by Simmons, Pat
After a squeeze and a kiss on the cheek, Solae asked Lindsay if she was excited about attending school the next day.
Bobbing her head, Lindsay took a deep breath and got on a roll, “Auntie, my teacher’s name is Mrs. Davis. I got a lunchbox, new shoes…” she rattled off an endless list while Solae listened patiently. “Mommy got her some new clothes, too. We’re going to match tomorrow. She’ll look so pretty.”
Lindsay gave her mother an adoring smile. Candace tweaked her nose, making Lindsay giggle.
“Who wears red on the first day at a job?” she mumbled to Solae.
“You will,” she answered quietly, smiling for Lindsay. “While you’re at school having fun, your mom is coming to work with me, and we’re going to have fun, too.”
Solae was responsible for getting Candace the virtual assistant position at Kendall Printing in the first place. Her friend had also put a bug in their boss’ ear about Candace applying for the account trainee program that would be starting up in a few months. Since the promotion wasn’t available for telecommuters, it couldn’t have come at a better time for Candace to make the transition from home to the office. To be eligible for the position, she had to shadow someone for six months.
With a concerned expression, Lindsay frowned and tilted her head. “We didn’t get Mommy a lunchbox.”
“Don’t worry about your Momma. I’ll make sure she eats.” Solae reached for one of Lindsay’s hands as Candace grabbed the other and steered her toward the exit.
“Okay,” Lindsay said in a singsong tone.
“Enjoy your debut as crossing guard extraordinaire tomorrow…God’s given you the victory. Otherwise, He wouldn’t allow Satan to taunt you. You’ll be fine.” To lighten the mood, Solae gave her an encouraging thumb up. “I should drive by and take pictures.”
Candace rolled her eyes at the last statement, but feeding on Solae’s confidence in her, she was psyched and felt encouraged. “Hey, I’ve got this.” They swapped kisses and hugs in the parking lot.
“Bye, Auntie.” Lindsay waved, then latched onto Candace’s hand and skipped the short distance to their car. “Tomorrow’s school, Mommy, and I get to wear my new shoes.”
“I know.” Candace tugged on one of her daughter’s curls and helped her into the car seat in the back of her Kia. And tomorrow will be the first day we’ll be separated for hours, the first day I’ve had a job outside the home since you were born and my inauguration as a crossing guard.
It was definitely a day she hoped to endure without drama. If Candace could survive two out of the three, she’d deserve a medal.
CHAPTER THREE
“Come on eight o’clock.” Royce yawned. He was ready to go home.
After doing a twenty-four hour shift, he was beat. Usually, he worked twelve hour rotations, but he was covering for someone else. Thank You Jesus for that, Royce whispered, referring to the fact that North St. Louis County had been quiet throughout the night.
While his brother finished up the new work schedule in the office, their chauffeur was checking the equipment for the morning shift. Stretching, Royce could hardly keep his eyes open as he studied for a promotion test at Hershel’s urging.
Royce had nothing but respect for his brother, who had worked and studied hard to earn his rank as captain while rearing his two small boys, ages three and five, on his own. It was overwhelming, to say the least.
Maybe it was a blessing that their mother was deceased so as not to witness the demise of Hershel’s union. It would have broken her heart, but she would have pitched in. But Hershel had employed a faithful housekeeper who had been a godsend with her flexibility and genuine love for his nephews.
The older generation of Kavanaugh men married for life, tracing back to his great-grandfather. His generation was questionable, only their youngest brother, Trent, was still happily married to his wife, Julia. The couple was blessed with an adorable baby girl.
“The engine’s ready to go,” Felix said, entering their shared sleeping quarters.
Royce snapped out of his musing and looked busy. Lately, every chance his colleague got, he ribbed him about going out on a blind date—no thank you. Definitely not with one of Felix’s referrals.
If Royce ever found the right one—she had to be pretty enough, sweet enough and Christian enough to complement him—then he could boast that blissful state. Exhaling, he didn’t know when that was going to happen. Although he wasn’t in a rush, God said it wasn’t good for man to be alone.
