Up in Smoke (8 page)

M
y eyes opened to something I didn’t see too often in my lifetime: my wife sound asleep beside me. Slipping out of the covers, I snuck out of the room and down the hallway to the bathroom, being careful not to make too much of a ruckus. As I got into the bathroom and shut the door, I looked at the mirror that hung above the sink. I looked old. Walking over to the countertop, I leaned a hand on each side of the sink and raised my chin to look at each side of my face. Gray was starting to show itself through the stubble that was coming in. I shaved.

“Where did all the time go?” I asked myself as I toweled off my face and looked at my aging reflection in the mirror.

Coming out of the bathroom and down the stairs, I saw Beth getting the two boys up into their boosters at the table. Greg was yapping his mouth a hundred miles an hour as I came into the kitchen. Most of the words he was saying were incomprehensible, but it was cute nonetheless.

“Is that right?” I asked him, smiling. I walked over and poured a cup of coffee from the freshly brewed pot. Looking over at Beth, I said, “Thanks for putting on coffee.”

She looked back at me and said, “I didn’t.”

Looking back at the coffee pot, I recalled the timer feature.

I knew it was Susan.

A smile came across my face. Even though she was angry, she still made sure my needs were met. It warmed my soul and gave me comfort to know she still cared.

“Wanna go drink a cup of coffee in the back once I finish getting these kiddos some cereal?” Beth asked as she pulled out two bowls from the cupboard.

“Yeah.” Looking at my watch, I said, “I have a few.” Heading out the white French glass doors that led out onto the deck, I stepped outside and into the backyard. Taking in a deep breath of the morning air, I took a seat in one of the mesh patio chairs we had set around the dark bluish-gray table.

My eyes surveyed the yard beyond the deck and stopped on the guest house. All it took for me that day to not feel so bad for Susan was to take one look at that guest house. Shaking my head, I said, “She has some nerve buying all that and getting upset about a poker game.”

“What?” Beth asked, stepping out from the open door and down to the patio chairs. Taking a seat, she kept her eyes fixated on me.

“What, what?” I replied, trying to deflect.

“It sounded like you were talking out here, but I couldn’t hear you from inside,” Beth said.

I shook my head.

“Where is Mom? I’ve never seen her sleep in . . . wait. Are you two fighting?”

Shaking my head without delay, I said, “No.”

She took a drink of her coffee and set it down on the table. “You don’t have to lie to me. I’m twenty-eight and have been married for a while now.”

I laughed. “It doesn’t really matter, it’s okay. Promise.” Raising an eyebrow, I shifted the conversation. “How is everything going in Coeur d'Alene?”

Nodding softly but steadily, she said, “Its going good. The kids love their school, and Jonathan and I love our new church family. It’s a good change.”

“Happy to hear,” I replied.

She scooted closer to the table and took another drink of her coffee. Setting her cup back down, she nodded again and said, “It really is. I know you worried about us not being as close, but we’re still
pretty close
, Dad. I have a friend, Cindy. Her parents and family all live in New York . . . that’s some
real
distance!”

Smiling, I replied, “I’m glad you didn’t move that far away, but I still worry about you.”

“You don’t have to worry about me, Dad. We’re good.”

“You’re my daughter. I’ll always worry about you,” I said.

She smiled as she looked out into the yard. “You and Mom going to church again yet? She said something a week or two ago about the pastor being sick?”

“We will.” Looking at my watch, I saw I was running a few minutes behind. Getting up too fast, I felt a slight twinge of pain in my back. “Ah,” I let out a painful moan for a split second.

“You okay?” Beth asked, concerned.

“I’m fine . . . just getting old.” Standing upright, I turned to one side and then the other to stretch. The pain started to dissipate. “I’d better get going. Have a good day with Mom. I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”

She stood up and hugged me. “Don’t ever die, Dad.”

“Don’t talk like that. I’m young. Still have quite a bit of time left.”

She smiled at me as we released from our embrace.

Going inside, I saw Natalie coming down the hallway with her blanket in one hand. She looked half asleep as she slowly made her way across the hardwood floors.

“Morning, Princess,” I said to her as I stopped for a moment.

“Morning,” she replied, rubbing one of her eyes. “Where you going?”

“I’m off to work,” I replied. Walking over to her, I kissed her forehead. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Okay,” she replied. Looking at her mother, she asked, “Do they have cinnamon toast here?”

“Yeah, we do,” I said.

A smile came across her face as she continued over to the table. “I want that, Mommy,” she said, looking at Beth.

I went over and kissed the boys goodbye before heading out the door to the station.

Walking into the multi-purpose room, the guys were all sitting around the TV like flies hovering around a cow’s tail.

“What’s going on?” I asked, walking up to the group.

“Shh,” Ted said from the couch, trying to quiet me. “It’s the Mayor. She’s having a press conference.”

