Chapter 15
Radio Check
Blaze
Pins in my leg. Several sessions of physical therapy. Learning how to walk with crutches. I had an all-clear from my doctor to return to work, as long as it involved sitting at a desk, but Don hadn’t been quite as eager.
“Blaze, I need you to take care of yourself right now.” His voice sounded weary on the other end. I had called his satellite phone, as he was up in the fire camps. Away from civilization. Instructing the crews where to dig trenches. Feeling the heat on his brow.
“I’m taking care of myself. With a little help from my mom. She thinks I’m ready to go back to work,” I said, knowing there was a little more pull if it was coming from her, too.
“You mean to tell me that you’re driving your mother nuts, Blaze?”
“Let me ask her.” I turned my head, holding the phone steady to my ear. “Mom, am I driving you nuts?” Her laughter filled up the room.
“Don, do me a favor and get my adult son out of my hair.” Don smirked on the other end of the line.
“Alright, Blaze. If you think you’re up to it—I just happen to have a desk with your name on it.
One of my dispatchers is retiring in a few days, so the timing would be great.
I just want to know that you’re not rushing into anything.
” Relief washed over me. I couldn’t wait to get back to the work I loved—fighting fire—and I would do it in any capacity that I could, desk jobs included.
“Thanks, Don. Call me when you’re ready for me, and I’ll be there.
” We hung up the call, and I thanked the Lord for the prospect of returning to work.
The fear of missing out was real—knowing that there were fires being fanned in the infamous Wyoming winds, and I wasn’t there to defend the land, killed me.
When I was younger, the joke was that I wanted to be a firefighter because of my name.
Truth was, I didn’t think there was a better name for me out there.
It was thought up by my father, who wanted his son to leave a mark in the world—to make a name for himself.
He was also a little edgy, like Don, and let’s face it—he thought the best way to have a kid was to give him a name that stood out.
So, which came first, the chicken or the egg?
All I knew was, Blaze was the name given to me, and the flames were what kept me up at night.
Not in fear, but in wonder. Out of all the things in God’s creation, fire was what mystified me the most.
*****
My first day on the job was five days later.
Stephanie, the head dispatcher, was retiring.
A white sheet cake with orange and red flames swirled into the frosting read, “Happy Trails.” A plastic horse was sitting on the corner of the heavy-laid icing, and I resisted the urge to run my finger through the side of the cake like I always did when I was a kid.
Or still did, if the cake belonged to someone in my immediate family.
“Keep your fingers out of there, Blaze.” Don stormed into the office while I just happened to be staring at the sugary confection, contemplating it.
“At least if you’re going to eat a truckload of icing, cut yourself a slice first.” Don grabbed a plate and made himself a healthy slice that looked like it might fall off of the flimsy paper plate that held it.
He took a giant bite, pointing to the cake.
“What are you waiting for? It’s carrot with cream cheese frosting—your favorite!
” That was all I needed to hear to dig in.
I hobbled over in my crutches and cut a piece.
“I just feel like I should at least congratulate Stephanie before I eat some of her cake, is all,” I said sheepishly. Just then, Stephanie walked into the office, hearing her name being spoken.
“Hi, Blaze. You found the cake, I see.” I put my hands up, my upper arms still clenching the crutches in my underarms.
“Don pressured me into it,” I said with laughter. Stephanie looked at Don, who was halfway through his gigantic piece that was a solid portion of the cake, and nodded.
“That tracks, kiddo. Glad you are here. And by all means, eat some of this cake. I sure don’t need to stir up my insulin levels with this today.” She smiled and walked away as the buzz of the radios could be heard chattering.
“Do I need to get that?” I asked Don, halfway to setting the cake back down when he encouraged me to eat it.
“No, we will train you tomorrow. Or at least, Kerry will. Look...” He took another bite, slowly savoring the flavors of the carrots and the raisins. “If I can’t give my own nephew special treatment, especially after he’s been pretty badly injured on the job, what’s the point of nepotism?”
“Har, har.” I rolled my eyes dramatically while Don gave me a playful pat on the back.
