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They said goodbye. Ava felt strangely empty after hanging up. She imagined all the young women converging upon the Saint house, the sisters-in-law and the aunts, waiting for the return of their men. Maybe she’d go next time, sure there would be a next time during wildfire season.
***
Because of his low-man status, Leon Saint rode in a van carrying firefighters up to the county line fire, not in an engine like the senior guys did. He was okay with it, new enough at the job to be more comfortable as a worker bee. He’d be a guy with an ax and shovel, in a row of men all doing the same thing. Or a set of strong arms unfurling the hose off the truck, hauling it along with other strong bodies, taking it as far as it would reach.
The turnout gear he wore was still new looking. They made sure their oxygen tanks were full and their respirators were in working condition. During the forty-minute ride up to the fire, Leon’s thoughts wove back and forth between his daughter, that little bundle of cuteness he had learned to love with all his being in four short weeks, and the job at hand, hiking through unknown terrain fighting a fire.
They’d been told at the briefing that the land up there was similar to the back country where they fought fires: rocky, steep elevations covered with dry brush. Phones in the van beeped again.
“Yikes. Maybe they canceled us,” one guy said.
No such luck. The message was an update from CalFire. One hundred eighty-three acres, zero percent containment. The fire was located in East Fork Wilderness of the San Bernardino Forest, moving north and east. One hundred seventy personnel were on duty, with more on the way, fourteen engines, including one from #34, three water tenders, two dozers, one night-flying helicopter and air attack. They would do big aircraft water and fire retardant drops in daylight. The cause was under investigation. The area had had lightning, and it could have started from a lightning strike.
His phone beeped again. A text from his father.Be careful, buddy. You’re my father’s namesake. You’re my baby boy.
Hoping no tears leaked out of his eyes, Leon quickly texted him back, trying to reassure him.Pop, love you. I’ll be careful.Imagining the scene at home, he pictured his father at the kitchen counter, making coffee, preparing for an all-night vigil with the women. He texted again.Is everyone there?
Yep, even your aunt Carol, whose ass is as big as ever.
Leon laughed out loud at that, letting Big Mike have the last word. It made him feel good, thinking of everyone there at the ranch, all the generations of firefighters who had lived there, praying for him. He didn’t think of Ava and baby Violet not being in the group, because they were still separate from the rest of the family.
They arrived at the fire at two in the morning. The fire chief from that district was handing out assignments, and Leon was placed in a group that would hike through heavy brush to an anchor point where they would start digging a fire line. They’d dig a three-foot-wide strip down to soil with no vegetation that would hopefully act as a firebreak to protect the firefighters working behind it. It was hard work that could be dangerous, as well. In Leon’s case, he had a beer or two under his belt and was existing on little sleep, but adrenaline kept him moving forward.
Bleakly trying to shine through a smoke-filled sky, orange daylight peeked up over the ridge at six thirty. He stopped to take a drink of water. They were in a relatively smokeless place down by the ground, a thousand feet higher in elevation than where they began. The firefighters in better shape had moved ahead, and Leon was in that group. His body ached, but the rhythm of the other men and women using their axes and shovels made his labor easier as he kept in step with them.
This was what he’d trained for. As he was growing up, men in his family made their living fighting fires. It was just taken for granted that they’d do it when they graduated high school. But not everyone heard the call. His uncle John went on to become a doctor, and cousin Oliver had gone on to regular college when the others enrolled in the fire academy.
Oliver had just been drafted to play football with the Lions, moving from San Diego to the Detroit suburbs, where the weather was like being in a foreign country. “I’m freezing my ass off,” he’d told Leon.
Oliver’s brother, Paul, was a firefighter in a district north of Station #34. “Leon?”
He turned around and was face-to-face with Paul. They hadn’t seen each other since the last family gathering at the beach. Leon tucked his ax under his arm and hugged Paul.
“Is anyone else here?” he asked. “I saw my dad down at the anchor point.”
Paul and Oliver’s father was Charlie Saint, battalion chief at #34.
“Tony and Joey are somewhere with the engine. When did you get here?”
“At dinnertime last night. I’d better get back in line, but I heard you were here. I’ll probably see you at Thanksgiving.”
“Definitely. Be safe.”
They saluted each other, and the silly gesture made them smile. Seeing Paul gave Leon an extra shot of adrenaline. The job would get done no matter how exhausting it was. He was a firefighter. He was a Saint.
Chapter 7
Late the evening of the next day, with the fire at fifty percent containment, the team hiked back down the mountain to a makeshift canteen with porta-potties and a water station. Leon checked to see if he had cell service, and when it was clear there wasn’t any, he just hoped Ava knew she could call his family for updates, which would be coming through headquarters to his father, Big Mike.
Suddenly, he missed baby Violet. His actual shift was supposed to start the next morning, meaning he wouldn’t even have a chance to see her for three more days. It was the sacrifice firefighters made for the job, which probably was unappreciated by the general public. He didn’t care. His father had raised them with the motto that they served mankind by protecting them and their possessions at all costs.
“You ready to head out, Saint?”
He turned to see his uncle Charlie. “Can we leave?”
“Four of you have work tomorrow. Take off and go see your family tonight. Things are under control here. I’ll catch up with you at the station in the morning. You did a good job, Leon.”
“Thanks, Uncle Charlie.”