“Oh,” I replied. “What’s she saying?”

“Stop talking and listen,” Kane snapped.

Looking at the TV, I saw Mayor Janice Gordon talking to a group of reporters. She was standing behind a wooden podium and she looked frazzled, judging by the constant shaking head she seemed to have going.

“Like I have said from the beginning of all this: If parts of the city don’t like something, let’s talk. My door is always open, and if you have a better idea, I’m all ears.”

The cameras went off, snapping a million or so pictures within the span of a few seconds. Then a bunch of reporters’ hands went up in the air. She pointed to one in the front.

“Yes, in the blue tie.”

“Hi. From the Spokesman Review, we want to know why the funding for the people who serve the community is being cut while you leave programs in place such as the study of bacteria in the Spokane River that’s still fully funded.”

I laughed. “Like to see what she says about that,” I said, crossing my arms.

“I had no idea about that. See, the problem is that I can’t possibly know
every
single thing that’s going on in this city. Spokane is big, and I have no way of knowing exactly where all the money is going all at one time. I did what I thought was best, but I will leave my door open for those who want to reach out. Thank you.” She stepped away from the podium.

Cole stood up and turned off the TV manually. He said, “You heard her, the door is open. I say we go knock on that door and help her do her job.”

“Well. We can’t really just walk up to her door, so how do we go about that?” Kane asked.

“I liked Alderman’s idea of canvassing.” Cole looked over at me. “We can get people to rally for it. Let’s start with a petition and get a good rally going in front of city hall. We’ll come knocking on that door all right.” Cole looked over at Ted. “Sherman, could you collect data on what we all do here as far as fires per year and all that good stuff? We need to show how we need to keep things the same with our station.”

“Got it,” Ted replied.

“Good.” Looking at me, Cole said, “Alderman, I need you to figure out a game plan for canvassing. Are we going to stick to our neighborhood? Or is this going to be city-wide with more stations involved?”

Kane raised his hand and Cole looked over to him. Kane looked at all of us as he said, “We have hose training today.”

Cole sighed. “Oh, yeah. Forgot about that.” He thought for a moment and then said, “Work on this stuff when you can. We aren’t going to get everything done in one day. I’ll go talk to Chief Jensen about our plans.”

Everyone nodded in agreement.

Cole took off out of the room and everyone began to get up and get busy. Micah looked at me and asked, “You doing all right? You look a little worried.”

“I’m fine,” I replied.

Brian jokingly knocked me in the arm with his elbow. “He’s just getting old. Probably needs a nap or something.”

I laughed. Rookie was getting better with his humor. “I’ll need a nap after laughing my butt off today watching you try to tackle a hose again.”

“Pshh . . . it’s cake. I’ve done it before,” Brian replied.

“Last time was pretty entertaining, Rookie. You chased that hose around the parking lot for at least three minutes straight.”

“Well, I’m ready this time,” Brian said with a confident tone as he left the multi-purpose room.

All of us made our way to the training grounds around the back of the fire station after lunch that day, which was basically just an over-sized parking lot. It had a burned up cement building in the back corner, a couple of fire hydrants, and lots of smooth pavement. There was also a small shop-like structure that sat toward the back of the lot, right in front of one of the fire hydrants. That’s where we all met, fully suited up in our turnouts.

Cole walked up from across the pavement and smiled at us all. “You boys ready for some hose training?”

“Depends. Rookie might not be so ready,” I said.

Cole shook his head. “We’re not doing solo hose drills today. We’ll be focusing on group exercises.”

My eyebrows shot up. “That’s a bummer. What kind of hose and pressure are we doing?”

“Two and a half-inch hose, and a hundred fifteen PSI,” Cole replied.

I looked over at Brian. “That means ‘pounds per square inch,’ Rookie.” I smiled jokingly.

“Shut up!” he snarled.

“Sounds fun,” I said to Cole. “We going to make it a little interesting and get that PSI up to one-fifty?”

“We’ll see how one fifteen works out. Gomer will take lead first.”

Brian nodded, but he looked a little nervous under that helmet. Stepping up to his side, I patted his shoulder. “It’ll be good. Just be careful with the nozzle. It gets a little crazy at those higher PSIs.”

“Okay.”

“Alderman, go hook up the hose and get it ready,” Cole instructed.

“All right,” I replied. Jogging lightly over to the truck across the pavement with Micah, I saw a car sitting up near the road next to the firehouse. Stopping, I covered my eyes to get a better look, but then it took off down the road. Brushing it off as paranoia, I continued onward to the truck.

Cole, Micah and I had a barrel of laughs as we watched Brian, Kane, Ted and Greg all wrestle the hose for the next couple of hours. Getting up from the hose after I clamped the water off, Kane came over to the three of us.

“How about you old men try?” he asked, panting heavily as he took off his helmet. The water and sweat mixed together as it almost poured off his head.