Thinking about the lack of intimacy, Royce smiled. Yes, Father did know best. Stretching, Royce rolled his shoulders and rubbed his lower back. In two long hours, he would be off work and not long after that, collapsed in his own bed.
***
“Wake up!” a tiny voice echoed in the background. Candace ignored the intrusion as she snuggled deeper under the covers.
Then her bed started shaking. “Mommy, I’ll be late.”
Candace jerked up. She blinked, disoriented, recognizing Lindsay’s panicked high-pitched distress call. Finally, seconds later, it registered. It was the first day of school and work. She glanced at the clock. She must have slept through her alarm.
“Oh no!” Wrestling with her covers, Candace scrambled out of bed. “Of all days…” She had to get her daughter and herself ready, and cook breakfast. Padding across her hardwood floor, she swung open her door about to check on Lindsay.
She froze before the first step. Lindsay skipped down the hallway, modeling her red jumper. Having removed her head scarf, each of her four ponytails remained neatly in place. Candace sighed in relief that she had one less task to do. The only thing that needed tweaking was switching Lindsay’s tennis shoes to the right feet.
“How long have you been up? Why didn’t you wake mommy sooner?” Candace didn’t wait for answers as she hurried into the bathroom. Thank God she had taken a shower the night before. In record time, she had slipped on her red sleeveless coatdress and black sling back pumps. Solae always argued that bright colors complemented her skin tone. After a quick glance in the mirror, Candace agreed, although decked out in a red as bright as a fire truck wouldn’t be her first choice.
In the kitchen, Candace hurried Lindsay through the most important meal of the day. Reluctantly, she left dirty dishes in the sink. She ushered her daughter out of the door, grabbing her new briefcase—compliments of Solae, a black jacket for the office chill, Lindsay’s backpack, lunchbox, and everything else she had lined up on the countertop near the door.
While en route to Duncan Elementary, Candace prayed she wouldn’t be late for her duty at school in addition to overcoming her fear for the sake of the children and herself. That’s when she remembered she hadn’t greeted God.
“Lord, thank You for waking me up and all the blessings You have in store for me and my baby today. Lord, help me to be grateful and humble in Your eyesight. Amen.”
“Amen, Mommy.”
Smiling, Candace peeked at Lindsay in her rearview mirror; she didn’t realize her daughter was listening. Finally, she arrived at the intersection of Cougar and North Lindbergh. She saw a group of children heading to the corner. Candace parked haphazardly, taking up almost two full spaces. She unbuckled their seat restraints and jumped out. She didn’t have time to take Lindsay to class beforehand as she had planned, so her daughter would have to stay with her until after the bell rang.
Snatching the red neon vest off the backseat, Candace turned up her nose at the worn item, then remembered the Sunday sermon. She slipped it on. “At least it matches,” she mumbled and got the stop sign out the trunk.
As the children reached her corner, Candace impatiently pressed repeatedly on the button to change the light. Her heart pounded as she reminded herself she could do all things through Christ that strengthened her. Some cars slowed as the light flashed from yellow to red. When one SUV screeched to a halt, Candace jumped. She frowned at the offender for rattling her nerves. God, please protect these children—and me.
She breathed a sigh of relief with each group that successfully made it to the other side. The eagerness on the small children’s faces was priceless compared to the sluggish stride of the older students. After a couple of waves and thank yous, Candace relaxed and began to feel like a pro—almost. She chided herself on almost missing an opportunity to serve others like church ushers, teachers, doctors and other community leaders. God had proven she could do this.
As Candace stood in the intersection, a blaring siren in the distance grew louder. Eying the countdown on the post, she ordered the children to hurry. It took God’s might for her not to panic and freeze in the middle of the street. With them safely tucked behind her, and her legs feeling shaky like Jell-O, the truck whizzed by.
