By Audrey W.
The six firemen from Station 51’s A-shift sat gathered in front of the TV set in the dayroom, three on the couch against the wall and the others in chairs brought over from the table. Although it was early evening, the room was darkened with the curtains drawn and the overhead lights out.
Paramedic Roy DeSoto accepted the large bowl of popcorn from his partner John Gage, then grabbed a handful before passing it on to his right where Chet Kelly sat, his gaze fixed on the classic black and white horror film they were viewing.
Kelly never took his eyes off the television screen, absently grabbing a handful of the lightly buttered and salted snack food. He then handed the bowl to Marco Lopez, who shook his head at the curly-haired fireman’s obvious obsession with old B horror flicks.
After he’d taken his share, Marco passed the bowl onto Mike Stoker, who was on the couch beside him. He followed suit with the others, but instead of handing their captain the bowl, held it out for him to grab a handful.
After a few moments, the process was repeated in the other direction. As John popped his latest pieces into his mouth one at a time, he stopped a moment and held one up in the light given off by the TV screen. A smile spread across his face as he announced, “Hey, it’s an opocorn!”
“Shhhhhhh,” came the reply from Chet as the others glanced over in curiosity. They then eyed Kelly, wondering how he could be so lost in an old movie with cheesy special effects that he wouldn’t even notice Gage had named his popcorn.
Feeling the stares, Chet looked around. “What?”
John took the question as being addressed to him and repeated, “I said, it’s an opocorn.”
Chet looked around again, wondering what he’d missed. When everyone else appeared as lost as him, he sighed.
“Alright, so what’s an opocorn? Is that some traditional name for it on the reservation?”
The dark-haired paramedic shrugged as he plopped the piece in his mouth. “Popcorn turned inside out, sorta. . .well, the word pop anyway. I just wanted to see if I could get your attention away from the movie.” He returned his attention to the TV as he munched.
Chet eyed the others. “You believe he did that?”
They had to admit to themselves, knowing the way Chet and John were with each other, they did.
I accidentally typed popcorn as opocorn in an email and wondered. . ."hmmmm. . .what kind of story could go with a title like that?" So I decided to play with it just for fun. :o)
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