"Of Phantoms and Fire Poles"
Chapter Two
"Chet? Chet, come back!" John mumbled and began thrashing about in his bed. "Che-et!"
Captain Stanley awoke to the paramedic's plaintive cries. He flicked the dorm lights on and his covers off. The half-awake man slipped his bare legs into the bottom half of his turnouts and started heading for Gage's bunk. By the time he reached it, DeSoto was sitting on the edge of John's bed, gripping his partner's shoulders.
"Wake up, Johnny!" Roy sleepily advised his agitated amigo. "C'mon, wake up! It's just a bad dream."
The dreamer finally woke, right in mid-scream. "—et!" He began blinking, as his tired eyes were assaulted with blindingly bright light. Roy was seated beside him. His Captain was standing over him—and Chet Kelly was sitting up in his bunk, directly across from him. "Chet, how could you possibly do something so stupid?"
"Is that a multiple choice answer type question?" Mike Stoker groggily queried.
His shift-mates snickered.
Well, all except for Kelly, that is. "Not funny, Mikey, " Chet groused. "Anyways, I'm innocent. I didn't do anything! Stupid—or otherwise—I swear!"
The Captain looked curious. "What, exactly, did Chet do?"
The peeved paramedic appeared even more upset. "He oiled the pole!"
Hank looked even more curious and more than a tad bit confused. "What pole?"
"The fire pole!"
His Captain was now completely perplexed. "You mean, a pike pole?"
"No-o. The kind you slide down."
"That does it," Stanley lightly determined and pointed a finger at the now slightly embarrassed looking fireman. "No more late-night pizza for you, pal." Hank suppressed a grin and began heading back to his bunk. "Lights out in less than a minute!"
Chet looked smug. "See? I told yahs I was innocent. We don't even have a fire pole."
'We don't even have a fire pole,' the paramedic mentally repeated. 'And it's a damn good thing, too!'
Roy returned to his abandoned bed.
Kelly suddenly realized something and collapsed back onto his bunk, looking—and feeling—quite pleased with himself. "Sheesh! The Phantom is so adept at what he does, he even haunts people in their dreams!"
"The Phantom also gets Latrine Duty for an entire year!" the nightmare sufferer quickly came back.
"In your dreams, babe!" Chester B. snidely remarked.
John suddenly realized something that caused him to curse, and groan, aloud. 'We don't have a dishwasher, either…'
Right about then...is when the lights went out.
The End
