Suddenly he reached out and pulled a half-burnt stick from the fire. He thrust it at me so that I flinched back. “What are you doing?” I cried, startled and angry. “Trying to show you something. The stick—it scared you, right? It may even have hurt you, if you hadn’t been so quick. But look—in trying to burn you, it’s consuming itself. That’s what happens to a heart—”
