The Winning Short Story in the LWC Flash Fiction Slam 2010 written by Barry Finegan Two of the five It all started with the flambéed Christmas pudding. Appearing innocent enough, it did possess two of the five ingredients most common to domestic disaster, fire and alcohol. Things could have turned out quite different. It was one of those typical white hot, furnace bright, clear sky, sluggish wind, African Christmas days. On such days every manner of creature finds the deepest shade it can and rests; all but homo sapiens. For us it was a day for friends and family; lots of friends, necessary family. A day for trestle tables on the back lawn struggling under the weight of turkeys, hams, steamed vegetables, Christmas puddings, buckets of ice bearing bottles of stein, and sweating cans of lager; many cans of lager. It was a day for streamers, and crackers, and silly little whistles, and short jokes printed in microscopic font onto tiny bits of paper, and crêpe hats that bleed blue, red, y...