Fire Solves All Problems Perfectly pt 56

There’s not much more to see once the fire begins to die down but nobody moves a muscle, everybody stays to watch to firemen water and axe and rake, and now and then one of them will wander over to the crowd and people will shake their hand and say, looks like a read bad one buddy, and the fireman will say Nah, that was just a baby fire. There is no other job in town, no other time, no other people, who get seen like this, high in glory, braver than anything you could every say, and some day you’re going to be one of these. The idea is as heady as it ever was, and right here such a euphoria that you stumble a little, with Jason grabbing your arm and saying Watch it, boss. Your fathers brothers – the Shit-For-Brains Twins, your father calls them – have never had a job for more than six months between them; your mother’s brother was in the Army but got kicked out for being a drunk and nobody’s heard from him in a while. Everybody else grows up with a question mark over their heads about what they’re going to be, and even if they’re lucky enough to find something half good, it’ll still never in all of its life match the firemen on their daily days. All of these people, these teachers and doctors and bank workers, they look at your fathers like dogs, dumb and grateful, and you and all the fire kids look right back at them with the disgust they deserve, because each one of them is a dope, an unlit match that might kid your fathers someday – right there is Mr. Challand, the vice principal of the junior high school; his maple caught fire last year from the leaves he was burning beneath it in his backyard, and as annoyed as they were the firemen still suited up and brought their hoses with perfect seriousness, and that night at dinner Dan Bell explained to his son what a retard was, and how most of the town was populated with such.

You stay later than you should, until the street lights are on: your mother will ground you, but it’s worth it because as hoped your father finds you and Jason and Tim when Engine One is getting ready to leave, stowing your bikes under its ladder and letting you hang out of the window to wave to everybody. The fire kids cheer the loudest.