our little guys."

Alfie picked the weapon for the next explosion. He chose an old Baked Bean can. The Heinz label could still be read. Neither one of them knew what the phrase 'Vegetarian Style' meant. The firecracker Alfie reached for was one of the bigger guys, and when it blew, the can went really high. It fell to the ground with a giant torn slash in its side.

Next Alfie wove two firecrackers together, making one fuse, and placed them under another Tuna can.

He lit the fuse looking to Danny who thought Alfie had the face of a mad scientist, and both of them ran furiously, but when the firecrackers exploded the can didn't lift very high off the ground. Instead it sent slivers of metal flying in all directions. Danny and Alfie both ducked. The boys were glad they had really run fast, and felt lucky, nothing slashed them. They didn't know much about shrapnel.

After they blew a couple of cigar boxes apart, and found out glass jars were too heavy to lift as thrillingly as the tin cans were, they switched to holding the firecrackers in their hands, lighting them, and throwing them as far as they could, almost as soon as the fuse caught.

Sometimes, the wind or a faulty fuse blew out the flame before it reached the powder, and they had what Alfie called "Just another dud." These they broke open, and lit them at the crack. There was no explosive noise, just some flames, some hissing and a lot of gun-smoke smells rolling up the side of the gravel pit.

Alfie was beginning to light bigger fire crackers in his hand and throwing them. One he threw at Danny's feet, and Danny jumped. "Hey, Alfie. What are you doing? What are you crazy? Do you want to blow me up?"

Just as he said that, he looked up at the ridge, and sucked in his breath. Alfie looked up, too, and at the top of the Gravel Pit, both boys saw Danny's father standing there. The boys didn't wave. They had no idea how long he had been standing there watching them. Alfie knew that he probably had seen him throw that firecracker at Danny.

Danny's dad started down the hill towards them, slipping and catching himself as he worked his way down to where the boys stood. Both of them wanted to run, but they knew that wasn't going to work.

"Where did you get these?" he said, as he bent down and picked up some of the firecrackers in his big hands. Alfie said, "We found them." Danny said, "No we didn't, Dad. We bought them." Alfie stood, looking down at the ground.

Danny's dad moved to a rock and sat down. "Come here. I'm not going to hit you." Danny came to him, and sat down near his feet. Alfie moved a little more slowly, but he came over as well. "I want to tell you something you don't know, Danny. We never talked to you about it. But, maybe you picked up something about this other uncle you once had. Yep, you had another uncle, you never knew, my little brother. His name was Eddie. He died before you were born, and it was my fault." Danny's dad's eyes grew wet. Tears slipped down his cheeks. "Dad," Danny said, "What do you mean? You killed your little brother." The thought scared Danny, because he had considered getting rid of his own little brother more than once.

"No, I never touched him, Danny, but he died, and I blame myself." He grew silent, went inside himself, way in, and then told the boys the story.

"When my mother died, Eddie was about 12 years old, and he became an orphan. You boys know what an orphan is? It's a kid with no parents and sometimes no family at all. But Eddie had us. Your mother and me took him in. He lived with us. Your sister remembers him. He was a good kid. But one day, I told him he needed to get a job, to make some money to contribute to his keep. Your mother was nagging me about it. You know how she is."

Danny nodded. He knew how she is.

"So he got a job with this fireworks company. He worked on the truck helping deliver the crates of firecrackers and rockets to the places where they sell them." He looked down at the firecrackers in his big hands. "Probably one of the places where you bought these."

There was a long silence. Danny and Alfie just sat there waiting, but at some level they finished the story in their heads. They knew where it was going.

"Two days before the fourth, one of the busiest days for the delivery truck, something went wrong, and the truck exploded and.." His dad covered his face with his hands. "And it blew Eddie to bits."

Danny said, "Oh, daddy, I'm so sorry." And he started to cry softly. Alfie just sat there. His dad reached out and rubbed Danny's crew cut, head, and said, "A policeman came to the house, after I got home from work. He asked if I was Frank Stein? I said I was. He said, 'A man named Eddie Stein has been blown up on a fireworks truck. The company said this is where he lived. There's nothing to identify.' And the cop turned and left."

Danny felt like throwing up. His dad was staring of into the gravel pit. He said, "So we had a small funeral, but there was no casket, no viewing, nothing. We don't talk about it. I never buried Eddie. And I've been lousy at trying to bury the guilt."

"Oh, Dad, Dad. That's so awful, the cop coming to your door, and all."

Alfie stood up. He started to gather the fireworks back into the brown paper bag he had brought them with. "Here, Mr. Rosen. Throw these away or something. We won't be using them. Maybe you saved the two of us. That counts, doesn't it?"

He scooped up the two boys in his big arms. He held them tight. "That counts more than you know." He put them down, and the three of them climbed up the sandy, slippery gravel pit. There was the gun powder smell and some smoke still in the air, and a little pile of tin cans down at the bottom they spotted when all three of them looked back.

"I'll go back and get those cans," Danny said. He ran down fast. Just moving his body made him feel better. He wondered what his Dad was feeling.

-The End-