Going to Extreme Measures

Chapter 13

Twenty four hours later the A-shift crew of Station 51 lined up for roll call in front of the engine. Everyone was present except for the youngest member of their crew. Johnny slipped into place at the end of the line just as Captain Stanley started to speak. "Good morning men. It's good to see everyone here on time this morning." All eyes looked over at Johnny who stood quietly looking at his feet. "Okay, assignments, Roy you're cooking today and the day room, Marco and Chet hang hose, Mike you have the dorms, John you have latrines. Dismissed."

The group of firemen all headed to the dayroom for a final cup of coffee before starting their duties, everyone except Johnny.

Johnny walked slowly to the door leading to the locker room.

"What's with Gage this morning?" Chet asked as the rest of the crew sat around the table drinking coffee and reading the paper.

"How am I supposed to know? I'm not his keeper." Roy said apparently aggravated at the question.

"Whoa Roy, what did Gage do now?" Chet pressed again.

Roy just shot a glare at Chet.

"Leave it alone Chet," Captain Stanley said.

"But Cap something is obviously wrong. Johnny's too quiet and Roy here is mad at him. I just think that as we are all depending on them to work as a team we should get to know what's going on."

"I said leave it Chet. When you become Captain you can demand answers, but until then I am in charge here." Hank sipped his coffee and rose from the table. "I don't want to hear you asking again. What I do want is to see you hanging hose."

"Yes sir," Chet said as he rinsed his coffee mug, turned from the sink and left the dayroom mumbling under his breath with Marco following closely behind him.

"Roy, if there is anything you need to discuss, I'll be in my office."

"There's nothing Cap." Roy continued staring at his empty mug.

Mike got up and left the room without commenting. He walked slowly passed Big Red as he headed toward the dorm thinking she needed polishing. He pushed open the door to the locker room and found Johnny sitting in his locker with his head in his hands. "Johnny?"

Johnny didn't move or act as though he had even heard Mike.

"Johnny are you okay?"

"Huh? Oh sorry Mike did you say something?"

"Are you all right?" Mike was concerned at Johnny's slow reactions.

"Yeah, yeah I'm good. I....uh...I need to get busy on the latrines." He stood slowly and picked up the cleaning supplies that he had beside the bench and disappeared into the latrines without another word.

'Roy's mad at me for not showing up to help him yesterday like I promised. I don't know why. I did call him. I couldn't help it.' He began scrubbing the tiles in the shower stall. The smell of the cleaner made his nose hurt. His eyes were watering, but they had been doing that for a couple of days. 'He should know I wouldn't bail on him without a good reason. Well he'll just have to get over being mad. I can't help it.' He leaned his head against his arm. He had a headache. Truth was he felt really bad all over. His nose was running, the smell of the cleaner made his sinuses burn. He was achy and wished he could just lay down in his bunk and sleep. 'I just didn't want to make the kids sick. They pick up every infection they get exposed to. Why didn't he understand that? He started cleaning again. 'Maybe if you had told him you didn't feel good instead of just telling him you couldn't come. Man Gage, you screwed up again.'

In the kitchen Roy was also thinking about the day before. 'Johnny must have had good reason for not showing up yesterday like he promised.' He wiped down the counter. 'Yeah right, probably some chick. He just got distracted again. I really needed his help. He knew I needed his help and he let me down.' He moved to clean the top of the table. 'No that's not right, he promised the kids he'd play catch with them, and he never breaks a promise to the kids. He must have had a very good reason, but why didn't he explain it to me this morning?'