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Accidents Will Happen |
Captain Stanley put the receiver of his phone back down in
its cradle. Sighing, the man looked up at the ceiling and silently implored
to no one around, 'Why me? Why does it always have to be my station
that is always sent on these goodwill neighborhood missions? Why not
Station 110?' Then he thought of the station’s glory hound, Wheeler.
Shaking his head, he rose and strode out of his office. "Guys,"
he called for the attention of his two paramedics and other firefighters.
"We're to go to Carson Elementary School today about 11 a.m. It's
all a part of the chief's goodwill program to the community."
"But why us?" Marco asked.
"That's what I asked, but he said we were his choice," Stanley
responded as a blank expression passed over his face.
Time passed slowly for the men as they dreaded the clock ticking down towards
10:30. They tried to find some busy work to keep them occupied, but that
was
done an hour ago. Now each man silently wished for a run, anything, to
keep them from being at the school.
Unfortunately time was not on their side. Each man silently trodded to
their respective vehicles, their expressions would make an onlooker think they
were going to a funeral. Climbing onto the rig, Hank Stanley thought to
himself yet again, 'He still can't be mad over the hat thing. This has
got to be his punishment for burning his hat, and now my men have to pay, too.'
Silently they left the comfort of their station, and headed for the unknown
over at Carson Elementary. What kind of day would they have? Each man
wondered to himself, and then Johnny sighed.
"It's not gonna be that bad, Junior," Roy tried to comfort his partner.
"Not that bad? Do you remember that little fiasco that I had with
that group of kids over at Rampart?" Johnny stated forcefully.
"I remember," Roy commented. "But, you started off on the
wrong foot."
"What do you mean by that?" Johnny asked as an eyebrow arched.
"Well, you thought they were closer to kids in diapers."
Johnny sighed, as he
slumped back into his seat knowing he wasn't going to win either way.
As the squad rounded a corner, both paramedics could see the red brick school a
half block away. Johnny sighed again; there was a nagging at the back of
his brain. . .something was telling him that this was going to be bad day.
Both vehicles pulled into the schools bus loading area, and Hank jumped off the
engine to notify the principal of their arrival. The men climbed out of
their vehicles, and Mike Stoker made sure he had taken the key to the
engine. He had heard what had happened out at Station 45 when they had done
one of these trips. One of the little darlings had taken the key and refused
to give it back until he got a ride on the engine.
Hank exited the building as the first class came out. All the ooh's and
ahh's that the men received made them feel better. Things were going
great, and the kids were behaving themselves.
Even Johnny now felt silly about his misgivings over the whole event, until the
principal came out of the building and whispered something into Hank's ear.
Seeing the expression of slight fear on his commanding officer's face, Johnny
knew something was up.
"What's wrong, Cap?" Johnny asked.
Stanley had his men gather in a quick huddle. "Mr. Phillips says the
classes are taking too long. Now he's going to have the classes who
haven't yet seen the engine and squad come out as one group."
As soon as the men turned, the sea of children rushed forward and the mayhem
began. Kids began swarming over both vehicles like bees in a hive.
Two of the
older ones managed to get into the cab. How, and Mike would never know
how they did it, the two boys managed to get the lights flashing and siren
blaring nobody could fathom.
The smallest children squealed in delight, and began to run rings around the
firemen. Chet managed to get to the cab and peeled the boys out of the
seats that the two rascals had latched onto. Quickly he turned the lights
and siren off. Another darling reached in and blared the air horn making
the little ones squeal even more.
About twenty children managed to get into the hose bed of the engine.
They were working hard to pull one of the hoses off. Mike climbed up,
only to be tackled
by a couple of boys who wanted to know where the axe was.
Marco was trying to help Mike, but he was being bombed by questions, and a
couple of girls who kept taking his helmet from his head every time he got close
to the side of the engine. Marco began to swear in Spanish under his
breath, as he took his helmet back again from the pair of giggling girls.
Hank was having his fair share of troubles, as a trio of little girls played
ring-around-the-rosie around him. He heard a familiar click and turned
around just in time to stop another child from getting the axe out of its
compartment. Taking the fire-fighting implement away from the child, the
boy stomped on Hank's toes. "That's what you get, Mr. Fireman, for
stopping my fun."
'Fun?' Hank asked himself as he put the axe back into it's home. 'This is
more like a madhouse!'
Johnny and Roy were having their own problems. Johnny had just picked up a
little girl off the back of the squad when he felt something warm and wet on
his shirt. Holding the girl out to her teacher, "Did you have to do
that?" he asked as her teacher gave him an apologetic look. The
little blonde-haired, blue-eyed child grinned and shook her head up and down in
an affirmative motion. Johnny wiped at his shirt disgustedly.
Roy felt someone kick him in the shins. "I said, I want a ride on
the engine," a boy screamed at him.
Reaching out, Roy grabbed the boy and replied, "Not in this
lifetime if you continue to treat firemen that way."
The teachers, principal and other school employees were able to round up their
charges and get them back into the school. The men gratefully left the
school as quickly as they dared to get the rescue equipment moving.
Johnny groaned again as the smell from the girl’s accident lingered in his
nostrils. He had taken off both his T-shirt and uniform shirt, putting on
his turnout coat. He noticed the tug of a grin on his partner’s
face. "Don't say it!" Johnny warned.
"Well, Junior, you know what they say about the little ones," Roy
paused for effect. "Accidents will happen."
"Why me?" Johnny asked as his partner’s chortling grew.
"Why couldn't it have been a fire... a car wreck... but no, it had to be a
little girl."
The End
