“You spoke with him?”
“No, heard it through the grapevine. Corey, you?”
Corey looked between Don and I, and shrugged. “Nah.”
I remained silent, opting to place my breakfast dishes in the sink.
“Hey, Rookie,” I called. “For that fuck up at the table, you’re on dish duty this shift. Pete, Jacob, and Vince, you three are scrubbing down the truck today. The rest of us are cleaning the equipment. Capisce?”
“Last time I checked you were Korean, not Italian,” Don’s smart ass remarked.
“My mother’s a professor of linguistics. I learned a word or two in other languages.”
“No wonder they call you Harvard,” I heard the rookie at the sink mumble.
“Youcan call me sir. Capisce?” I said to him, crowding his space.
“Capisce.”
Only then did I back off.
“Don’t worry, Rookie. One day it’ll be your turn to pay it forward,” Don reassured the rookie, smacking him with the dish towel.
I chuckled as I left the kitchen and moved to the equipment room where all our gear was stored. Rookies always got the shittiest jobs and the most hazing in the fire station. It was part of their birthing process. We all went through it. If you came out the other side, you could consider yourself a real firefighter, but only if you made it through the fire.
****
“Come on! Fucking move!” Corey yelled out the window as he tugged on the lever that sounded the truck’s horn. His dark skin was already glistening with sweat. I felt the sweat running down my back, but I was more focused on maneuvering this truck down a one-way street to make it to our destination. We were on our third call of the day, and the yells through the walkie-talkie were saying a firefighter was trapped on a roof.
“We better get there before Rescue Two!” Corey shouted from the passenger seat.
“Let’s go!” I yelled, pressing on the horn at a car moving too slowly in front of us. I rounded the corner onto the street where the burning building stood.
“Fuck!” Corey and I yelled at the same time when we saw the fire truck for Rescue Two already on the scene. Parking a little ways down the road, in front of a fire hydrant, I threw open the door, and the five of us piled out of the truck, grabbing helmets and gear as we went.
“Where do you need us?” I asked the Captain of Rescue Two.
“We need an additional line run into the ground floor. I got a man on the roof.”
Peering up at the roof of the four-story building, I saw the red brim of a fireman’s helmet.
“Corey, you and the rookie run a line into the ground level. Kill anything that looks hot. You got me?”
“Copy!” Corey returned. “Let’s go, Rookie!” I watched Corey run around to the back of the truck to grab the hose.
“Anyone else inside?” I asked the captain.
He shook his head. “We pulled out three before the second floor caved in. Our guy had to go up to the roof.”
“Ladder’s not high enough,” one of the Rescue Two squad called out.
“Shit!” the captain yelled. “He?”
“I’m on it,” I returned before he could finish the question. I ran back to the truck, yelling to Don that I needed to move closer to pull up our ladder. Carefully but quickly I inched the truck as close to the building as possible, and then pressed the button to send up the ladder that rested on top of the truck. I heard the tell-tale beeps alerting me that the ladder had released. Exiting the truck, I climbed up on top to hold the ladder still for the man to get down, but within seconds I heard shrieks coming from overhead. Above me were two pairs of skinny limbs waving, and I realized the firefighter had two children with him. One of which was hanging dangerously close to the edge of the roof. I called for Don to watch my back. I didn’t turn around to see if he came to assist. I knew he’d be in position just like I knew the back of my hand. I ran up the ladder as fast as my body allowed. Less than a minute later, the only thing that kept me suspended in the air against the brick building was the ladder.
“Help me!” a young girl, probably about ten years old, shrieked as I reached her.
“I got you,” I soothed, using one of my arms to grab her from the edge of the roof and the grip of the other firefighter. “I need you to hold onto my ladder. We’re going to go down as quickly as possible, okay?”
