Backfire (3 page)

             
“Thanks, that means the world coming from y
ou.  I gotta hang up now
.  I’ll call you in a few days, o
kay?
” Casey replied.

             
“Okay Case, take it easy and I’ll talk to you in a few days.” He paused and the silence on the other end made him wonder if Casey had already hung up.  “I love you.”

             
“Love you too.” 

             
He set the phone back at the table and flashed Eva a smile.  “He sounded good.  Even better than last time, and that was just a few days ago. I wanna see him.  Maybe he’s put some meat on his bones.”

             
“Yeah, hopefully.  He was starting to make skeletons look skinny.  I miss him a lot.”

             
Michael
thought about the relationship that Eva had bui
lt with Casey.  They had gotten close
and Eva claimed a lot of the bonding happened when Michael was in the hospital.  “They
are doing a family week in September
. He wants us to come down.”

             
Eva sat up in her chair.  “Really?  That would be amazing! I think it’d put you at ease some, too.  Part of your problem is that what he is
experiencing is unknown to you
and you don’t like it.”

             
“Yeah, you’re right.  I’ll feel Captain out and see how he might react to more time off.  The last thing I want to do is piss him off.”

Chapter Two

             
“Call in sick, Eva. You’re just so warm, I don’t want you to get out of the bed.” Michael snuggled up against her back and wrapped his arms around her waist.  He buried his face in her neck and ran his lips up and down her skin.  She leaned in to his embrace, and though he couldn’t see her face, he could tell she was smiling. “You call in sick and I’ll promise you a day full of snuggling and being lazy.” He pulled some of her hair off of her cheek and propped himself up on his elbow, getting full view of her expression.  Her eyes were still closed, but she was definitely awake.

“There would be nothing better to do than call in, but the bills are piling up.” She reached over and hit the snooze on the alarm and buried her head back in the pillow.

“So take a personal day.” He
nuzzled her neck again, making her
laugh.

“I don’t have any left. I used them all up when you were in the hospital.” She sat up and turned the alarm off.  “To hell with the snooze button.  It
just makes things worse
.” Eva brushed the palm of her hand down his face, and just from that, he could tell he was in desperate need of a shave. “You’re seriously wanting me to call in?”

Michael scoffed.  “No,
I’m joking.  Captain Rooker
would have a shit fit and we want to keep him on our good side so we can go down to Austin.” He allowed his body to fall back into the mattress.  He studied Eva as she got out of bed. Her satin nightgown clung to her figure perfectly.  Even first thing in the morning, with no makeup and her hair a mess, he found her gorgeous. 

“What are your plans for today, Mikey?” She asked as she gathered up her clothes for the day.

He shrugged and pulled the blankets around him, still watching her every move.  “I plan on staying right here and sleeping the day away.”

Eva giggled. “Yeah, sure you will. You know you’ll be up as soon as I leave.  I’ve never known you to be able to go back to sleep once you’re up for the day.”

“If you stayed in bed with me, we could do something to make it where I wouldn’t have any problem relaxing and getting in some more restful sleep, if you know what I’m talking about.”  He w
inked at her.
 

“Yeah, I can just see it now.  I ca
ll in and tell Captain Rooker
I can’t come in because you’re horny.  Nice try, stud.” 

She didn’t allow him to respond before she closed the bathroom door and started her shower.  For a split second he debated on joining her, but knew she really didn’t have time.  He lay in be
d a few more minutes and got up
to make her a quick breakfast before she headed off. 

“Oh, Mikey, you shouldn’t have.”  She placed her duffel bag on one of the kitchen chairs and hugged him from behind.  She smelled so fresh.

Turning around, he placed a plate of eggs and a bagel on the table, along with a mug of coffee and some orange juice.  “It’s not much, but I figured since you do it for me, I would be nice and return t
he favor.”  He sipped on some coffee
and leaned against the counter, taking note to her auburn hair that was loosely pulled back, as well as her FDNY shirt that she wore as if it were designed solely for her.

Eva nervously looked up from her food.  “What?”

Michael hadn’t realized he had
been staring until she spoke
.  “Oh nothing.”

“You were staring at me like I had something on my face.  Do I?” She reached for a napkin and Michael held his hand up to stop her.

“No, I was just looking at you.  Wondering what I did to deserve someone like you.”

Her cheeks turned a light shade of red and she tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear before taking another bite of her bagel.  “You’re too sweet, Mikey.”  She glanced up at the clock.  “I better get going.  You’re the late one, not me.”  She drank down the orange juice and leaned in, kissing him on the lips.  “Thanks so much for the breakfast, hon.  Enjoy your day off. I love you.”

“I love you, too.”  He walked her to the door and shut it behind her, wondering when they would get a day off together.  It had been ages.  He sat down on the couch and turned the TV on.  Nothing was on but morning talk shows and weather, so he instantly turned it off.  He cleaned up the small mess he had made and changed into some sweats and a t-shirt. 

He walked downstairs and stopped on his stoop, taking note to the humidity
in the air.  He loved summertime
in New York.  The scent of the asphalt was oily from the moisture in the air.  Putting his ear buds in, he turned his iPod on to his workout playlist and nodded toward the old man who
was always out on the stoop,
reading the newspaper.

Traffic was already starting to pick up as everyone began their commutes to work.  It was a little past seven.  It seemed rush hour got earlier and earlier all the time.   He began to jog down Tenth Avenue, relaxing as his lungs took in the breaths of morning air.  He didn’
t have a route planned out. I
t had been awhil
e since he had taken a long run
and his body seemed to be craving it. 

