house on fire

I have a snow globe, something I got for Christmas when I was 17 from an aunt overseas who'd never acknowledged that I'd grown past 9.

The layout is basic snow globe. There's a two-story 19th century house, with a lamp post and a horse in a small barn off to the back of the lot, surrounded by a couple of other, smaller houses. A few tiny neighbors walking by. The ground snow-covered, and the sidewalks. The streets are just wet--shiny and black.

On the bottom of the globe, under the base, I mean, there's a white button. You shake the globe and push the button and after a few minutes, little plumes of smoke start curling out from the top windows of the house. Eventually tiny flames lick all four sides, bottom up, and then the whole thing's up in flames.

At the last second there's an additional flicker of activity in the house, a man and woman trying to run out, but you can see it's too late.

I'm not sure my aunt knew about the button, but it's possible she'd been baiting me for years, and this was her idea of a sick joke or life lesson.