"Rise and shine, Dillon. Time to get up and get dressed for
school. Regular oatmeal or cream of wheat?" Aisha Miller
stood in the doorway of her ten-year-old son's
Spider-Man-decorated room and started their morning ritual.
She knew that she would probably have to make at least one
more trip back there before he dragged himself from bed.
He made an indistinguishable groaning sound, but he didn't move.
"Dillon, don't make me have to come in there. Get up. We
don't want to be late. I'm going to start the oatmeal. By
the time it's done and I come back here again, you better be
washed up and getting dressed. Your clothes are on the chair."
He made another groaning sound. But this time he moved and
sat up, pulling the Spider-Man sheets from over his head.
"Cap'n Crunch," he uttered before flopping back down.
Instead of the bargaining-for-more-time-to-sleep battle he
was starting with the bargaining-for-sweets-to-eat battle.
Aisha grinned. Her son certainly kept her on her toes.
"Cream of wheat," she countered.
He got up from bed and did a slow-dragging walk to the
bathroom. "Corn Pops."
"Umm… no… Oatmeal or cream of wheat?
He gave a resigned sigh. "Cream of wheat."
"Okay, get washed up and dressed. We need to be out the door
before seven-thirty. I'm taking my morning class on a trip
to the fire station today and I need to get to school a
little early in order to handle some paperwork. Paperwork
that needs to be turned in to Principal Gibson today. So
stop dragging those little feet and let's get rolling."
He groaned again and half dragged on down the hall. She
couldn't help but chuckle. He reminded her so much of
herself when she was a kid. She'd never liked getting up in
the morning for school and always tried to negotiate with
her mother for an extra five minutes. In fact, if she didn't
have to get both herself and Dillon ready, she would have
hit the snooze button a few times and would just be crawling
out of bed herself.
When she got the cream of wheat going she took a trip back
down the hall and saw that Dillon had made it to the living
room and was watching morning cartoons while he put on his
clothing. Really, he was staring at the screen and
punctuating the long stretches of viewing by placing one
item of clothing on his body at a time. At the rate he was
going, he'd be dressed by the time the afternoon talk shows
came on.
She walked over and turned off the television. "This is why
you don't have a television in your bedroom, Dillon. And
what did I tell you about coming in here and turning on the
television before you get dressed? If you got up on time and
got dressed quickly, you'd have a couple of minutes to catch
some cartoons before it was time to go."
"Aw-ww… Mo-m…"
"Don't aww mom me. Hurry up before your breakfast gets cold."
Dillon moved considerably faster without the distraction of
the television and soon he was fed and they were out the
door, in the car and on their way.
"I have the coolest idea, Mom." Dillon literally bounced
with excitement in the passenger seat.
"Really, I can't wait to hear it. What's your cool idea?"
"You can write my teacher a note and take me to the fire
station with your class today. That would be so cool. I've
never been to a real fire station. I wonder if they'd let me
slide down the pole?"
"I can tell you the answer to that. They wouldn't because
you won't be going to the fire station. You can't miss class
to go on someone else's trip. And you wouldn't want to hang
out with my little darling kindergartners."
Dillon got a pensive expression on his face as if he was
considering the merits of getting out of school versus
spending the morning with kindergartners. He frowned. "Well,
it seemed like it might have been a cool idea. But now that
I think about it…"
"Mmm-hmm…" She pulled into the parking lot. Before getting
out she leaned over and offered her cheek to her son. He had
reached the age where any public displays of affection from
Mom would embarrass him to no end. So she always made sure
to get her sugar before they got out of the car.
Dillon offered only one "Awww, Mom" before giving her a
quick peck on the cheek and dashing out of the car to the
school building.
She got out, grabbed her bags and supplies and followed
closely behind. "And you stop that running once you get in
the building. You don't want Principal Gibson to give you
detention."
"Okay, Mom." Dillon slowed his pace when he reached the big
blue doors of Public School #21. He pulled the door open and
held it for her as she walked in.
