My Life-A unique POV

I don't remember the day I was born. I guess that's normal as far as I've been told. My awareness began sometime during the testing stage of my life. I remember the blackness fading away while I was being pulled and stretched. It hurt, a little, but it was a necessary part of my existence. They had to be sure that I was strong enough to do my job.

After testing I was put in a big bin with a lot of others of my type and we were sent to a big storage area. It seemed like it took a long time before I was finally chosen, along with several of my bin mates, to finally be shipped out. I heard one of the workers say Los Angeles County before closing and sealing the shipping box. All of us murmured together trying to determine what we knew about Los Angeles County. In the end we decided we didn't know anything at all about Los Angeles and what did it matter anyway. We had a job to do and it didn't really matter where we did it as long as we did it well.

We were in the box for a long time, we could feel the box being moved from vehicle to vehicle until finally we stopped. When the box opened we saw another big room, smaller than the one we had been in originally, but much the same. Instead of only holding our kind, the room held all sorts of equipment. Belts, ladders, weird wire cages (someone called them "stokes", whatever that meant) and stacks and stacks of canvas hoses. All sorts of equipment was stored in this room. Someone called the place "headquarters". None of us were quite sure what that meant, but we guessed it meant a place to wait, again, until it was time to go to work. Some of the others were a little stand-offish for a bit, but before long we were all talking and discussing our different jobs. Out of all the equipment in the room it seemed that my friends and I were the most versatile of all the equipment. Most of the pieces had just one specific job. My friends and I could do all kinds of useful things and most of them very important to the safety of the humans who would be using us.

Finally my day came, a human came and picked me up and carried me out of the room, as we walked I finally heard my assignment, Station 51. Even in our isolated room we had heard about Station 51 and the men who worked there. They were the best. I was excited I'd be going to work with the best in the area. My job just seemed so much more important. It would be up to me to keep these guys safe and help them do their jobs. I was ready to go to work.

I finally arrived at the station where I was handed off to a tall, dark-haired, young man. He seemed too young for such important work, but who was I to judge. He unwound my entire length and looked over every inch of me. It felt kind of personal, but I was impressed. This man wasn't going to trust his life to anyone else. He wanted to be personally assured that I could do my job. When he finished the intensive inspection he carefully wound me back up so that I wouldn't get tangled up and used the last length to wrap me tightly together and then he carefully placed me in a cabinet inside the red vehicle he and his partner drove together. Just before he shut the door I got a glimpse of his partner, a sandy-haired, slightly older man who looked like you could trust him with just about anything. Which, I guess is good, because humans trusted these men with their lives. I felt good about this assignment. As the door closed I caught the last fragments of the conversation.

"Is that the new rope? Shame about the last one getting burned in that fire."

"Yeah, but better the rope than the fireman. They sent us a good one, no flaws I could find and looks strong."

"Good, hope we don't need it for a while though."

The two men laughed as the door closed and the laughter faded as they walked off.

So that was what happened to my predecessor. I shuddered at the thought. Firefighting is a dangerous business and we all know the risks, but you hope, you pray that you'll make it to retirement and just be shifted to some nice easy assignment, like hauling hose on the drying tower, but you know, going into it, that you could be caught in a fire and suffer the worst death imaginable. I hoped that he had gone fast and hadn't suffered. Maybe debris fell on him before he could realize what was happening. I hoped my end at Station 51 would be merciful when it came.

I wasn't needed for most of the day, but came out in the evening. The dark-haired man slung my coils over his shoulder as he climbed up the tall tower to rescue the worker, whose line had twisted, causing him to become stuck, high off the ground. It turned out that my man didn't need me. He was able to untangle the man's rope and lower him with his own gear. I had a few words with that rope while we waited.

"What were you thinking, getting tangled like that?"

"Hey, man, like, it wasn't my fault. This idiot didn't store me right and I spent WEEKS with a kink in my line. When it came time to work, I couldn't get the kink out and this wind up here took that kink and tangled me all up."

"Oh, man, that's the worst. Sorry about that. My guys will get you off of here and if they see the kink they'll tell your guy to treat you better. They're the best."

It wasn't long before Johnny, I heard the other guys call him that, got the man down and then dropped the line to the ground so that it wouldn't blow around and cause problems for anyone else. His partner, Roy, helped the man who had been stuck and discovered he wasn't injured at all, just scared.

When Johnny got back to the ground he picked up the rope and showed the man where it had become kinked and what had caused the tangle. He showed the man how to properly coil the rope so that it wouldn't kink again.

Overall, it was a pretty easy assignment for my first time out. It went that way for several shifts. I had easy jobs for several days. I hauled the drug box and a stokes to the top of a refinery tower and then helped lower the injured man. The next day I lowered a child to the ground. He had climbed up on the roof of his house and then gotten too scared to move. I was working with C shift that day and a man named Charlie calmed down the child, put a safety belt on him and then lowered him to the ground with my help. The mom was so grateful to us, but I pitied that child, I had a feeling he was about to be in big, big trouble.

