He smelled something burning and began to race frantically around the house. Charlie remembered his promise to stop smoking...a promise made to his daughter in exchange for the pleasure of visiting with his freckle-nosed, curious grandson - the joy of his life. Charlie shuddered. Upstairs. Downstairs. The basement.

Obviously, he hadn’t searched every square inch of the house for any possible remains of his bad habit before Danny arrived today. What would his daughter say? Thankfully they had waved goodbye only minutes before.

His mind’s eye scanned tomorrow’s headlines: “Child Finds Matches Leaves House in Heap.”

It wasn’t so much the thought of a charred house that crushed him as it was the thought of losing the pleasure of Danny’s visits. There! A small, wavering column of smoke rose off the newspaper on the floor.

Tears of relief filled Charlie’s aging eyes. He noticed the prisms from his own childhood on the window sill projecting an intense a beam of light onto the paper. Danny loved creating rainbows with them. The two had shared precious moments enjoying the colors. Charlie removed the smoldering paper and whispered a prayer thanking God for his next, even more precious, visits with Danny.

© 2008 Stephanie Hanouw. Original for CCF  (Hanouw grants CCF  first electronic rights for one month; CCF may archive the material indefinitely and include it in an eBook anthology).