"Thank you, sweetie."
"M-ooo-m. No 'sweetie' in school—somebody might hear you."
She laughed. "Keep it up and I'm going to give to give you a
big hug in front of all your friends."
She watched her son walk up to the second floor of the
building for his before-school math tutoring. Ms. McCloud
was kind enough to see him before school to help him with
his math.
The building was still somewhat quiet. But soon it would be
bustling with the sounds of children learning and playing.
PS #21 was a kindergarten through eighth grade elementary
school in the heart of Paterson, New Jersey, on Tenth
Avenue. She'd been lucky to get a job teaching in the same
school district in which she lived, at the school closest to
her home and the one her son attended. Dillon probably
didn't think so, but it worked for her.
Once she'd finished her paperwork and returned from the
principal's office, her teacher's assistant, Toni, had arrived.
Aisha smiled. "Well, well, look who's on time today."
Toni grinned and waved her off. "Girl, please, of course I'm
on time today. I can't wait to take these little rug rats to
the fire station. My future husband might be waiting for me
as we speak. I can't keep my hunky fireman husband-to-be
waiting. How do I look?" Toni did a little spin and showed
off her latest trendy outfit. The bold splash of orange and
purple in the blouse refused to be outdone by the orange
skirt, dark plum tights and purple patent-leather boots. But
with Toni's wild personality the outfit worked.
Aisha knew she could never pull off something like that—not
that she would have any desire to. Just give her a pair of
neutral slacks and a nice sweater twinset any day. Maybe
some gold jewelry.
"You look… nice…" Aisha started. Toni really did look
nice—not Aisha's personal taste, but nice nonetheless.
Toni cut her eyes. "You don't like the outfit. I can tell.
But my future fireman husband is going to be all on it. You
watch and see. Plus, everyone can't pull off
prissy-priss-chic like you. Some of us need flair."
"Prissy-priss?" Aisha feigned indignation. "That's Ms.
Priss, thank you very much. I can't help it if I'm a little
more reserved.…"
"Ummm… Reserved isn't going to snag you one of those hot
firemen. You'll see. Watch me work it, girl." Toni did a
little spin and shook her head so that the blunt edges of
her stylish haircut moved with sassy precision.
Aisha just laughed. She wasn't looking for a hot, sexy
fireman as a future husband, boyfriend or anything else. The
only man she had time for in her life was ten years old and
upstairs being tutored in math. Being Dillon's mom and being
the best kindergarten teacher she could be was more than
enough for her.
One by one the students started showing up, and soon she had
an entire classroom full of kiddies. After a brief morning
lesson, they'd take the six-block walk to Fire Station No. 5
and get a tour and a lesson in fire safety.
Aisha grinned in anticipation. She liked taking class trips
almost as much as the kids did. She couldn't wait.
Patrick Hightower eyed his squad as they lined up in the
apparatus room for roll call. Of the five men on duty on any
given shift, his position as fire captain never changed.
He was the officer in charge.
He took note of his men. All of them were present and
accounted for, uniformed and ready to roll at the sound of
an alarm. Reggie Smith, the rookie, was there and Patrick
had a special assignment for him today. They had a group of
kindergartners coming through later, and the rookie could
give them a tour.
"Jones, you're the driver today." Patrick went down his
list. "Carter, you're position three. Stone, you're position
four. And Smith, you're position five, waterman and general
helper."
"No big surprise there," Reggie grumbled.
"Awww…the rookie's getting tired of playing his position."
Lennie Stone playfully ribbed Reggie.
The other men laughed, and Patrick was tempted to join them.
But he had one more surprise for the rookie. Holding back
his own grin, he added, "And we have a tour today. So you
can show us what you know, rookie, by leading the tour and
giving a presentation to the group of kindergarteners we
have coming in."
"Kindergartners?" A look of horror crossed Reggie's face.
"Couldn't my first time leading a tour be with some older
kids? The small ones scare me." Reggie offered a fake shiver.
