It was a very warm and dark night as I walked home from my girlfriend’s house.  I must have been about 14 or 15.  The time was roughly 11pm as I came to the main road that passed in front of my secondary school, and I planned to cut through the school grounds as a shortcut.  I remember thinking how quiet it was.  I hadn’t seen or heard a car throughout my entire 10 minute journey, very unusual since I was walking along a main route into the city centre.

Anyway, I hopped the school wall and skirted along the huge grey building that was the school hall.  I turned the corner and found myself staring at a very surreal sight; one of the waist-high bushes that separated the hall windows from the playground was burning.  I felt a strange sense of occasion wash over me.  This bush was on fire, but I couldn’t feel any heat from it.  It didn’t make any crackling sound either.  Also, who had set it on fire?  From my position, I could see the entire grounds of the school and the main road in both directions.  There wasn’t a soul, not a car, just an odd sense of silence.  I remember waiting for something to happen, for God to speak or an angel to appear and tell me something of importance.  Nothing happened.  I backed away after a while and returned to the main road, deciding to take the long route home instead.

Even now I wonder whether it was some sort of religious or supernatural incident, or whether it was simply the result of a couple of lads setting fire to a bush.