Life Choices

I had never dreamed I could be so happy being a dad. Before I was a father it was all about me and my wife, doing whatever made us happy at that moment. Now I spend all of my free time doing anything that puts a smile on my little princess’ face. At six years she’s my entire world. When Laura was pregnant I wanted a boy, most men do. But when they handed me my little Emma the world stopped spinning. She looked up at me, and that was it.

I sat there at the kitchen table watching my beautiful six year old eating her chocolate chip waffles hoping to live up to her idea of me. Laura pulled a chair up beside me, and sat down. She leaned into me and stared down at our life.

“What are you two doing up this early,” she asked.

Emma had a mouthful so I answered, “Early, it’s nearly nine. I’m just feeding the monster before school.”

Emma nearly choked trying to respond, “It’s Saturday daddy. I don’t have school on Saturday.”

I smiled at her, “I know I’m just playing around.”

“Do you have to work today,” she asked stuffing more syrup soaked waffle into her mouth.

I shook my head, “No ma’am, this is my weekend off.”

Laura looked up at me, “What’s the plan for today?”

I wrapped my arm around her, “I’m up for just about anything. We can go to the park, take the little monster shopping or the fair’s in town this weekend.”

“Oh daddy let’s go to the fair,” Emma said with a mouthful.

I looked back at my wife, “I guess we’ll be going to the fair today.”

She got up to pour herself some coffee. “I remember a time when you could win any stuffed animal I pointed at.”

Emma’s eyes lit up, “Can you daddy?”

I smiled, not quite sure how to answer. “That was a long time ago. And as I recall, someone had a hard time carrying all of those animals.”

Laura smiled sipping on her cup, “But it was fun seeing all of those faces as we walked by.”

Emma drank her milk and looked back at me with big eyes and syrup all over her face. “I can’t wait to see how many I can carry.”

I laughed at her, “You won’t have to carry them, that syrup will work like Velcro.”

Laura leaned in and kissed her forehead, “Yeah little girl, you need a bath before we go out.”

She ran off to get cleaned up with a smile from ear to ear. I got up, and cleared her dishes from the table. Laura was standing propped up against the counter shaking her head.

“Why is she the only one getting spoiled around here,” she asked.

“What are talking about,” I asked rinsing off the syrup from the plate.

“Where are my chocolate chip waffles,” she continued.

I laughed and pointed towards the bathroom, “She ate them all, mine too.  I don’t know where she’s putting all of it.”

“Sure,” she said grabbing my shoulder. “Think your arm still has what it takes to win some rigged games?”

I pulled her in and wrapped my arms around her, “Probably not, but there’s always a store down the road. Either way she won’t come back empty handed.”

My phone started buzzing in my pocket. Nothing breaks up a mood like an unwanted phone call. I pulled it out to see one of the work numbers. Laura saw it too, “I thought you were off this weekend?”

“I am,” I said answering it. “Hello.”

“Tony its Rachel, the Captain needs you to come in.”

“This is my rotation off,” I replied. “There are two other guys on call right now.”

“I already relayed that information to him,” she said sounding worried.

“Then what’s going on,” I asked getting frustrated.

She sighed and got her voice lower, “They’re not telling me much but wherever they are they have everyone. I even heard the mayor in the background. Listen, it has to be bad for them to be sending a chopper to your house to pick you up.”

My phone disconnected, I checked the screen to see I didn’t have a signal anymore. My heart was starting to race. I didn’t want to tell Emma I couldn’t take her to the fair cause I had to work. She was going to think I lied to her. Laura didn’t look happy either.

“I thought you didn’t have to work,” she asked.

“So did I,” I said looking around. “Where’s your phone, mines not working.”

She reached into her robe and pulled out her phone. “Mine says it doesn’t have a signal.”

I could hear the chopper in the distance closing in. I started pulling on my boots, “Laura, you and Emma stay here. Don’t leave the house.”

“What’s going on,” she asked looking nervous.

I shook my head, “I don’t know but I got to get on the chopper that’s about to land and go find out.”

Emma came running down the hallway ready to go. It was going to break my heart to tell her. I hugged her tight and sat her in a chair. I got down to my knees, trying to come up with words to sugar coat the hurt.

“They just called me from work and said there’s an emergency,” I told her trying to keep it light. “I have to go in for a little while but I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

“Does someone need saving,” she asked looking concerned.

I nodded, “I think so.”

“Then you have to help them,” she said hugging me tight.

I could hear the chopper landing; Laura met me at the door. “You better come back,” she said looking worried.

I hugged her tight and kissed her, “Don’t I always?”

I got to the chopper just as it touched the ground. I climbed inside and the pilot didn’t waste time taking off. I looked back at my house to see both of my girls standing in the doorway waving me off. Emma was blowing me kisses.

The pilot handed me a headset, and was insisting I put it on. 

“He’s live sir,” he said.

The Captains voice came through the headphones, “Tony there’s only time to say this once so listen. We got a special case. Some psycho thought it would be a good idea to make a large explosive device and strap it to a civilian. If that wasn’t enough he chained the poor guy inside a booth at the fair. There’s got to be nearly a thousand people walking around down here.”

I cleared my throat, “Why haven’t you cleared everyone out yet?”

“That’s why I’m flying in our senior bomb specialist,” he said sounding exasperated. “This guy called me this morning. He called my personal cell phone. According to him if we evacuate the surrounding area he’ll set it off but he said we were welcome to try and disable it. You should’ve heard the arrogance in his voice, like he felt no one could best him.”