“Just kidding, kid. You’re my favorite, that’s all. Just don’t tell the others.”
“Might be wise to keep those words to yourself when the others are around, Don.” Frankie, a guy I’d been on the hotshot crew with for the last few years and was probably my best friend out of everyone, had just walked up to the cake.
“What are you doing here, Frankie?” He should have been out fighting fires, not here in this lonely shack.
“Haven’t you heard? The fires are out.” I looked at Don with big eyes.
“Out? As in, scorched earth, or out, as in a monitored phase?”
“A little of both,” Don said with a nod.
Suddenly, it made sense why this was perfect timing for me to come back to work—nothing was going on, and it was almost late August. Fires could definitely start in August, but after that, they got less likely as in Wyoming, the temperatures cooled down enough that snow started to fall in the highest elevations.
Then again, this was the driest year on record, and the heat was unrelenting.
The rain gauge outside of the office door had a cobweb in it.
We had almost no precipitation over the winter, and things had been dire for farmers and ranchers.
Soon, the irrigation waters would be running dry.
The mountains and regions we got our snow runoff for irrigating had been some that had been hit the hardest with drought this winter.
Now, with the fires having been all but extinguished, it was most likely due to them running out of fuel.
The places they were in were full of dead timber and debris but eventually backed up to irrigated farmland. Green grass didn’t burn.
“It’s a miracle the fires didn’t get any worse,” I offered to Don and Frankie, taking a bite out of the perfectly dense carrot cake. Little golden raisins gave a burst of sweetness.
“The aerial crews were available quicker than we thought. Turns out, the governor really likes to spend time in the mountains here in Maple Haven. After alerting WY-Fire on the state level that the burn got out of control, next thing we knew, we had four Super Scooper planes dropping an incredible amount of water on it. That knocked out most of it. The kicker? There are only four of those planes in the entire United States, and they cost $250,000 a day. We got friends in high places, Blaze.”
“Sounds like it.” Frankie excused himself, with a heavy plate full of cake, and went into the back room where I was guessing more of the hotshot crew was.
“Don’t worry, Blaze. Lord willing, you’ll be back to being a hotshot next season.
You are already making so much progress—they didn’t even think you’d be on crutches yet.
” I looked down at my leg, which, if I was being honest, hurt pretty good today.
I was alternating weight on it, hoping to strengthen it up as much as I could.
In my mind, if I could have walked on my own by the end of August, there was still a chance I could have run a shovel.
That being said, I wouldn’t have been able to run very well if I needed to.
Sigh. Don was right—next summer was my best bet.
“Blaze?” Kerry came bustling through the front door, her keys jingling on her belt loop. What all of these keys went to, no one knew. My guess was that she had a key for every truck, trailer, door, lock, and safe for the entire firefighting region.
“Hi, Kerry. Nice to see you.” She gave me a brief one-sided hug and went on about my leg.
“That was just pure bravery in the line of duty. Thank you for your service, Blaze.” I shrugged it off. I would have done it for anyone, and my crew would have done it for me.
“Thanks, Kerry. I can’t wait to get out of these crutches so I can get back to work.” Kerry smiled ear to ear, but a look from Don squashed that.
“In due time, I’m sure you will,” Kerry said, keeping the peace. Everyone knew that Don was protective of me. I was his brother's son, but in so many ways, I was like his son, too.
“Cake?” Don asked Kerry, changing the subject. Kerry examined the sheet cake that was comparable to a king-size pillow and ultimately waived it off.
“I better wait until after lunch. If there’s any left, that is.” She looked at Don’s plate that was now just covered in crumbles, but the evidence of how large his piece was had been obvious.
“Don says you’re going to train me on the dispatch system?” I looked at Kerry, and she nodded.
“Tomorrow,” she said, looking at her watch. “Today, I’ve got to fill out about five-thousand pieces of paperwork for the state. Turns out, those airplanes were not cheap.” Don snorted, having just explained the cost of them. We could all do the math on that.
“Great. I’ll see you tomorrow, then.” And with that, Kerry disappeared to her large desk, where she spent the remainder of the day.