Here are this week's prompts:
"When you wish upon a star" or use: champagne, icon, boulevard or use spring in some way (doesn't have to be the season) or use a nonsense song - such as Mairzy Doats or "Are you crazy? You could have..." or use a photograph in some way or "tripping the light fantastic."
Weds Brief
“Hey, Tom?”
“Yeah, Joe?” Tom
answered his friend as he folded up the hoses they’d used on the last run. Every
time they came back from fighting a fire, someone had to stack the hoses in the
back of the fire truck.
“I was wondering if you could change shifts with me. My
daughter has a doctor’s appointment tomorrow and I was hoping we could swap.”
The guys sometimes covered for each other when they needed
to.
“Sure, Joe.” Joe had helped Tom in the past so Tom felt it
was no big deal to reciprocate.
“Oh, thanks, you’re a life saver.” Joe and Tom looked at one another and laughed
as Joe realized the ambiguous statement.
The change meant he and Ben would have to alter their
plans. It was nothing major; they were
going to an art gallery event downtown.
They would just have to postpone their visit.
Ben had mentioned he was going to be doing some showings that
afternoon so Tom decided he’d call him later.
The men at the firehouse never knew when the alarm would go
off, but when it did, like now, they were all ready to go at a moment’s
notice. The piercing noise punctuated
the urgency of the call they’d received about a traffic accident. Tom quickly joined his fellow firefighters
on the truck as they sped out of the station.
Their destination was
on Rockford Boulevard, which was about five miles away. As they drove up,
Tom looked out the side window to access the situation. There were two cars in the middle of the
intersection. One was a black BMW, but
the other car was somehow familiar. It
was a blue Nissan Pathfinder; it looked remarkably like the one Ben drove.
“Oh my God!” Tom got
out of the truck even before it had fully stopped. “Ben!”
“Hold on ,Tom, let the paramedics do their job,” Joe said as he and Billy held him back. The paramedics had arrived just a few moments
before the fire truck, so they were already evaluating the scene.
From where he stood Tom could see that the two cars had had a
head-on collision and both vehicles air bags had deployed.
“Please let me go, I have to see how Ben is.” Tom knew he couldn’t help rescue Ben, because
he was personally involved, but nothing, not even a herd of elephants, could
stop him from going over and seeing how he was.
“Okay, you can check on him, but don’t do any heroics.”
“Thanks, Cap.” Tom
was grateful they had such a great guy as the captain of their firehouse. Tom quickly went to the driver’s side of the
SUV. Ben was leaning his head back on
the rest.
“Ben?” Tom held his
breath as he helplessly watched the paramedics look Ben over. He didn’t show any outward signs of trauma;
it looked like the airbag took much of the damage.
Sam, one of the paramedics, along with Mary, his partner,
looked Ben over. They checked his vitals
Cough, cough.”ah oh…Tom?” Ben was coming around and the first person he asked for was Tom.
“I’m right here, Ben.”
He reached out and held his hand.
Mary put a cervical collar around Ben’s neck and put him on
a backboard.
Tom rode with him; no one would dare tell him otherwise.
Ben lucked out; he walked away with some bruising and a sprained
wrist. The man who hit him had run a red
light. He was in a hurry to get to a meeting and hit Ben, who had the green
light.
“Tom, stop fussing over me,” Ben said to him as Tom got him
settled in their bed upon their return home.
“That’s tough, after the scare I got I’m just thrilled
you’re alive and here for me to fuss over. I don’t know what I would do if
anything…” Tom got all choked up.
“Hey, baby, it’s okay. I’m fine.”
Tom settled next to him, their lips met. “Love you ,Ben.”
“Love you too, Tom.”
They held each other. Tom said a prayer of thanks before
they both fell asleep.
TBC
my fellow Flashers:
gosh that was scary. when tom saw the car i thought we were in for some roller coaster emotional ride but Ben was okay so it was alright in the end.
ReplyDeleteOh, wow, yeah, drama! Rescue personnel see some pretty horrific stuff so to see their own family members in that sort of situation... Well, the absolute worst had to be going through Tom's mind. I don't blame him for not wanting to let Ben go!
ReplyDelete