Note: This story is just intended for fun, and was intentionally written as an exaggeration.

The Buffer Zone

By Audrey W.

Johnny and Roy climbed out of the squad after returning from a run. Stepping around the front of the vehicle, the younger man caught up to the other.

“Should we update the log book while we’ve got a chance?” Gage asked.

“Let’s get some coffee first. I’m beat.”

“Sounds good.”

As the two paramedics neared the doorway of the dayroom, they could hear the sound of an appliance humming. Once inside, they stopped in their tracks. Chet was running a buffer over the floor and the dust particles it was kicking up could be seen in the air.

“Chet!” Johnny yelled just before he sneezed. A cough followed as some of the particles got in his throat. “Oh man,” he croaked as he sneezed again. Gage quickly pulled part of his shirt up towards his nose and mouth.

Roy waved his right arm in an over-exaggerated motion to clear the air. He sneezed a couple of times, then went over and tapped the busy fireman on the left shoulder.

Chet turned off the machinery. “What?”

Gage and DeSoto were looking in wonder at the dust particles still in the air, each man covering the lower half of his face respectively.

“What’s wrong with you two?”

Johnny lowered his hand and shirt. He regretted it as soon as he sneezed again. “Chet, did you sweep the floor before you ran the buffer on it?”

“Uh. . .sweep?”

Both paramedics nodded.

“C-shift tracked in a lot of fine dirt from their last call this morning, remember?” Roy reminded. “That’s why Cap stressed it needed a thorough job done on it. The floor wasn’t as clean as usual.”

Kelly gave an embarrassed grin. “Ah-oops.”

“It works better if you wet the floor first, too. After you sweep it, of course,” Gage pointed out.

DeSoto shook his head at the curly-haired fireman, sneezing again.

Johnny coughed, sneezed, then cleared his throat. He stepped over to his partner and gave a questioning look. “The logbook?”

The older man nodded. “The logbook.”

As the two paramedics left the room, Chet looked around, debating if he should hold off on the buffer and sweep instead.

“Nah. Anything that keeps Gage out of my hair can’t be wrong.”

Absently giving a small cough himself, he shrugged and turned the buffer back on, ignoring the fine dust in the air. A smile crept to his face as he realized that not even the ‘Phantom’ had ever cleared a room so quick.

The End

This came about from an incident with the night cleaning crew at work.