Page 8 of Courageous Yearnings

He was barely a friend – who was a boy – and that’s all there could be.

The next afternoon, when Blythe got to the fire station, Lance was out on a run. She walked inside as a man in his forties walked out of his office. She almost did an about-face when she realized it was Lance’s boss from the photo shoot.

“Can I help you?”

“I was just dropping this off for Lance Cortes.”

“Oh hey – I remember you,” the man began, smiling. “I’m Chief Carpenter, and we really appreciated your donation last year. You know they bought the children bicycles at the orphanage with the money we raised. I love doing stuff like that where it goes to good use, you know?”

“I agree,” she smiled easily, nodding. “It’s hard when you don’t see where the money in the boot goes to…”

“Ha, ha, ha,” the fire chief chuckled. “That’s why we don’t do the whole ‘waiting around at the stop sign’ peddling. People don’t give, and I don’t want to put anyone in danger. We’ll just come up with other creative ways to raise money like calendars, bingo, or chili cook-offs.”

“Well, there you go!” she praised and hesitated. “Can you give this to Lance for me? I’ve got to head home.”

“Sure thing,” he smiled. “What was your name again?”

“Mud,” she chuckled. Mud spelled backward was dumb, and she sure felt like it sometimes. “He’ll know who it’s from.”

“You want to leave him a message?”

“Nope.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. It’s easier. Have a good night, Chief Carpenter.”

3

LANCE

“Hey, Cortes… you guys take the roof and check it out.”

“No mice up there, bro,” Alec taunted and pounded his hand against Colton’s as the two chuckled easily.

Lance made a face, knowing it was deliberately being childish, but he was the youngest in the group. They were spread thin already, and he knew Colton was going to be stuck on the ground because he was the only one with experience running the truck. The newest captain transferred to another gig, and the engineer just ‘up-and-quit’ one morning with no notice.

In fact, it was getting so bad that Lance put in a request to speak to the chief this afternoon. He wanted on the other truck, because being so short-handed was going to end up getting someone killed.

Climbing the ladder with Alec, following him. The two cleared the roof of the brick building and began using their pikes to test the surface. They weren’t up there for two minutes when he heard a yelp nearby, followed by silence. Alec literally dropped through the roof, disappearing from sight, not two feet from where he was standing.

Lance screamed out a blasphemy so loudly that his voice rattled in his chest. That could have been him! He was tense, trying to move through the rampant fear to get to the other fireman who was about to start screaming in the throes of a horrible death at any moment. He heard Colton yelling from the truck, already aware of the chaos that was happening.

“ALEC! ALEC! CAN YOU HEAR ME?” he hollered, laying on his stomach across the roof and using his pike to reach down into the blackness that was yawning before him as smoke clouded his visor. “Alec! ALEC!”

And he heard Colton coming up behind him, actually leaving the truck to help rescue Alec. The man was barking orders, dragging him away from the opening, and yelling at him in rapid-fire.

“Get back, it’s soft here… I know you are worried, but you can’t help him if you die too,” Colton was snapping hotly, not at him but at the situation. “Look, think, listen… and act! I don’t see flames, but…”

“Ohhh, man,” came a groan from below.

“Alec?! Oh my gosh, man – are you okay?”

“This is not what I imagined the first layer of hell to look like… and frankly? I’m severely disappointed. Where’s the hookers?”

Alec’s voice floated upward and the sheer audacity to ask a stupid question like that caught him by surprise… and Colton too. Lance giggled nervously and looked at the other man, only to see the older firefighter roll his eyes.

“You big nitwit,” Colton muttered loudly. “Are you hurt?”

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