Page 3 of An Adventure For Aster

“But showing kids around the fire trucks?” Carter asked. “Even I can’t stand doing this. Half of them have runny noses and are wise guys.”

“Weren’t we all wise guys at that age?” he asked. He knew he was. Maybe he did some of it for attention, but his parents only thought it was funny. Almost encouraged it at some points.

He’d told Zane he wanted to volunteer when he moved here and his buddy had been all for it knowing the community needed it and told Aster to do what he wanted and when he had to. Aster always made the time up, that was never an issue. But right now with the expansion being built on the manufacturing plant, they didn’t start until later in the day and worked into the night so that they didn’t disrupt production for Blossoms.

Once they got past this phase they could go back to working normal hours, but for now, he had some time this morning for this.

“I was,” Carter said, “but my mother would knock it out of me if I got too carried away.”

Aster snorted. “I didn’t have that worry.” His mother would have had to be around enough for that.

“Here they come,” Carter said.

He looked out the window and saw the school bus pull up. He’d been on a few calls for fires, but in his mind, this would be more fun.

He’d always liked kids even if he wasn’t around them much.

In the service, when he was in another country, he’d try to learn some of the language enough to entertain the kids in the villages they were protecting when he wasn’t on missions.

He’d be out kicking or throwing balls with them. It lightened up the day in an otherwise horrible situation.

The bus came to a stop and the doors opened, one by one kids climbed out in single file. He’d been told there’d be three grades, kindergarten through second grade on this trip.

There were maybe fifty kids in total. Not very big classrooms for that.

“Everyone line up with your classroom, please,” he heard an older woman say. There were groups of three behind whom he assumed were the teachers.

His eyes went to one that didn’t look to be much taller than maybe a sixth grader.

She had light brown hair that was past her shoulders, but he couldn’t see how long from the front. Her hair was tucked behind her ears and she had very little makeup on. She wore tan cotton pants, an olive green fleece that fit her petite body zipped up and a pair of brown flats on her feet.

“Ms. Scarsdale, I’ve got to go to the bathroom,” one kid yelled. It was in the classroom of the teacher he’d been looking at.

“Tyler, I asked if everyone had to go before we left,” Ms. Scarsdale said. “Did you not go?”

“I didn’t think I had to gothen,” Tyler said.

Aster saw the young teacher’s shoulders drop. “I can show you where the bathroom is,” he said.

“Go on,” the older teacher said. “I’ll keep an eye on the group.”

“While your classmate is going to the bathroom, why don’t I bring you all over to the fire truck and show you some of the fun things we get to play with on it?” Carter said.

For a guy who said he didn’t like kids that much, he could hear the laughter of the kids and the horn going off as he walked Tyler and his teacher into the building.

“Thank you,” she said. “I should have known this would happen even though I asked the kids multiple times. If I had more time I would have made them all line up and try to go before we left.”

Tyler went into the bathroom while Aster stayed outside the door with Ms. Scarsdale. “You can’t make the body go if it’s not ready.”

“No,” she said, grinning. “I just hope he’s not staring at the wall and then says he has to go again in twenty minutes because he couldn’t right now.”

“Want me to pop my head in there and take a listen?” he asked.

“This is horrible, but could you?”

He moved closer to the door, pushed it open and leaned in, saw the boy at the stall and heard the tinkle into the urinal.

“He’s going,” he said.

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