Chapter One, part 3

First Post|Previous|Next

He took the envelope. One part of his mind saw Sara's expression fade, but mostly he focused on the letter. Until he opened the it, it still might contain a notice that his name had been transferred to the new list. He held the letter up to the light, hoping to get a clue as to its contents. No luck.

Beyond the letter he saw Sara's face, which now wore expression of concern and sadness. "Would you like me to open it for you?" she asked gently.

"No," Ian said, "no, thank you." He continued to hold the envelope by its corner, until finally he forced himself to open it. All of the waiting of the last nine months collapsed into this single moment. His hearing warped. His vision swam. His head ached. His heart pounded. Eventually he went so far as to unfold the page, and read:

Office of Crew Assignment, ALS
Division of Emergency Medical Services
New Gotham Fire Department.
9 MetroTech Center.

April 2, 1998.

Greeting.

We are pleased to inform IAN STEELE that the ranking chief EMS, New Gotham Fire Department," he began to read aloud with growing excitement, "has found you to be worthy of assignment to one of our city's ALS EMS units. We are therefore pleased to be in the position of offering you an assignment to New Gotham Fire Department's EMS UNIT 35 X-RAY...

He turned to Sara and gave her a kiss. "I got it!" He said, "I got it!" their celebrations jerked Mynx from her nap atop the television. She glared at the two humans, saying nothing but nevertheless cowing them not into silence, but down to a more respectable volume. Mynx closed her eyes and lay down again, only her ears now wake to monitor the situation.

"Where will you be?" Sara quietly asked.

"Where?" Ian asked. He continued to read:

... EMS unit 35 X-RAY, operating out of EMS STATION 57, in the neighborhood of COLDWATER, during the hours of 1000 HRS to 1800 HRS, starting on TUESDAY, APRIL 28, 1998.
Should you desire this position, please contact us as soon as possible, but no later than 6 p.m. on WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15, 1998.

Their level of excitement fell. "Coldwater?" Sara asked.

Ian checked again to be sure. "Well, yeah. It's Coldwater. But I'm in, right -- I can always apply for transfer later."

Sara nodded. "Yes," she said. "Yes. That's true." She him a hug and he reread the letter, noting the peculiar greeting and the bold capitalization of all of the parts of the letter that were specific to him (obviously a form letter, used with a mail-merge program), and noticing that the signature had been made with a rubber stamp, the corner of which had also marked the page. Then his eyes returned to the respond-by date: today's date. His eyes flicked to the clock on the VCR: 6:03 p.m.

Ian grabbed for the phone, knocking it off the table in his haste and desperation. As he scrambled to pick it up, one half of his mind cursed the mail service for being so cavalier, so irresponsible as to delay the letter. The other half hoped that 6 p.m. might not be an absolute deadline. He forced himself to slow down as he punched the members into the phone. The envelope was postmarked on the 2nd and must have been lost for over a week, he thought as the phone began to ring.

Six rings later Ian's blood froze further, if such a thing were possible. Seven rings. Eight rings. Nine. He would have to find a job with one of the private companies. Was he more angry, or more sad? He turned to hang up the phone --
"New Gotham Fire Department."

The phone was so far from his ear that he barely heard the voice answer at the other end. "You're still there," Ian said.

"We are," said the voice, brisk and efficient. "ALS or BLS?"

Several minutes later he replaced the phone and beamed upon Sara. "You are looking," he said, "at the newest member of the City of New Gotham's Fire Department, Division of EMS.


[END OF CHAPTER]

First Post|Previous|Next

Edit: 12 Jan 2009: Changed Bed-Stuy to Coldwater.