Everything Changes
Chapter 21
At dinner, the fire station was uncharacteristically quiet. It had been a pretty busy afternoon of mostly motor vehicle accidents, requiring both the squad and the engine. Hunger beat out the need to socialize until bellies were full. Johnny was the last hold out, still eating after all the others had long since pushed their plates away.
"You must have two hollow legs!" commented Sam.
"Remember, he's a growing boy!" Roy said.
Johnny polished off the last of the food that Sam had prepared for them that evening. "Sam, that was great! I haven't had chicken curry that good since… well… never. I've never had chicken curry that good!"
"That was pretty amazing." Agreed Marco. "I'm glad I didn't miss it."
"Why would you have missed it?" asked Sam.
"We were supposed to be off, Chet and I remember? But the guys that were supposed to cover us both got sick."
"Oh, Marco, Chet, I forgot about that. I felt badly about your reprimand. I know it was all in good fun. You know I wasn't offended, right?"
"We know that Sam." Said Chet. "But the Cap and the Chief were right. It really could have been ugly. It just kind of got away from us."
"So long as everyone learned from it. That's what's important." Hank stated. Just then the phone rang. Johnny jumped up before anyone else could.
"I'll get it." He bounded over to the phone. "Fire Department, Station 51. Fireman Gage speaking… Oh, Hi!… " Johnny broke out in his typical crooked smile. "Our day? Oh it was fine. Kinda busy, but except for one call, none too serious. How's your day been? Good. Good, I'm glad. Okay now… okay. I love you too. Thanks for calling. Yeah, I'll see you tomorrow. Goodnight now." Johnny hung up. He turned back around to see six pairs of eyes watching him. He turned a little red and he sat back down with a huge grin on his face.
"John, that sounded kind of serious." Cap noted. Johnny wasn't often heard saying 'I love you' because he usually wasn't with the same woman for more than a few dates.
"As a matter of fact, Cap, it is serious." Johnny answered.
"What do you mean? She's actually going to let you take her on a third date?" Teased Chet. "That'd be a first!"
"Ha ha! Very funny! We've gone on lots of dates!" He said, indignantly. "I've actually come to a very serious decision. I'm going to ask Sharon to marry me."
There were a few moments of stunned silence. Chet finally broke it. "Now wait a minute, Johnny. You remember what happened last time you proposed to that one broad? You thought sure she was the one, remember? Are you sure there aren't any skeletons or should I say, brats in the closet this time?" Chet wasn't trying to be mean; he truly cared about Johnny and didn't want to see his friend get hurt.
"I'm sure Chet! Sharon's a great girl. I've never felt more sure of anything."
"Congratulations, Johnny." Said Roy, slapping his partner on the back. "I think Sharon's gonna be terrific for you."
"Congratulations, John." Cap said. All the others congratulated him as well.
"How are ya gonna ask her, Johnny?" asked Sam.
Johnny raised one eyebrow at her and waited a second before answering. "Well, actually, I don't really know yet. I've been trying to figure that out. I want it to be… original. Maybe you guys have some ideas." Johnny looked at his "family" to see what they might say.
"Don't ask me, amigo. I've never asked anybody to marry me."
"Well, I have, but she didn't say yes, so don't ask me." Mike said.
"How did you do it, Cap?" asked Johnny.
"Well, on the day I was going to propose, I went to pick Em up to take her to dinner. I had reservations at a really nice restaurant but when we got there, there was a sign on the door saying they were sorry for the inconvenience but they were closed. Seems they were dealing with broken pipes or something like that. With our plans ruined, we couldn't either one seem to come up with a good place to eat. We sat in my car talking for a while and then somehow we came up with this crazy idea. I told her to pick a number from one to ten. She chose nine because I was working at nines at the time. We gave ourselves a twenty-minute time limit. The plan was that I would drive and at every ninth intersection she would flip a coin. Heads I turned left and tails I turned right. When the twenty minutes were up we had to choose the nearest restaurant and eat there."
"Did you end up somewhere nice, Cap?" asked Chet.
"Nope."
"Where'd you end up?" asked Marco.
"Would you believe, a corner hot dog stand?" asked Cap.
"No way! You didn't ask her there, did you Cap?" asked Chet.
"Nope."
"Well what'd you do?" asked Johnny.
"Well, we had dinner there. I didn't want to but she said a deal was a deal. We were all dressed up and everything. It was kind of awkward. But from there I carried out the rest of my original plan."
"What was that?" asked Mike, curious.
"Well, ya see, I had filled the trunk of my car with helium balloons. After dinner I drove us to the beach. It was kind of a cool evening and she was in a cocktail dress so I knew she would need a jacket or something. We got out of the car and we started to walk toward the water. I commented that she looked like she might be cold and she admitted that she was just a little. I knelt down to tie my shoe. It wasn't untied, but she didn't know that. I asked her if she would get my jacket out of the trunk and I handed her the keys. Then I watched her. She unlocked the trunk and opened it and all these balloons came out and floated up in the air. She let out a little scream and you should have seen the look on her face. "
"Then what happened?" asked Roy.