I liked jobs like that one, where what we did was easy enough, but brought a big sense of accomplishment. Days like that I knew I was doing what I'd been made for.

The next day Johnny and Roy were back. I was glad to see them again. I felt especially close to them since they were the first team I worked with. It was a quiet day. The squad stayed in the bay for a long time. Then the alarms went off. We were called to a remote area for a car off the road. I had a feeling that they would be needing me for this assignment and I prepared myself for a big job.

Sure enough, the squad had barely stopped when Johnny pulled me from my compartment, looping me over his shoulder again. Don't tell anyone, but I really liked riding on Johnny's shoulder like that. Something about it made me feel…right. Together we ran to the edge of a steep drop off and looked over the edge. The drop off was steep enough that they would need me to lower Johnny over the edge and down to the people trapped in the car resting on a narrow ledge far below. At this point we didn't even know if anyone survived the fall, but together we had to find out.

Johnny tied one end of my length off on the engine. Let me tell you something about Johnny. That man knows how to tie a knot! He's fast too. Before I had time to even think about what was coming next I was secured to the engine and that knot would not be budging, not even a centimeter. Johnny tossed the rest of me over the edge. I'll never get used to that feeling of free falling when they tossed me over an edge. It was the strangest feeling. Part of me was left resting on the guard rail at the edge of the road as Johnny wrapped my length around the clip on his belt a few times and then we were working. I slid smoothly through the clip as he fed the length through. No kinks in me. My guys knew how to take care of me.

Johnny had barely gone a couple of feet when I felt the pain. Ugggh. Something was tearing me apart. I'd never felt such pain in my entire existence. I thought about where it was coming from and figured out there was a rough edge on the guard rail. Johnny had checked before going over, but when we started moving our weight put stress on the already damaged rail and caused it to bend just enough to create a sharp friction on me where I rested on the rail.

If the pain was any indication it wouldn't be long before I wouldn't be able to hold Johnny up any longer. I was at risk of breaking. I couldn't let Johnny fall. I had to do something to help him. I could feel one of my strands fraying and knew it would soon break. I focused on that one strand and when it snapped I tried to snap as loud as I possibly could.

Cap looked up from peering over the edge. I thought he might have heard me snap. I soon felt another strand ready to go and again, snapped as loud as I could. Cap looked right at me.

"Mike, Marco, grab Johnny's line, it's gonna go!"

It worked, I had gotten their attention, but was it soon enough. With two strands down the remaining strands were getting weak quickly. I felt four strong hands grab me below the weakened area and start to pull. At the same time Cap was yelling down to Johnny to get to the ledge as fast as possible and they would lower a new rope.

I held my breath. I felt another strand go, but the four hands had a good grip now and suddenly I was free of the weight at the opposite end of my length. Johnny had reached the ledge and unhooked me from his belt. The one called Chet put a turnout coat on the rail and tossed another rope over the edge. Johnny was safe. I'd done it. I had completed the assignment given me. I had kept my man safe. I released the breath I'd been holding and finally relaxed. I was damaged beyond repair. My time on the rescue team was officially over, but I'd done my job well while it lasted.

As I tell my story I'm sitting in a pile of other ruined ropes waiting for my next assignment. I still have a good amount of usable length, I'm just not strong enough for rescue work anymore.

Here comes Johnny. I've missed him. He was a good man to work with. He's picking me up and turning me over in his hands. Wish I knew what he was thinking.

"Hey, Roy, isn't this the rope that I was using on that cliff rescue last shift?"

Roy huffed out a small breath, "I don't know, I can't really tell one rope from another."

Well, if that isn't just the most insulting thing ever. We are each very different in our own ways. He should have been able to tell it was me.

"I still wonder how Cap noticed the rope was fraying on that rough edge. I could have been killed if he hadn't gotten the guys on that rope when he did. That was my lucky day."

"Partner, every day is your lucky day."

It was Johnny's turn to huff in frustration. I couldn't help but giggle. Roy was right though, for all the men at Station 51 a day they came home uninjured was a lucky day.

Johnny was saying something, "I think this one will work. We need a new rope for the hose tower the last one frayed and got stuck in the pulley. Mike and I just finished cutting it out and getting the pulley working again. Yeah, I think this one will be fine for the tower."

I couldn't believe my luck. I would still get to work with my guys, just in a different capacity. I would do this job gladly, it was better than sitting in that pile or being sent to the dump.

So, if you ever get the chance to see the boys hanging hose at the end of a long run, look for me. I'll be the one pulling the hose up the high tower and helping my men do their jobs. I'm still keeping an eye on them and keeping them safe in the only way I still can. I'm happy in my new job and think I'll be here for quite some time, the fire department is my life, and I wouldn't have it any other way.