Matches

Alfred and I are in the Chemistry labs, preparing for the demonstration we are going to pull off later during Chemistry class. We are doing the chapter on Aluminium.

"This one should look good." I say, and I pop several pellets of sodium hydroxide onto a small sheet of aluminium foil. I add water, and we stand back and watch.

The pellets slowly dissolve into a white solution, brilliant against the silver of the foil, and then a sizzling starts. Within minutes the metal is eaten up by the mixture.

"Any other NaOH solution?" I ask after it finishes. We throw the remnants away, knowing that we didn't have much time left before recess ended. Alfred shrugs and points to a beaker of clear liquid. No label.

"Nevermind." I say, "We make our own."

I add NaOH pellets and water to a beaker Alfred provides and we start stirring. As the beaker heats up in my hands it strikes me that we are preparing an extremely concentrated solution of sodium hydroxide. The mixture is still slightly hot when we finish. I pour the solution into a conical flask; Alfred prepares a stick of aluminium foil, and we put the two together and stopper the flask. There is a glass tube run through the cork - almost immediately white fumes start hissing out of it.

The theory behind this is simple. Aluminium dissolves in a base to form aluminium ions, releasing hydrogen gas in the process. My plan was to light the hydrogen gas as it came rushing out of the glass tube. In a dark room the flame would've been greenish blue.

"Match." I say to Alfred.

"You sure ... ?" he says, but he lights one anyway and hands it to me.

I place the flask on the floor, reach out with the match and -

The resulting explosion echoes throughout the science block, tears the cork off the flask, shoots it up into the air, cracks the glass tube and showers the two of us with glass; Alfred is behind me and feels a shard of it streaking past his pants, I feel something fly past my head (later in class I find glass in my hair) and we freeze in stunned silence.

"Okay," I say. The match is still in my hand. "We are so not doing this."