Lots of firemen are married, of course, but they have other houses. Our team just all live together. It’s different. Actually, I kind of wonder how it would work. What kind of woman would want to hang out with somebody who could never really leave their job?
But I can’t help but be optimistic. The way the women in the bakery were looking at us made me feel like a rock star. Maybe we aren’t trying hard enough. Maybe Pete could put that on his list of things for us to do.
The three of us walk down the sidewalk on Main Street, since we have three permits on this street to check out. The ladies all smile at us as we walk past, and the old guys give us respect too. It’s a nice morning, not yet blazing hot the way it will be later. The birds are still all over the sidewalk, washing themselves in puddles.
We head into the dry cleaner to check out the sprinkler system. It doesn’t take very long for Pete to check off all of the forms and hand the guy his permit receipt. The guy is all smiles, like an old-fashioned TV show. He waves at us.
Pete walks past me back out onto the sidewalk. Stephan and I follow him to the place next door, a custom bike shop with some really cool skateboards. I wouldn’t mind getting a skateboard, but I’m probably too old for that now. Maybe not. We have skate parks in town. Maybe I could get Stephan to go with me.
I pick one of the boards up off the rack as Pete is busy talking to the manager and hold it out to Stephan. He gives me that look. That look.
“What?” he asks flatly.
“It’s cool, right?” I say, turning it over so he can see the other side.
It’s a manga character, a guy with a hand full of green flames and a big smile on his face. He looks ready for action.
Stephan pauses, giving me that look for a really long time.
“It’s a skateboard.”
“I know it’s a skateboard,” I say.
“What are you saying?”
I shrug. “I don’t know. Skateboards are cool. Do you want one?”
Pete shoots us a dirty look and I put the board back on the rack, giving the wheels a spin with my finger. I like the way the ball bearings sound when they click together.
“Well, get it if you want it,” Stephan shrugs.
I look at him with surprise. “You serious?”
“Yeah, it would be awesome if you got a hobby,” he says. “Maybe this is your thing.”
“You think?”
“How the hell would I know?” he shrugs. “Skateboard, bowling, line dancing… You never know until you try, I guess.”
“Well, yeah…” I say, running my finger around the curve of the board.
“Just don’t do it now,” he cautions me. “Pete would have a fit.”
“Right, right,” I agree.
We both stand up straight, looking like well-behaved employees, that’s for sure. Pete finishes working with the manager and turns around, giving us each a frustrated look.
“What are you guys doing?” he asks as he comes over.
I glance at the skateboards and force myself to look away.
“Nothing,” I answer.
“Yeah, absolutely nothing,” Stephan answers also.
Pete raises his eyebrows. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“It means we are doing absolutely nothing,” Stephan continues. “Kinda makes me wonder why we are even here? Is this our punishment? Following you around all day?”
Pete squares off, crossing his arms. “And if I say it is?”
Stephan crosses his arms too. I wonder if I’m going to have to step between them.
“You’re the boss,” Stephan sniffs, but it doesn’t sound like he means it.
“You’re damn right I am,” Pete scowls. “Tell you what, you can do the landlord checks, all right? Here… take these.”
Pete holds out a bunch of yellow papers to Stephan who looks like he’s not going to take them right away, but then he does. Landlord checks are the worst. We have to try to go through apartment buildings, and nobody ever wants to see us. Everybody thinks they’re in trouble, or that we are the police or something. They don’t seem to realize we are just trying to keep them safe.
“Fine,” Stephan shrugs.
“Yeah, fine,” Pete answers.
Now things are tense. I hate it when they get like this. Everybody knows Pete is in charge. I don’t know why Stephan is always acting like he wants to be in charge. He knows that he isn’t, and he knows that it annoys Pete. We all get along so much better when everybody just does what they are supposed to do.
The first apartment building is just around the corner, a couple of blocks up. It’s on one of the really nice streets, with all of the flowers and trees and shrubs that look like animals. All of the cars on the street are Mercedes and BMW and Porsche and stuff. It’s a really nice place to live.