He noticed that while jogging, he didn’t have the endurance he did before the warehouse fire.  His lungs felt tighter, and even though he did go through some physical rehab, there was an immense amount of differences in how his body was ad
apting to the physical exertion
. He even noticed that in fires, his muscles and joints where he sustained injury were a lot weaker than he ever remembered. 

 
             
Weaving in and out of other pedestrians who were hustling to and from wherever they were going, he was thankful for the music he had playing. It took his mind off of all of the city sounds he couldn’t get away from.  The honking horns, squeaking brakes, yells from impatient people, and most of all, away from the sirens. 

The humidity was thick, hindering his lungs.  Sweat dripped down from his hair into his eyes.  He finally came to stop at
the Fourteenth Street Park
,
which
was mostly empty.  There were a few group
s of people sitting on the
grass, as well as a few stragglers and what appeared to be homeless people on benches.  Michael walked past them, trying his best not to make eye contact.  He faced toward the Hudson River, bending over to try to gain his composure.

He was disgusted at himself.  He remembered a time when he could run all the way down to the Financial District and take a break at Battery Park.  This park wasn’t more than two miles from his place
and he felt like he had just ru
n a marathon.  He leaned against the iron fence and watched his surroundings.  He hated seeing all of the homeless people, sleeping on park benches and begging for money. 

Turning his attention to the playground area, he saw a woman and two young boys on the swing set.  Watching, he reminisced about his childhood.  His mom would usually take them to a different park.  She said this one was too small and too close to major streets.  He kept his distance in fear of scaring them.  The boys were close in age and looked alike.  For the most part, they got along and played well together, with the occasional brotherly spat over whose toy was whose.  He smiled to himself.  He longed to go back to when he was that age when their father was still alive and everything seemed okay.  Back when he didn’t have a care or worry in the world. 

Michael walked farther down
the jogging path and faced
toward the Hudson River again.  He watched as tugboats went back and forth.  It was as if someone was changing the channel in his mind and he thought about Viper and the horrible situation they were in just a few short months ago.  He almost lost his life due to some bad gambling from his brother.  It took him a long time to realize that viewing it that way wasn’t the best.  He had convinced himself that it was for his family.  If he didn’t step up the way he had, Casey would’ve easily been killed. 

Flashbacks of the burning inferno he was trapped in crept into his mind.   Michael would never forget what it felt like to choke in the poison air, as if he were a fish out of water, gasping uncontrollably until his lungs completely collapsed on him. It would take time to shove those memories aside.  To him, it felt like it would be eternity.  He hated going to see a therapist about the whole thing, but to get back to active duty with the fire department, they required him to see a psychologist once a week. 
He would never admit it to anyone
, but talking it out with an unbiased person was quite helpful.  He just felt
like it was a blow to his pride
and it would forever be attached to his personnel file.  At least it went down as required.  That would help his reputation some.

He looked down at his watch and decided to get back to his apartment.  He wasn’t sure what he was going to do with the day, so he slow jogged the two miles back, taking his time,
still pissed
that he couldn’t keep the pace like he used to.  When he got h
ome, he showered and
head
ed
to Queens to see his mom.  She worked part time at a sewing shop
,
so he called to make sure she’d be home before he headed over.  Sometimes he liked to surprise her, but he didn’t want to ride the subway up for no reason.

The commute on the subway took about an hour.  He generally tried to go during off times when the trains weren’t overly packed.  He also made sure to not wear anything that had the ‘FDNY’ label on it to avoid being stared at and asked a million questions. He had learned his lesson the hard way with that.  Too many tourists were infatuated with the fire department, and it was only because of nine eleven.  Before that day, no one cared.  It was slowly starting to get that way again.

He boarded the seven train headed toward Queens and sat in the back of a train car away from everyone.  He buried his head in the New York Times and before he knew it, it was his stop.  He tossed the paper in the trash and walked toward his mom’s house. Thankfully, she didn’t live a great distance from the subway station. 

He paused at the
fence in her front yard
.  Every time he visited, he calmed down.  Why didn’t he visit more often? At least he and Eva were coming more than they used to. 

Michael didn’t notice her on the porch until she spoke up.  She was drinking iced tea and sitting on the porch swing. “Hey Michael. Were the trains packed today?”

He sat down beside her and looked up at the storm clouds forming above. “Not too bad.  Looks like we might get some rain later on.”

“Too bad we can’t send it down to Texas and New Mexico.  You see what they are going through down there? It’s just awful.”

Michael nodded.  “Yeah, Casey mentioned something about it last night on the phone.  I haven’t really been watching much news.
Read about it a little on the ride over.

“Yeah, you’re a newspaper reader, just like your father was.”

“I like the freedom you have with it.  If you don’t wanna read about a certain story, you can skip right on over it.  With the TV, you gotta sit and suffer through all the crap.”

She laughed and patted his knee with her hand.  “So, what brings you by today? Eva have to work?”

“Yeah, she’s working.  I just wanted to come chat. Wanted to take care of some of these outdoor chores too.”

His mom scoffed.  “You didn’t have to come all the way over here to take care of work that I can get done.”

“Are you kidding? You don’t need to be up and cleaning out gutters and things.  It’s no problem.  If I sit at home, it’ll just drive me insane.  I don’t mind at all.”