"Well, then she laughed and said what a surprise that had been. And then she looked back in the trunk for the jacket. When she looked inside she saw that there were two balloons I had weighted down with the words on them, 'Will you' and 'marry me?' Attached to the brick that I'd weighted them down with was the ring box."
"And the rest is history." Said Sam.
"The rest is classified!" Cap corrected.
"Man, that's a great story!" said Johnny. "This is gonna be harder than I thought."
"Hey Roy, Pal; you're a married man. Tell us how you proposed to Joanne." Cap requested.
"Well, it didn't start of so well for me either." He started. "It was the day I received my draft notice. I knew I had to tell her about it and that she wasn't going to be happy. But I wanted her to know that nothing was going to keep me from coming home to her. I recruited my friend Jack to help me. I called Joanne up and told her I needed to talk to her. I suggested we go for a drive and she agreed. Jack and I had worked out an itinerary for the drive and he went ahead of me to set things up. When I picked Jo up I drove us to the school we both went to when we met. We talked in the car and I told her I had received my draft notice. She cried like I knew she would. I held her and we talked for a good half hour and I finally had her pretty well calmed down. I suggested we get some fresh air so we got out and took a walk on the playground. When we approached the swings, there was a balloon tied to one. On the balloon Jack had written 'pop me'."
"Why?" asked Chet, puzzled.
"Well, inside of the balloon was a note."
"What did it say?" asked Marco.
"Something like, 'When I first saw you I knew I'd never be the same. I loved getting to know you better as I walked you home.'"
"Then what?" asked Mike.
"Well, that was the clue to go to where she used to live. We got in the car and drove there and attached to the mailbox was another balloon."
"What did the note say?"
"It said, 'You are far more beautiful than any flowers I've ever brought you.' It was written on a card from the florist I used to go to."
"So you went to the florist?" asked Marco.
"What was there?" asked John.
"The shop was closed, but on the door was another balloon. The message said, 'Your love is sweeter than the malts we have shared.'"
"So you took her to where you shared the malts." Cap concluded.
"Yeah, I took her to the diner. It's where we had our first date. (If you can call it that in fourth grade.)"
"What was in the balloon there?" asked Sam.
"There wasn't one." Roy stated, matter of fact-like.
"Well what'd you do?" the suspense was killing Mike.
"We ordered a malt."
"That's it? You just ordered a malt?" asked Chet.
"How'd you pop the question already?" asked Johnny. "That's what this was supposed to be about."
"I'm getting to that," said Roy. "When the malt came to the table, hooked over the stem to the cherry on top of the whipped cream was the ring."
"Tell the rest, you twit. Don't leave us hanging."
"Ok, Cap. When she saw the ring she turned white. Her mouth dropped open and she was speechless. I took the ring off the malt, rinsed it in my water glass and dried it with a napkin then I took her hand and put it on her finger. I told her I loved her and that I had loved her from the very day we met. I told her I needed her to be strong for me and wait for me. Then I asked her if she would and she said yes. I got down on one knee and said to her, 'Joanne Wilson, you are the most beautiful woman in the world and I love you more than I ever thought anyone could love. Will you please marry me?' Then she burst into tears and kept saying yes over and over. She hugged me and cried for a half an hour after that!"
"That was beautiful, man." Said Mike, rubbing his eye as though there was something in it. The stoic engineer didn't want the guys to see the tear that almost slipped down his cheek. He needn't have worried. Most of them had the same problem.
"Man, how am I ever going to compete with that?" Lamented Johnny. "All the good stuff's already been done!"
"Don't worry Johnny. You'll think of something." Said Sam. Turning to Roy she said, "Wow, Bro, I never knew what a romantic you are."
Chet's and Marco's eyes got wide as they turned to look at Roy. "Bro? You mean like 'the brotherhood' Bro?'" Chet asked.
"No!" Mike said. "Roy's Sam's brother!" Mike said it like it was a well-known fact, which it was for everyone present except Marco and Chet.
"No way!" said Chet.
"Way!" Sam and Roy responded in unison, rolling their eyes.
"Well, that does explain a few things." Marco noted.
"Like what?" asked Roy.
"Like how you both bite your lip when you're nervous." Answered Marco.
"And how you both roll your eyes at my jokes!" Added Chet. This brought eye rolls from the entire crew.
"And why things were so awkward between you and Roy when you first came here." Marco noted, facing Sam.
"Wait a minute!" Chet interrupted.
"So how come this isn't a surprise to all of you?" Chet demanded.
"Because we're firemen!" Cap said.
Chet and Marco both raised their eyebrows and shot him a quizzical look.
"We're paid to be observant," Hank elaborated. "Guess you two are just slipping."
*Thanks to those of you who sent me ideas on proposals. I got some good laughs out of them. I found another source, online and then tweaked things to my taste. Hope you enjoyed this chapter. I know I did. Thanks again to Kathey'sSis who reminded me that Chet and Marco were supposed to be on suspension. Oops!) Please leave me feedback. Thanks for reading. -Hotflash