Despite the noise, and her mind being elsewhere, Candace thought she also heard a muffled high-pitched whistle. That irked her. She was risking her life for the sake of these children and someone had the nerve to ogle her?
“See, Mommy, you were like a policewoman. You made everybody stop,” her daughter cheered, interrupting her frenzy. The pleased expression in Lindsay’s eyes after the last group of students was safely on school property made her feel foolish for her thoughts.
“Come on, sweetie. Let’s get your things from the car, so I can walk you to your first day of class.”
Physically, Candace had survived; but mentally, she was still praying that another parent would surface at the last minute and relieve her of her duties. While some people feared driving across bridges or riding in airplanes, her fear was on the ground, at a corner and getting from point A to point B on foot.
CHAPTER FOUR
The air between Royce’s lips just escaped, but he had no problem owning up to the whistle. Even with passing her by in a blur, he could tell she was a sight he wished he could see. The crossing guard’s nice legs could halt traffic without the benefit of a stop sign.
If the crew hadn’t been racing toward the scene of a two alarm blaze, he would have pleaded with the lieutenant to make a U-turn as if they were riding in a sports car, rather than a ten-thousand pound ladder truck.
No, that stop sign definitely wasn’t necessary as she hurried across the street with the children. Wow. A chance glimpse at her face proved she was gorgeous. Her skin was a rich combination of light and dark. Definitely a rich milk chocolate and her shoulder length hair blew in the wind as they raced by her.
There wasn’t enough time to catalogue all her features, but in seconds, Royce glimpsed lips, nose and eyes. Thank God for twenty/twenty vision. From the cab of the truck, Royce shook his head. He hoped the other three firefighters with him didn’t hear his blunder.
Ordering himself to re-focus, Royce pushed the vision of loveliness to the back of his mind. His company was heading to a situation that was top priority. “Jesus, please spare both lives and property. Whatever is lost, I know You can restore, in Jesus’ name, Amen.”
As the fire truck sped to their destination, Royce spied the dark smoke spiraling upward and dispensing into the air. They were still blocks away from assisting the first unit on the scene, but with smoke that dark, he doubted the fire was under control.
Minutes later, chaos greeted them on the scene with bystanders, emergency vehicles and equipment spread out everywhere. Royce did his own assessment as Felix brought the truck to a stop. The chief on the scene briefed Hershel since he was the captain of the company eight that would assist.
The older two-story brick house had an attic. Judging from the number of windows, there could be four or more bedrooms. One ladder was in position with a hose, flushing the flames. The fire had already burned a front first floor window, leaving a black streak racing upstairs.
An ambulance was nearby. EMS was administering oxygen to a woman and her teenage boy. Survivors—praise God. Thank God, there was some distance between the houses. Otherwise, the strong winds could have sparked adjacent fires.
His brother nodded to the lead commander and walked back to Royce, Felix and Allen.
“Four victims. The most serious have already been transported to Christian NE Hospital. Another one is en route to DePaul’s. The good news—everyone is out. There is heavy damage in the front bedroom that had been occupied by an elderly man. The family says their uncle, who was on oxygen, was attempting to smoke in bed. Flames engulfed the room almost immediately.”
Engine House Eight went to work. The blaze struck three alarms before the engine companies won the battle, dousing the flames from every angle possible. To keep the fire from rekindling in hot spots, Royce and a fellow firefighter added foam to the water to cover spots that were still hot within the structure. Afterward, they scavenged through the structure to recover whatever valuables could be saved for the family.
When it appeared that the situation was under control, Royce began to wrap up the hoses as his mind returned to the red hot crossing guard. Why was the vision plaguing him when there was a strong possibility that she could be married? Royce steered clear of women’s advances who he knew were married and women with children. As far as he was concerned, life was too short to deal with drama. But the urge to find out if she was off limits was overpowering his common sense.
“Hey, Captain,” Royce respected his brother’s position when working together, “Mind if go back by the way of Brandon’s school?”
