Page 7 of Dear Firefighter Hero
“I hope you like scrubbing toilets!”
Some of the people sitting at the tables between the two griddles give Traynor a look of disgust for bringing that up while they are eating.
"I'm sorry about that, folks," He says sincerely to them.
I grab onto Traynor’s bicep. “Umm, you didn’t say anything about there being a wager.”
"Don't worry about it," he says, his smile never wavering. "We got this in the bag."
“Got what in the bag? What are we doing?”
“Pancake flipping contest. And if you are a fraction as good as it sounds like you might be, we will be unstoppable.”
“Who will Rhodes be teaming up with?” I ask.
“That would be me,” a female voice says as she walks up to us. “I’m Hazel.”
She holds out her hand out to me. I pull at the cuff of my sleeve before I take it.
“I see you got roped into this wager as well.”
I look at Traynor as he bounces on the balls of his feet in excitement. “I guess I did.”
Hazel stares at me like she’s trying to place where she knows me. “You work at Harper’s Market, right?”
“That’s me.”
"You are a whiz at finding me all the coupons in the flyer that I miss."
She seems impressed by this, but that’s what happens when you check people out all day—you memorize the flyer front to back.
“I try to help everyone save as much as they can.”
“Well, I better go before my fiancé thinks I’m in cahoots with the enemy.” Hazel chuckles and gives me a quick wink before walking off towards Rhodes.
The pancake flipping competition turns out to be a bigger deal than I could have imagined. Hazel and I are tasked with catching the pancakes that Traynor and Rhodes will be flipping obscenely high in the air and over the head of many of the townspeople finishing up their breakfasts. All we are given to use is a paper plate or our hands to catch the fluffy disks.
Out of the gate, Traynor and I complete each challenge as it’s given to us. It definitely helps that Traynor seems to know how to wield a spatula and throw a buttermilk pancake with the ease of a quarterback sending a football down the field to a wide receiver.
We've moved into the lead, as I'm standing a full table length past Hazel. She looks a frustrated as Rhodes sounds.
“Babe!” Rhodes yells. “That was right to you.”
I don’t blame Hazel for missing the pancake. It soared over her head like it was an edible fastball and hit a man in the back of the head.
“Flip another like that one more time, and you'll be eating the pancake off the ground!” Hazel calls back.
The crowd titters with laughter at the bickering between our opponents. Rhodes seems to be rethinking his strategy of blaming his fiancé for their missteps even if some of them aren’t all his fault.
“Lou!” Traynor calls to me. “If we get this, victory is ours!”
Excitement flutters through the spectators, and I can feel more eyes on me than I would typically be comfortable with before this moment. For the first time in a long time, I don't mind the attention. Before my accident, I didn't hide away from people, and this is the first time I feel okay being seen.
“Ready?” he asks.
I give him the thumbs up.
Traynor gives me a quick wink and smile before he turns around and thrusts his arms up into the air over his head. The pancake soars high up into the air, and I can already tell that he's overshot it. I start backing up, careful not to hit someone sitting at one of the tables. I give up on any chance of catching this thing with my plate, so I thrust my arm up into the air to catch the pancake. As it flies over my head, I’m still able to jump and reach high, grasping my fingers around it and smashing the pancake in the process.
