Page 23 of From the Flames
“You’ve been in here all afternoon,” Evelyn said as she stepped inside. She set a box on his desk. “This arrived for you, so I brought it up from the break room.”
“What is it?” He only had a few more exams to grade, and he really wanted them done so he wouldn’t have to finish them over the weekend. He looked at the box and pulled the note attached. “Is it from Kevin?” It certainly hadn’t been sent through the mail.
“He asked me to deliver it when I saw you, but you’ve been sequestered in here all day, so I figured I’d better bring it to you.”
Willy opened the box and immediately smelled a little smoke. He pulled off the tissue paper and gasped. “Where did he get this…?” He gently pulled out the small bronze dog. He checked it over, realizing it was his.
“This week, Kevin was able to get into your old building, and he found this in the basement in a pile of ash and debris. WhenKevin told me, I said I expected it was yours. You had shown me a picture of it.”
“Yeah. My grandmother used this as a doorstop.” He stared in disbelief. The dog had been on a shelf in his living room, and he never thought he’d see it again. “And Kevin found it.”
“Yeah. He wasn’t sure how to go about cleaning it or anything, so apparently he brushed off the soot and pretty much left it. They’ve had him working long hours, so he asked me to bring it in for you.” She smiled.
“I appreciate it so much.” It was hard to describe how it felt to have this back. With everything else gone, it meant a great deal to have something of his past restored to him. Willy picked up his phone and sent Kevin a text with plenty of smiley faces. Kevin messaged right back with how happy he was. “But why didn’t he give it to me himself?” He could feel the weight of doubt pressing on him.
“Well, they changed his schedule. One of the guys got injured on a call, and he’s out for a few days. Kevin took one of his shifts to help cover, so he has to work tomorrow and Sunday, and he didn’t want you to have to wait to get it.” Even she sounded disappointed. “I know this is difficult.”
“Yeah, it is. But it’s the life of a firefighter. He helped us a lot, and there are other people who need him now.” Willy shrugged as though he were making light of it, but he had been looking forward to seeing him all week, and between their schedules, they hadn’t been able to manage anything.
“Hey, none of that. It’s just part of the job and has nothing to do with how he thinks about you.” She rolled her eyes. “Now I’m going to leave you to get back to work so you can pick up the kids.” She patted his shoulder and then left the office.
Willy put the dog back in the box and set it aside. He figured he could clean it when he got home. He set about finishing thelast of the exams and then grabbed the box and hurried out of the building to pick up April and Grant.
“WHAT DIDyou do today?” Willy asked once he had the kids buckled in their seats.
“Played dolls,” April said, but Grant was unusually quiet.
“Grant,” Willy prompted, “what did you learn?”
“That Tawan is a poopoo head and I don’t want to talk to him no more.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “He said I took his truck and I didn’t and I told Miss Mary that I didn’t and he said I did. But I didn’t, and then Miss Mary found his truck in his bag and Tawan said I put it there so I wouldn’t get in trouble after I took it, but I never took it.” He sounded ready to cry.
“What did Miss Mary say?”
“That Tawan forgot his truck was in his bag and that it wasn’t nice to call me a stealer. Tawan said sorry, but I know he didn’t mean it.” Grant and Tawan had an on-and-off friendship of sorts. Willy would be glad when Grant moved on next year. He’d be in preschool and Tawan would be staying in daycare because of a few happy months’ age difference. A separation would do Grant good.
“Okay. Well at least he said sorry, and you can play with other kids, right?” Willy asked gently. He knew this was most likely a momentary blip and that by Monday the boys would be playing together again.
Grant said that he did and then told him all about the pictures he drew and that he played with a girl named Val and that apparently she was nice for a girl.
“I’m a girl,” April said, to which Grant had no answer.
When they arrived home, Willy made them a snack of apples and peanut butter before checking his work email for the last time before the weekend. Then he sent Kevin a message, but hedidn’t receive an answer, so he pretty much knew he was on a call.
“Can we visit Kevin?” Grant asked. “I wanna play with the dogs.”
“Me too,” April echoed.
“Kevin is working right now, so he isn’t home. But I can put on a movie for you. Which one would you like?”
“Encanto,” Grant said as he got up from the chair, doing some kind of butt-wiggling dance.
“Belle,” April said. “I want Belle.” She began to sniffle.
“How about we watchBeauty and the Beasttoday andEncantotomorrow?”
Grant sighed dramatically. “Fine. We can watch Belle.”
“I love Belle.”
