“Salute.” I held up my bottle, saluting Andy, and then we both poured the remnants of our beers onto the fire, causing it to surge. Neither one of us even took a step back. We’d made friends with the fear of death or injury long ago. Even in the face of a raging fire, I didn’t flinch anymore. I knew at that moment, fighting fires was my next calling.
~ Chapter One ~
Michelle
“What the hell is taking so long?” I yelled out in my car, resisting the urge to honk my horn at the black Camry in front of me. I considered myself a patient person for the most part, but that morning I’d woken up thirty minutes late, and I still needed to get Diego to school.
“Mama, if I’m late, Ms. Daniels deducts a point from the behavior chart,” my six year old whined from the backseat.
I peered up in my rearview mirror to see Diego, frowning with his arms crossed. “I know, sweetie. Mommy is moving as fast as she can.” I used the calmest voice I could muster at that moment.
“Can’t you tell the other cars I need to get to school?”
I pushed out a breath. “If only it were that simple.”
“This week Ms. Daniels says if we get all our points, we’ll get to have an ice cream party. I gotta make it!” My son, much like his mama, loved ice cream.
“Look, Diego,” I began, holding on with the tightest of grips to my patience, “I’ll make you a deal … even if Ms. Daniels doesn’t throw you the ice cream party, I will buy you whatever flavor you want. Ice cream date, you and me, this weekend. Deal?”
His sun-kissed face brightened, a smile spreading, exposing his missing front tooth. “Promise?”
“Mommies don’t make promises.”
“They make memories,” he finished, giggling. It’d become my little saying whenever he asked me to make him a promise.
“Ice cream date, just you and me.” It’s not like anyone else was in the picture to date. That’s how’d it’d been, Diego and I for the better part of six years. His worthless father continued to make sure of that.
One … two … three …I began counting in my head, to push down the annoyance that rose in me whenever thoughts of Diego’s father sprang up.
“We’re almost there,” I informed my son as soon as I turned onto the block where his school sat. I looked to the clock on my dashboard, which read 7:53, and it was three minutes fast. That meant I’d gotten there two minutes before the school bell rang.
“Come on, baby,” I encouraged Diego from out of the backseat, trying to hurry him in. I straightened his school uniform jacket and pants, not wanting him to appear wrinkled. Diego attended an exclusive elementary school that only those with connections got their children into. That was one of the only things his father had ever done for him. Besides be a pain in my ass.
One … two … three
“Bye, Mama!” Diego waved before running to meet up with the rest of his class as they waited in a line right outside the front door entrance. I waved back, but instead of hopping back into my car to make it to work on time, I paused, waiting for the bell to ring and watch my son and his classmates march into their school building to begin their days. Diego didn’t even bother looking back, instead whispering something into the ear of another little boy and giggling about it. It made me think back to the year before when I practically had to push him through the doors of his new school and run out just so he wouldn’t cling to me. I sighed. He was growing up so fast.
I pulled out my cell once I was back in my cream-colored Ford Focus. “Hey, Natoi, I’m stopping to pick up a coffee and some donuts. Want anything?”
I jotted down my assistant’s order of a hazelnut coffee and a Boston Creme donut before hanging up and pointing my car in the direction of my favorite specialty donut shop around the corner. I stopped in this same shop a few times a week since it was on my way to work after dropping Diego off. I could also blame my regular donut runs and ice cream dates with my son on why my body remained a size ten, but forget that. I wasn’t small by any definition but at five-six, I carried it well.
I placed the donut box in my passenger seat and the two drinks in my car’s cup holders between the seats, before I pulled out of the shop’s parking lot. It was rush hour so a trip from the donut shop to the building where I worked that should’ve taken only ten minutes, would likely take twenty to twenty-five. If I was lucky, I’d get there at about eight forty-five. The work day was supposed to start at eight thirty, but thanks to my company’s flex-time scheduling, I rarely got in before quarter to nine. As long as I stayed a little late, it was fine.
I held the steering wheel in my left hand, while bringing my coffee cup to my lips with my right hand. Taking a quick sip to let the caffeine begin doing its job before I stepped in the office, I kept my eyes on the road, while placing the cup back in the center holder. Just as I returned my hand to the steering wheel all hell broke loose.
The car in front of me was T-boned by another car coming from it’s right. I barely made out the faint sounds of car horns from behind me as I slammed on my brakes but it was too late. I hit the car in front of me, and felt a jolt of something to the right. The steering wheel locked up and I couldn’t do anything to stop my car from moving. My heart squeezed in my chest, the mix of fear and panic stiffening my entire body.
“Oh God!” I yelled. My head slammed into my driver’s side window and the last thing I remembered was praying to God to let me live so I could see my son grow up.
****
Carter
“Rescue Four, car accident on the corner of South and Grant Ave …” The dispatcher’s voice sounded through the fire station’s speakers, alerting our squad that our help was needed. I hopped out of the bed where I had been working on a crossword puzzle while being at the station all night, tossed my feet into my boots, and pulled up my fire protective gear. Slinging my suspenders over my shoulders and grabbing my coat out of my locker, I moved to the pole that stretched from the first to the second and third floors, and easily slid down.
As soon as my boots hit the ground, I yelled out, “Let’s roll.”
Eric, one of our squad’s lieutenants, looked at me and nodded before running to climb in the driver’ seat of the huge firefighter rig. I piled in the back with four other guys, while the captain took his place in the passenger seat.
