"I picked the wrong flower, okay? And you were not there a minute ago," I insist with an emphatic point of my finger toward the still-smoldering tree.

"As it turns out, conducting electricity with your own two hands is not as easy as superhero movies make it seem," I add, and lift my hands in a shrug, still a little crackle leaping from finger to finger. "The reason I was even out here was because I figured it was a safer place to practice than my own house. Apparently not."