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I told him calmly for the second time, that we should talk about this somewhere else, and he flat out refused. “I don't want to go somewhere privately with you. I want to know what you did with my sister. I want to know now!” Lester demanded for all to hear.
Everybody was looking at us and I knew that there was going to be disciplinary actions if we didn't take this off the main floor. Because he refused to come with me, I just started to walk away. I didn't know what I was supposed to say, but I was formulating a plan as I walked away from everyone and all the attention that I wanted to get away from. “Where are you going? I was talking to you!” Lester yelled after me, obviously no longer caring what was said about us.
I felt his hand on my shoulder as he tried to pull me back. There was a gasp from somebody that was watching, and I turned around in time to see a fist coming at me. I wasn't expecting that, not so quickly anyway. I hadn’t even confessed my crimes yet, but within seconds it was clear that he had violence on his mind.
I blocked the first punch but didn't see the left coming at me moments later. He about knocked me out he hit me so damn hard, and I wanted to hit him back, but I tried to hold back. This was my friend. We were at work. This was all too much and had to be figured out without coming to blows.
“I can't believe you fucked my sister!” Lester was coming out wild.
There was no talking to him, and he hit me three times in the face before I hit him back. It was a sickening feeling to hit a friend, even worse of a feeling when he fell because of it, knocked out. I knew Lester wasn’t a fighter and now he was down for the count. What had I done?
I heard a familiar voice behind us, and it was probably the last person I wanted to see this. “What are you guys doing!”
I looked behind me and sure enough, she was looking back at me with a worried expression on her face that was quite clear. She saw me take her brother down, not seeing much else. She immediately thought it was my fault and not Lester’s, even though I had tried my best to avoid this from happening.
We had already talked about how we were going to try to make it easier on him. If anything, I felt like she had said something to him to rile him up so much. He had said plain as day that Beatrice had mentioned something to him. He had known we’d been together, or suspected it enough that he had caused a scene in front of everyone at work. I didn’t think that he would do that on a whim. Lester wasn’t that way.
“How could you do this to my brother?” Beatrice asked, still appearing to be in shock. Everyone was just staring, and I was feeling the weight of it all on my head. Lester screaming about what I’d done, Beatrice blaming me for it too.
I could feel blood in my mouth and I'm pretty sure there was some sliding down my forehead from my hairline. Were we just going to pretend like that hadn’t happened? I hadn’t started it. How could she think that of me?
“I didn't mean to do anything to your brother. He came at me, and I had no choice. I was defending myself.”
“You didn't need to do this.”
I agreed wholeheartedly but she didn't seem to understand that I hadn't had a choice. Her brother hit like a Mack truck and crumpled like tissue paper. How was that my fault? I tried to apologize, but Beatrice didn't want to hear it. She was mad at me, apparently; this was all my fault and there was nothing I could say to prove otherwise. This situation pushed my limits. There was no right answer. I had questions, but no answers and that was frustrating. It made it impossible to figure out what to do.
There was a call and I had to go on it. Lester was my partner, but since he was still out cold, I was down a partner. Of everything that was going on, my mind noted that more than anything else. It was a silly thing to think about, but I knew it was true.
I had to ride with the newbie Danny. I didn’t know him all that well, but he seemed nice enough. He was young and green, though I hadn’t heard about any problems with him.
He asked me what was going on.
“Just some personal stuff.”
“Well, it’s not too personal. He screamed it at the whole firehouse. Is his sister the new dispatcher?” Danny asked with a grin.
I told Danny not to worry about it, and he got this nervous look on his face like he had just realized that he was getting involved in something that he shouldn't. I wasn't necessarily threatening him, but the last thing I wanted to do was talk about it. If he was looking at Beatrice, he should just stop. After he realized I wasn’t in the mood for conversation, we rode the rest of the way there in silence.
The fire was supposed to be in an abandoned building, but by the time we got there, it was burning hotter than any fire I had ever seen before. I could feel the heat through my suit and as I put the helmet on, I knew that I had messed up. I wanted Lester here with me, not Danny. There was nothing wrong with Danny, he was a good firefighter and all, but I had been working with Lester for so long, that I trusted him more than I trusted anybody else. I knew that he would do the job, but I wished that it was Lester watching my back over Danny.
We got into the place and even though it was supposed to be empty, there were several people that were passed out on the ground. It looked like they were doing drugs, hopefully not an overdose on top of the place burning down on top of them. I saw three figures on the ground. I got the first one closest to me and started dragging the woman out. She was small but limp and weighed hardly anything, so I was back in before Danny was even halfway out with the first guy. I looked up at the ceiling, noting that the fire was spreading fast, like it had accelerant.
“You need to hustle; this place isn't going to stay standing much longer.”
I agreed, but still needed to get the third person out. About that time, I saw a fourth person in the corner through the smoke. I dragged out the third one, but it took longer. The guy, who weighed probably two hundred pounds and that was dead weight, took some time to navigate out of the burning trap house.
He was unresponsive and the two that had already been pulled out were still lying on the ground. I was going to go back in, but I couldn't find Danny anywhere. He was supposed to know where I was, as we were on the buddy system. I couldn't wait though; the place was about to go up, and there was still one more person in there.
I got to the fourth person, and it looked like a kid of maybe 15 or 16, and there was an overdose in progress. His eyes were rolled back in his head. The kid was still breathing, which was a good sign, but he wasn't going to be breathing for long. Neither one of us would be, if we didn't get out of here. About the time I thought that, part of the roof started to collapse and I did the only thing I could think to do. I shielded the teen’s body with my own, as the whole place came down around us.
I don't remember much after that, just the heavy feel of the ceiling on me, and the heat that surrounded and suffocated what felt like every inch of my body. It was too heavy to get up, and blackness took over before the heat could get to me. I was thankful for that if nothing else.
21
Beatrice
Iwas looking down at my brother as a bandage was put over his head. I asked him what in the world he was thinking. Lester just had a sheepish grin on his face and apologized. “I don’t know what I was thinking, Beatrice. I knew that Jeff would flatten me. I am sorry that I said all of that.”