"Hey, if you can face a fire you can face some
five-year-olds," Patrick said.
"I don't know. I think I'd take my chances with the fire
anytime." Bryan Carter winked, shaking his head in mock
sympathy.
Patrick went over the rest of the schedule for the day,
knowing that one call would set his entire carefully planned
schedule off for the day. Once he set out the schedule, the
men went about checking the fire engine and equipment to
make sure that everything was fully operational.
There were two other firefighters who were also certified
first-responder and emergency medical technicians on this
shift besides himself, and Patrick knew that the men would
also check the medical equipment and verify that all
medications were there.
Patrick went back to his office/bedroom to log personnel and
equipment on to the computer and wrap up a few other
administrative ends.
The room that he spent more time in than he spent in his own
bedroom at home housed a desk, a twin bed, a couple of
chairs, a computer and printer. The décor probably left a
lot to be desired for most folks. The beige-and-brown
comforter on the bed and the cream plaid chairs didn't
exactly scream high-end. But it was sufficient for the work
he needed to get done.
His cell phone started ringing and he glanced at the caller
ID before answering.
"Yes, Aunt Sophie?"
"How's my favorite nephew this morning?" Her voice was way
too pleasant for the time of morning and for her demeanor in
general.
Something was up. She was that pleasant only when she was
trying to hook him up with some woman she thought would be
perfect for him.
Been there, done that and got the divorce papers to
prove it.
There was no way he was going to allow her to reel him in
and hook him up. Plus, if he weren't at work it would be too
early for his aunt to be calling him anyway. She must be
trying to catch him when he was sleepy and groggy and liable
to agree to anything.
"I'm fine, Aunt Sophie. But I'm at work and I can't talk
now. I need to run the guys through a drill and we have to
handle chores at the station before a group of kids come
through for a tour in a few." He almost felt guilty rushing
her off the phone. Almost. "So how about I give you a call
later this week? In fact, I'll try and make time to take my
favorite aunt out to lunch. Okay? I really have to go now."
"Well… okay… I guess I can run some things by you over
lunch. I just think you've been single too long and it's
time for you to just—"
"Yeah, this is definitely a lunchtime conversation."
Not. "I'll give you a call later this week and we
can set up a time. Love you, Aunt Sophie. I'll talk with you
later. Bye-bye."
"Well…fine…bye, Patrick. We will talk later—I have some
ideas. I'm concerned about your happiness. I don't think
you've ever gotten over Courtney. And—"
"Sorry, gotta run, Aunt Sophie. I'll call you. Bye."
Yeah, he had to cut her off before she went there. Bringing
up the ex-wife was a good enough reason for the dial tone.
Sophie was lucky he had respect for his elders. He hung up
the phone. The last thing he needed this early in the
morning was a reminder of the biggest mistake of his life.
Shaking his head, he got up and started the drill exercise
for the morning. They had just enough time to run through it
before the kiddies came through.
People had these outrageous images of firemen just sitting
around the firehouse playing cards and dominoes and waiting
for the alarm to ring. Those images went out with Ward and
Beaver. Today's firemen were constantly learning and growing
on the job, with multiple drills performed daily, as well as
video training and lectures. They also had to clean the
firehouse, cook and perform community outreach by going to
schools and offering tours to students. The job was
multifaceted and he loved that part of it, almost as much as
he loved running into a blaze and saving lives.
He put the team through a drill of working the hose while on
the ladder. And soon the little ones were coming through the
door. He fully intended to greet them and then get the heck
out of Dodge.
"Welcome to Fire Station No. 5, girls and boys. My name is
Fire Captain Patrick Hightower." He paused and gave them a
chance to settle down a little. They were clearly hyped from
the walk over, and some of them seemed literally ready to
bounce off the walls. He scanned the crowd of munchkins,
then sought out their teacher.
Good, he thought; there are two of them. They should be able
to keep the kids corralled. His eyes skimmed right over the
young woman with the weird boots, even though she did look
familiar.