It meant shut up or die.
The crew worked diligently until the morning sun rose. Dawn brought enough light to begin stowing the equipment, along with an eerie silence. The firefighters all seemed to conclude the same thing without talking about it: Some bastard had attacked one of their own with the very devil they devoted their lives to destroying.
When the last hoses were stowed and the pumper drained, Lamar called the firefighters together. They stood in a loose circle, facing him, helmets tucked under their arms or dangling loosely in their exhausted hands.
“I want to say thanks for your time and your hard—“ Lamar paused. He looked around until he spotted me sitting on the steps of the galley, my helmet still on and my face dusted with soot. “Boone, come on over here. Like I was saying, thanks for all y’all did for us here today. Mary Harriet and me owe you one.”
The vollies nodded and grunted.
Julia patted her belly. “You done talking, Cap? My gut says its time to eat.”
Lamar laughed, but his reply was cut short when blue lights hit the group.
Sheriff Hoyt drove his prowler through the maze of pickup trucks. He parked near the house and killed the lights. “Looks like you folks had some trouble.”
“Surprised to see you out this early,” Lamar said when they shook hands in greeting.
“Mary Harriet called.” Hoyt took a seat on the steps. “Y’all got any coffee? I like it with a dollop of cream and two spoons of sugar.”
Lamar leaned on the stair railing. “Boone, get the sheriff some coffee.”
“Yes, Captain,” I said curtly and shucked my turnouts by the door.
Inside, Mom was making pancakes and sausages. A pot of coffee was already perking.
“Hoyt ordered coffee,” I said.
“Cream’s in the fridge.”
I retrieved it. “He said you called him.”
“Don’t sound do judgy.” Mom sighed. “We’ll need a police report for the insurance company.”
I poured the coffee into two cups. Outside, Hoyt’s voice rose. The sheriff talked with his hands, and the hands were moving faster. Lamar was talking, too, his mandible jutting forward.
I knew that face.
The captain was angry.
“Lamar likes his black?” I asked.
“He does,” Mom flipped a stack of pancakes on a plate. “One cup will be enough.”
I doctored the coffee and took it outside. When I pushed the door open, Lamar and Hoyt stopped talking.
“Drink up.” I handed Hoyt the cup.
Hoyt thanked me, then asked, “Boone, exactly where we you when the barn caught fire?”
“In the sleeping area. Asleep.”
“How’d you know the barn was on fire?”
“Smoke. Heat. Smell of kerosene in the morning.”
“You got the horses out mighty fast.”
“A fire’s a great motivator.”
Hoyt blew on the coffee to cool it. “How about that Nagswood fire? You got there early.”
“It was engulfed when I arrived,” I said. “What are you accusing me of?”
“I’ll ask the questions,” Hoyt said. “Now about this Tin City house. You got that call mighty fast, too.”
“I was in school dissecting a rat’s scrotum when the call came in. You saw me on the highway with Deputy Pete, and you got there before I did.”
“Hoyt.” Lamar lowered his voice. “This is Boone, not some goddamn firebug. Somebody burned our barn, but it wasn’t him, and you know it.”
“Who did then?” Hoyt said. “Where did it start?”
“Call the fire marshal,” Lamar said. “He can tell you once he gets back from vacation.”
“Don’t need him to tell me, since I just locked up the real arsonist.”
“Who’s that?” I asked.
“Why, your good friend Stumpy Meeks.” Hoyt tugged on the brim of his hat and nodded. “Thanks for the coffee. Y’all have a nice day.”
3
After breakfast was finished, I leaned on the hood of my truck drinking a bottle of beer. The odor of leftover sweat mixed with wood smoke, the worn cloth of the turnouts, and the battered boots that had protected my feet.
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
“What’s wrong?” Mom came around the truck and took a seat next to me. “Sounds like you lost you best friend in the world.”
“Worse. My research was ruined by the fire.” There was more anger in my voice than I expected. “I know that breaks your heart.”
“Actually,” she said, “it does. I watched you pour your heart and soul into that project. Even if your research was disgusting, I’m still proud of the work you did.”
Her words sunk in. I nodded and smiled.
“You could always start over.”
“I wouldn’t be able to get it together in time for the Olympiad,” I said. “I’ll have to hand in my data and hope even though I didn’t make the Olympiad, Dr. K still accepts the report and lets me pass the class.”
“You are just like your daddy, you know.” Mom pointed to the field where five head of Black Angus. “I liked the cowboy in your father. Don’t laugh. It’s hard to think about a man who now works for an international bank as a cowboy. That’s because you’re only looking at the clothes, not the man who wears them. Close your eyes for a second. Feel the wind blowing? Catch the smell of the hay and the dirt? Now imagine your father on a horse, wearing a Stetson and chaps.”
“Chaps?”
“Wipe that smirk off your face. Imagine that field is the prairie, and there are a thousand head of Angus you’ve got to drive to market, and with the only thing in front of you is the wide-open frontier waiting to be explored. That’s what drew me to your daddy. He was a cowboy, and my whole life was new frontier.”
“So what broke you up?”
“That’s the problem with cowboys. When you live for the saddle, you see the rest of the world as a cow. I’m nobody’s cow.”
I laughed out loud.
So did she. “That didn’t come out right, but you catch my drift. Lamar’s proud of you.”
“He said that?”
“Lamar doesn’t say what he’s thinking. You have to read his signals.”
“If he’s proud of me, why am I not back on the squad?”
“I guess he thinks you’re not ready yet. Or he’s not ready yet. In Lamar’s eye, you’re not the worst kind of firefighter. He saves that spot for the guys who played it safe, who don’t do the grunt work or pack gear.”
I knew that type. They were fire voyeurs, willing to watch, but never willing to step into the fire with his brothers. Last one in, first one out. That kind of guy would get you killed. Which was different from a man willing to get himself killed trying to be a hero. Heroes were dangerous, too. In their own way.
“Now tell me about this pretty little Cedar and you.”
“What about Cedar and me?”
She cocked an eyebrow. “Since you’ve been back home, exactly zero girls had come around, and now I’ve seen you two together more than twice. That adds up to Cedar and you.”
“It’s only been a week, Mom, and I’m not sure it’s going to work out.”
“Are you blind? She’s crazy about you.”
I shook my head. “I thought so, too. Now, I don’t know. I told her something important, and she just left me hanging.”
“What did I say about reading people’s signals? Try reading hers.”
“It’s not that easy. She mixes them up a lot.”
“If it were easy, it wouldn’t be worth it, right?” she said. “Now get off your butt. Time for class.”
“But I stink like smoke,” I said. “I need a bath.”
“Sorry. I had to shut down the well pump to use the pond water.”
“No shower?”
“Maybe you could use the school’s? They still have showers in the rec center, right? It’s your choice, Boone.”
I could either stink like sweaty charcoal all day or get naked in a locker room.