I looked at the pilot who nodded, this wasn’t a drill. “Why the chopper sir?”

I could hear people talking in the background, “Because there’s less than fifteen minutes on the timer. These younger guys are unsure, I need you here now.”

I pulled out my phone wanting to call my wife just in case this was my final dance, but it still said no service. I stared at the background picture of my two girls. If this was my last morning with them at least it was a good one.

The pilot looked at my phone, “Their trying to jam all cell signals, an attempt to keep this guy from a premature detonation. I’m about to set her down.  Go as soon as were close to the ground you’re going to need every second.”

Sweat was starting to build on my skin. My tongue was starting to stick to my mouth. I looked down, and seen we were around six feet and closing. I hung my headset and grabbed the handle. I opened the door and as soon as the grass was about to touch I bailed out. I was met by officers leading me quickly to a tent set up.

All of my gear had been laid out on a table for me when I walked in. The two new guys grabbed my blast suit and were coming at me with it. “How much time,” I asked.

The Captain stepped into the tent, “Right at ten minutes.”

I waved off my guys and grabbed my tool bag. “That suit takes too long to put on and it’ll slow me down.”

I walked out of the tent, and was directed towards a double window ticket booth. I took in a deep breath, and stepped through the door. An officer closed it behind me, if anyone saw inside a panic would arise making my job that much harder. I looked down at the poor guy that got picked. His face was beat up, and he’d been crying.

I sat my bag down beside him and kneeled. “I’m not going to ask how you’re doing,” I said looking around the shack. “That would be a dumb question. But did you see how he hooked any of this up?”

He shook his head, “He jumped me and knocked me out. I woke up here.”

He was being restrained to the floor with chains that were bolted to the wall. There was a large metal case strapped to his chest. Pretty much what I was expecting, but not all of the jars, there were jars all over the shack filled with rusty nails.

His voice trembled when he spoke again, “The other guys said they’re for added shrapnel.”

I nodded, “Why didn’t they remove them while they were waiting on me?”

He chuckled, “They did, and then ten minutes came off the timer.”

The timer hit nine minutes with a sticky note under it that read ‘Don’t open me!’ I grabbed my flash light and started looking around him. I didn’t see any traps or extra wiring so I moved on to the case. I ran the light around the edge looking for any sensors or trip wires. It looked clean so I eased the door open.

My heart stopped when the timer went blank. My body felt like I’d been placed in an ice bath. I just froze for a few seconds trying to figure out what I did wrong. But nothing happened so I continued to open the door fully. The case was filled with bricks of explosives. Wires were ran everywhere, crossing over one another trying to conceal a pattern. There was a phone at the bottom facing towards me. I couldn’t see behind the bricks but I could tell they were hiding something. 

I needed to move some of them just a little to get a better view. I started my hand towards them when the phone lit up. It started counting down from five minutes with a text message under it, ‘I told you not to open it.’

“Well that’s not good,” the guy said.

“It’s just a scare tactic,” I said trying to sound calm. In reality my heart was beating like a humming bird’s wings.

I lifted the phone up and checked it, there were no wires connected to it. That didn’t make any sense. It had to be a decoy, I was about to turn it off when it rang. ‘Bomb Maker’ showed across the screen.

I looked at the guy sitting with me, “What do you think?”

He shrugged, “Might as well.”

I tapped the screen and hit the speaker button, “Hello gentlemen are we having fun yet?”

We both stayed quiet as I started to slowly and very carefully move a block. “The silent treatment, ouch guys. Dave I thought you of all people would want to clear your chest before the final tick. That might have been a bad choice of words. What about you Tony?”

I stopped and looked down at the phone. “Yes I know who you are,” he continued. “You’ve disabled countless explosives over the years, but I think I may have you stumped on this one. What does your gut tell you, red wire or blue wire? Oh wait, I only used black wire. Well you could just guess and hope to get lucky.”

I couldn’t find a power source, it had to be behind the explosive blocks, but moving them was increasing the risk. I was taking my time or in this case our time. Then I could see the faint glow of a second phone. I managed to open up a window to it to see three wires coming out. The timer on it hit one minute and started counting down seconds.

I’d already stretched everything as far as I felt safe, but I still couldn’t get a good view on the path the new wires took. The seconds were racing away.  I was about to be forced to make a decision, but he wouldn’t quit talking.

I reached down to the floor to hang up when he paralyzed my body. “Tony you could’ve at least cut this front yard before you left. The neighbors are going to complain, I guess I could get to it this evening.”

“Hey,” Dave said trying to get my attention. “He’s just trying to keep you from finishing. Focus, I don’t want to die in a shack.”

I reeled myself back in, thirty seconds left. Three choices but they were blind choices. Images of Emma kept flooding into my mind keeping me from focusing. If only I’d stayed home I could be holding her right now. I’m not even going to get to say goodbye. 

I looked up at Dave, “Three choices, now’s the time to pray.”

“Three choices,” the phone said. “You must only see one side of that phone, but which side I wonder. Tick tock boys, ten seconds.”

I grabbed my cutters and tried to get a last minute look to help me decide. “If it’s our time then it just our time,” Dave said crying. “But for the record, I’m sorry you’re the one they called in.”

Three seconds, I placed my cutters on my choice, and started praying. 

Snip.