“Why?” he asked. When Royce stalled, Hershel wiped his brow. “Do I have to guess or are you going to tell me?”
“A woman with the nicest pair of legs…had my heart racing as if I downed a large double Espresso.”
“What?” Hershel stared at him as if he had two heads, then snickered. “Was she washing cars or holding up a sign for Little Caesar’s Pizza?”
“Actually, she was a crossing guard in front of Duncan Elementary.”
Hershel’s chuckle spiraled into a laugh. “A crossing guard,” he mumbled as he nudged Royce toward the direction of the fire truck. “You’re lusting after a crossing guard when you should’ve been praying, man.”
“A man can multi-task, too, but a great pair of legs can distract any man.”
Once they were back in the truck, Hershel looked over his shoulder at Royce and shook his head. Turning back to their chauffeur, he advised Felix to go past Duncan school.
“What? No Duncan donuts? Oh man,” he griped, steering the fire truck away from the curb as onlookers watched them. A few small children waved and Felix honked, acknowledging them. They cheered with their eyes wide with excitement.
Royce smiled. He loved children and he took his role as uncle to Hershel’s two boys and his younger brother, Trent’s daughter very seriously.
He wasn’t surprised when their truck crawled to the stop light at the intersection where his mind had gone berserk—no crossing guard was in sight. School had been in session for more than an hour.
After stopping to get the donuts, they greeted their relief crew back at the station. While Hershel briefed the morning shift, Royce and the others headed to the showers and prepared to go home.
Royce believed in second chances. He knew in his heart he would see the lovely crossing guard again. He just prayed it wouldn’t take another emergency call to cross paths.
CHAPTER FIVE
When Candace pulled into the company parking lot, Solae was milling outside the main entrance talking with other coworkers. Once she spotted Candace, she left the group and headed her way.
“So how did it go?” Solae asked, opening her car door as if she was a valet. Her expression seemed hopeful for good news.
“Fine, except for almost getting hit by a fire truck.” Candace shivered. She couldn’t allow what happened to dredge up the memories of when her husband was struck and killed. She had to do this for Lindsay.
Her friend put a fist on her hips. �
�Would you stop exaggerating?” Rolling her eyes, she fell in step. “You survived.”
“Barely.” Lord, You know how long it took me to even walk downtown near the intersection where Daniel died and I overcame that fear. Please don’t let me develop one for fire trucks.
“Every day will get better. You’ll be delivered before you know it!”
How could she argue with that? Candace had no comeback.
“Well, you’re here now, ready to start a new adventure in life,” Solae said as they headed to the boss’ office. There wasn’t much paperwork to be done since she was already an employee—even though a virtual one.
The day went by swiftly as Solae introduce Candace to one coworker after another. “It’s nice to finally meet you in person,” many of them said, welcoming her.
Candace wasn’t too surprised to find that her small sleek half wall cubicle was angled perfectly across the aisle from Solae. It was stylish, cozy and just enough room for Lindsay should she have to bring her to work in the event she had to make up time. Thank God for a thirty-five hour work week and paid lunch, otherwise Lindsay may need a cot.
It was ironic that Candace had to come into the office to be considered for a promotion, but so many tasks were done via virtual assistant. Although it felt good to be away from her home office, she dearly missed hearing her daughter’s chatter when Candace instructed her to be silent so she could get some work done.
The lunch break came without Candace realizing she was hungry. The cafeteria was massive with a dining room that boasted three sets of buffet bars: fruits, salads, soups, fried and baked entrees. After filling their trays with their selections, Solae chose a cozy spot in a far corner. Once they blessed their food, Solae tackled her salad. “Do you think you’ll like it here?”
Candace nodded. “It feels weird not to have Lindsay close by. I wonder if this is what empty-nesters feel like when their children grow up and move away. My baby is just in kindergarten.” Shaking her head, Candace enjoyed a mouthful of chicken and wild rice soup. “Do you think I should get Lindsay a cell phone just in case she has an emergency?”