I watched Case and Six-Pack steer the ladder truck off down the street to return it to its proper station, and I watched the rest of them strut back inside, arm in arm.
Finally, I turned and scouted out my new surroundings. I’d be here all night, for sure.
I checked out the views. I took some deep breaths. I told myself this was an opportunity to take some personal time, reflect on my life, and think all those deep thoughts I never had time for. They were doing me a favor, really.
When the sun was gone, I sat against a brick wall, leaned my head back, and closed my eyes, like I might fall asleep.
I wasn’t sleeping, exactly—but was definitely starting to drift—when I felt my hackles rise like there was somebody nearby, just as I heard a footstep right beside me.
I popped up like a jack-in-the-box, launched a serious, full-body kick, and didn’t realize until I was making impact with my foot that I was kicking the rookie.
He doubled over and hit the ground.
I dropped beside him. “Rookie! What the hell?”
I’d knocked the wind out of him. He was down on all fours.
It’s scary to get the wind knocked out of you. It means the impact was hard enough to scramble the nerve signals to your diaphragm. Needing to breathe but not being able to is never an easy feeling.
“Okay,” I said, switching from attacker to coach. “Straighten up.” I pushed his shoulders back to guide him. He let me. “Put your hands behind your head.”
He did it, and with that, his breathing came back.
“That’s right,” I said, breathing with him, watching his chest rise and fall. “In, then out.”
I knelt there next to him while his breathing normalized, keeping a hand on his back.
When he was ready to speak at last, he looked a little mad. “What the hell, Hanwell!”
I gave him a look like,What the hell, yourself!“You startled me.”
“I wasn’t trying to,” he said, like that mattered.
“I was fast asleep, pal,” I said. Okay, hardlyfast asleep—but close enough. “What was I supposed to do?”
“I don’t know,” he said, somehow annoyed and sarcastic and appealing all at once. “Maybe open your eyes and say, ‘Hey, rookie! Thanks for being awesome.’”
“What are you even doing here?” I asked.
He blinked for a second, like he thought we should already be clear on that. “I’m rescuing you,” he said. Then he gestured across the roof.
Sure enough, I could see the tip of the ladder pointing up over the edge of the roof, in the same spot as before.
He was watching me closely, like he hoped I’d be impressed.
But I refused to be.
“How did you get the ladder truck?”
“I talked the guys into it.”
I narrowed my eyes.
“I just, you know, advocated for you during dinner. About how they’d had their fun and it was time to let you down. And then I plied them with some cookies I baked. I guess they got tired of hearing about it, because Case and Six-Pack gave in.”
I shook my head at him. “That’s not what happened.”
He frowned. “Pretty sure it is.”
