The Hero

“Hey, pass the controller, man. You’re trash on the field!” Eddie Bailer enjoyed the brotherhood in the 14^th Street station. Having graduated from the firefighter training academy only seven weeks prior, he fretted that it would be a challenge for the veterans, bearing a decade or more of service, to warm up to him. And his fears were proven wrong. He was welcomed. He had found his people.

“DeMarco, I have the next round when Banks demolishes your Giants!” Bailer, the rookie, had no choice but to wait for the veterans to finish up their game.  

Brian DeMarco jovially replied, “No, bro, that ain’t happening. You and Banks will be watching this comeback. Sit back, newbie and watch the king of Madden win another championship. They should call it ‘DeMadden’ because I run this!”

Justin Banks chimed in, “Hold on, hold on! Stop telling Bailer lies. The only reason you’ve been better lately is because you go home to practice right after work. The rest of us don’t live the bachelor life so…”

Myles Greely interrupted, “Shh… shh.. you guys simmer down. Todd is coming.”

The three squabbling men spun around to see Captain James Todd perched at the door of the common room. A unanimous thought entered everyone’s mind. I hope he’s in a good mood tonight.

Greely was the first to notice the beaten look on his face. Too afraid to ask if everything was getting better at home, he sat in silence, along with the rest.

Captain Todd shifted his left leg towards to door frame, straightening his posture before he spoke. “You guys better head to the beds soon. Stations 5 and 16 are reporting increases in calls. Be prepared to provide back-up if they are overloaded.”

An awkward, fun-defeating silence filled the room. Captain Todd could sense the shift but didn’t force a more cheerful tone. He was truly exhausted. He was being plagued by thoughts of how Gracie, his wife of twenty years, suddenly decided she hated his career. A career he had held for twenty-two years. The career that made her fall in love with her own personal hero. But now, she felt lonely during his thrice-weekly 24-hour shifts at the station.

With the looks on his crew’s faces, he knew he had to push Gracie aside and focus on his job for the remainder of the shift.

“Where’s O’Reilly? I haven’t seen him in a while.”

Greely, who was second in command, replied slowly, “Well... he sort of ate something that didn’t agree with him.” The rest of the men burst into laughter, including the seemingly napping Parker Dreher. “So everyone is gonna laugh at the guy? No love for your bro?”

“We told him not to eat from the gas station, man.” Dreher, continuing to laugh, began to sit up from his side-lying position. “I’m going to go check on him.” He shimmied his way through the doorway that was occupied by Captain Todd, shaking his head with laughter.

Todd finally let out a soft chuckle. “Thanks, Dreher.”

The remaining crew let out a simultaneous sigh. To see Todd frump around the station made it difficult to complete a full shift with him. It was the first time he smiled in a long, long time.

Todd walked over toward Greely, finding a seat on the cushioned floor bean bag. “I hope you don’t mind if I play a game.” He surveyed the looks of the three men huddled around the TV, hoping to restore the former upbeat mood.

“Demarco, you’re not gonna win the next few games. You should bow out gracefully now and let the captain try his luck.” Because it was Bank’s gaming system, he was not as eager to give up a controller, captain or not.

“You can have my spot, Captain”, said the rookie. The heartbroken energy from the captain was one he had felt before. From his own father, who could not get it together after his mom decided she needed a new husband with “a better pension job and sex drive”.

Todd waited a moment before he replied, “No, you boys have at it. I will just sit here for a moment and watch you play. Besides, it’s a lot chillier in the office than in here.”

Banks, Bailer, and DeMarco continued their game with the accompanying banter while Greely and Todd provided cheerleading from behind. An exhausted Dreher and indisposed O’Reilly retired to the dorm early, escaping the common room riff-raff.

As the night lingered on, Captain Todd, followed by Greely, and soon after, the rookie Bailer, decided they would leave Banks and DeMarco to hash it out until a call came in.

In the dormitory, the new guy’s bed was positioned near the crew leader – at the far end of room. Bailer tip-toed through a wave a heavy breathing and low-toned snoring. Cautiously he reached his bed, hoping he didn’t wake anyone on the way.

“Bailer… Bailer”, a quiet whisper called out.

Damn. Who did I wake up? Maybe he wasn’t as quiet as he thought. He froze, slowing down his own breathing to identify the caller in the dimly lit room.

“Bailer!” With the voice a decibel louder than before, he realized it was Captain Todd.

“Yes, Captain?”

“Can you check my office for my extra blanket? It’s cold”

Bailer felt defeated. He had to make the trek across the room twice more without waking anyone else.

“I can’t seem to get to sleep without it, and you’re better at navigating through the dark than I am.”

“OK. Give me a minute.”  He walked out of the room naturally, a bit perplexed. Can the captain read minds? Upon reaching the office, which was only a few paces away, his mind switched gears.

