She's Leaving Home

Chapter 3

Over the next few weeks, Vic was really starting to find her footing in Canada. She was originally treating her retreat to the country as an extended holiday, but when she found herself longing for something to do other than walk around the parks and feeling like a tourist, she decided to try to feel like she actually lived in the country.

She missed Seattle, being in close proximity of all of her friends, and working, but it just didn't feel like home. Even after a small amount of time - three weeks - it didn't really feel like home anymore. Yes, her heart would always be in Seattle because she grew up there and met her best friend there, but she also met, fell in love with and said goodbye to the love of her life there, too. Those memories stung too much and tainted the city too much to go back there just yet.

And she really missed working. She missed being part of a team, forming close friendships with her colleagues, and most of all, she missed helping people.

But she felt really on edge about returning to firefighting. After all, it almost claimed the life of Travis, only for not even a year later to take away the love of her life. So she wrote off the idea of ever stepping inside of a burning building again but she still wanted to be within a fire department somehow. So after a few days of deep thinking, Vic decided she wanted to be a Fire Academy Instructor. The passion for fighting fires was buried somewhere still within her, so instead of letting it dwindle and die completely, installing her passion and her knowledge into budding recruit firefighters was the next best thing.

She applied the next day, receiving an invite for an interview almost instantly. She confirmed the date and time, so all she needed to do was prepare.

Vic hated interviews usually. Her anxiety made it so she wasn't that great at articulating her thoughts and feelings very well in fear that people would laugh at or judge her responses. But she had a good feeling about interviewing to be an academy instructor since she went through the academy herself and she felt like she had the right skills to bring to the team of instructors.

She was sitting in the waiting room of Richmond Fire Department's Headquarters in her white shirt, navy trousers and a navy blazer, and her right leg was bouncing up and down as she was rehearsing her last-minute interview answers. Since her move across the USA-Canada border, wanting this job was the most certain she'd been for a month. The last time she felt that certain was... well, it was proposing to Lucas that day at the Coffee Plant fire.

"Hughes?" A woman in Class A uniform came out of the big door to her left and called out her name.

Vic stood up, straightening her blazer and smiling brightly.

"Please follow me." The woman smiled too and gestured for her to walk through the big door.

Inside the room, there were three other people sitting at a long desk. Vic could see their nametags and they read, from left to right: Batt. Ch. Brooks, Ch. Crowe, and Lt. Anderson. Numerous award certificates lined the walls along with framed newspaper articles and some team pictures, probably of different cohorts of recruits. The woman who escorted her, Capt. Bridges, sat down next to Chief Brooks and then signalled for Vic to also sit down.

"This interview is for the practical and theoretical academy instructor." Chief Crowe began to speak. "We pride ourselves here at Richmond Fire to believe that our instructors have the best knowledge and a thorough understanding of the art of teaching and inspiring future Firefighters. The questions asked in this session will be for us, as a committee, to get a feel for you, as an individual, and we will make an evaluation and contact you in the coming weeks about your suitability for the job. Is that clear?"

"Absolutely." Vic nodded.

"Excellent. We will begin." The Chief picked up his papers to shuffle them, as the rest of his committee picked up their pens to begin writing things down. "So, Victoria Hughes, tell me a little bit about yourself, your fire background, why you've found yourself here."