Where’s the blanket? Where are you blanket?

He scanned the room a few times, but to no avail. On his last visual scan his eyes targeted a dated picture of a beautiful woman propped between the phone and keyboard. That must be Gracie. He walked over to inspect the photo.

The decades’ old picture portrayed a happy woman. Her eyes shone with excitement, her full lips curved around and a show-stopping smile. She was a gorgeous woman. No wonder the captain couldn’t shake the breakdown of their marriage.

“She was nineteen then.”

Bailer jumped from his bowed stance and spun around towards the door. “Captain!”

“Oh no, don’t worry. I don’t think she is leaving me for you.”

A bit flushed,and with widened eyes, Bailer fell speechless. Is he peering into my mind?

“I forgot that I put my blanket in the wash. I went to put it in the dryer. Guess I will have to wait to catch some sleep.”

Bailer partly heard what Captain Todd said. His mind went back to the picture. “Captain, why is she leaving you? You seem to be a great guy.”

“Well, Bailer, this job has put a lot of stress on her. For twenty years she had been a loving wife.” He walked to his desk and picked up the photo, then paused and looked at Bailer. “I was due to retire this year, but when I decided I wanted to stay on for another three years, she decided she didn’t want to follow suit.”

“Why should she?”

“Excuse me?” a confused Captain Todd asked.

The rookie continued. “Why should she follow suit when you broke your promise to her?”

“I didn’t break a promise to her! I never cheated or broke our vows!” The captain’s demeanor shifted from a mentor to a foe. His anger began to sizzle inside. How could a new snotty-nosed kid tell him about his marriage?

“Yes, you did.” Bailer could feel his own anger growing. His anger with his dad. The dad who worked all the time, coming home to eat, shower, and sleep, completely neglecting his children and his wife. Because he preferred to work. Not that it was necessary. He preferred to not be around and love the family that he created.

“You promised her your retirement,” he continued, “and your time with her. You promised her your time when work was no longer a necessity. And you probably broke her heart when you broke your promise.”

“I made sure our family was good all of those years. And now I must work more to support our son through college. You don’t know a damn thing about me and Gracie, Rookie! So, your best move is to get out of my office!”

Bailer ignore the captain’s empty threat and continued on. “My dad beat himself up everyday because my mom left him. He only wanted to work. Thought that was what made him a man. But for my mom and us, we just wanted him to be there.”

Bailer’s calm manner rippled like a creek while Todd’s belligerent tone crashed like waves against jagged rocks. The commotion could be heard throughout the entire station, as it awakened the sleeping crew. But the conversation fell upon deaf ears, as everyone surmised that it was another heated late-night conversation with Gracie.

“Look, Rookie. You have yet to find out how demanding this job can be! One of the captains of 6^th Street precinct outed himself because he couldn’t handle the demands. I can’t step down now and let that happen to any of my crew members.”

Bailer thought for a moment. “Was that captain’s name Edwin Pierce?”

“It sure was.”

“The same Edwin Pierce that had a wife and three kids at home but devoted all of his time to work?”

Captain Todd’s scowl began to fade. He dropped Gracie’s picture from the clutch of his enraged fists. “How do you know about Edwin?”

“I am his oldest son. The one he neglected because he had to feed his self-fulfilling desires to work or volunteer or visit children’s hospitals, pretending to be a hero to all while neglecting the people he swore to love and care for right in his own home.

“Even after mom left, he never went after her. He just jumped into more work and let us boys raise ourselves. So, I followed her. And when she remarried, I took on my stepdad’s last name, which required my dad’s approval.

“And he actually gave the approval. Then he sent my two younger brothers to live with my mom full-time because he was ‘a hero and a hero’s duty is to the public he serves, family comes second’.”

“Bailer, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know that Captain Pierce was your father.” Todd’s depressed expression had returned.

“Captain, with all due respect, this job is no longer for you. You come here unhappy, depressed, and just miserable to be around. Your job is to retire a hero and give your wife your best years.”

With tear-ladened eyes, Captain Todd walked around his desk, extended his arms out to Eddie Bailer and pulled him in for a hug.

“Thank you, Rookie. You have lots of guts to stand up to a hurting man and tell him what he needs to hear. And I am sorry that you didn’t have your dad as a hero in your life.

“I think I have a lot to think about when I get home in the morning. I think the crew may be in good hands with Greely and now you, after all. I just wish…”

Just then a call for emergency assistance came through. The men scrambled from there respective locations to find their uniforms.

Eddie Bailer felt the rush and the excitement of an emergency call, and he understood why his dad enjoyed working as much as he did. But he had a challenge ahead of him. He had found his people and understood why his dad fell in love with his job – but he had to ensure he was more than the people’s hero. He had to be a hero to all.