Slugger
The door is hot. I'm scared, Daddy.
Best Western
Cincinnati, OH
7:00AM
"You're checking out early, sir?" The lady behind the hotel desk asked Eric.
"Yes, Ma'am," Eric replied in a good mood as he signed out. "It's always good when
meetings end early."
"You could've slept in until eight that's when we start serving our free complimentary
breakfast."
Yeah a stale muffin, awful coffee, and yesterday's USA Today. How could he pass
that up?
"Well that's nice, but seeing my son after two nights away is nicer."
"Have a safe trip home."
"I will, thanks. When does the next shuttle bus arrive for the airport?"
"In ten minutes."
"Thanks."
Maybe if the weather was nice in Point Place he and Jacen could toss his new
baseball around.
He said last night on the phone that he was going to be spending the night at Tony's
house. He thought he could take them out for lunch once he got back. Maybe get a
pizza. Jacen could eat it 24/7 topped with pepperoni and a can of root beer. Eric
was the first one on the shuttle bus. It was going to be a great day.
The sun was shining on Point Place, Wisconsin and the temperature was going to
be a sunny 59 degrees. Eric was pissed that his car had a scratch on it while it was
the airport waiting for his return. He didn't have time to tell someone about it so as
soon as he got home from taking the boys out to lunch he was going to call the
airport. When he got to the corner he saw a cloud of smoke up head. He nearly
parked his car into a tree when he saw that it was his house on fire.
"JACEN!"
Then the bargaining with an unseen, unknown, unfair God began.
"JACEN!"
He heard the sirens behind him and figured someone must have all ready called
911. The front door was open as Eric's heart pounded out of his chest and out in
front of him.
"JACEN!"
"Daddy! Help me!"
He was frantically calling him from upstairs in between bouts of coughing and Eric
didn't think twice about going near the fire.
Whose afraid now, dumbass?
One of the wooden pieces from the roof was between him and the bathroom that
Jacen was trapped in. The flames all around the wood creating a barrier.
"I'm right here, son. Get on the floor!" Eric coughed
He took off his shirt to place it over his mouth. Eric was about to jump over the
wooden bar when a husky fireman stopped him.
"No! My son is in there!"
"Come with me, Sir." Said another fireman from behind.
"My boy is in there!"
"And we will do everything we can to get him out."
"Jacen, Daddy loves you!"
"Daddy! I'm s-scared….Help me!"
The second fireman escorted Eric out of the house and onto the front lawn when all
he wanted to do was go back up there and get Jacen out of the bathroom and into
his safe arms.
The ambulance came just as the other firemen were putting out the blaze. Every
time he tried to go back into his house to someone pushed him back out even when
the fire was put out.
"My son is in there. I don't have to be rational!"
The paramedics came downstairs with Jacen on a stretcher, his face and nose
covered with an oxygen mask.
"Jacen, Daddy's here!"
"You're his Father?"
'Boy nothing gets by this frigging dillhole'
"Yes. I just came home from a business trip."
"Does the boy have any allergies?"
"No…and I'm not asking, I'm telling you I'm riding in the ambulance with my son. And
I don't care if you have a problem with that."
While they were getting Jacen settled in the ambulance, Eric quickly opened up the
car door and took out the box that contained the brand new baseball. It's funny in a
strange type of way that he thought of taking it out of his suitcase when he was at the
airport getting ready to get his car. He tore the baseball out of the box and closed
the car door. He nearly sprained his ankle getting into the ambulance.
"Hey, Jacen, Daddy's here," he kissed him on the cheek and stroked his hair, "I
remembered your baseball."
He felt a small smile wash over his face when he let go that Jacen's little hand was
still holding on to the ball.
It was only then that the anger rose up. It was only then that he realized where was
his Mother? Questions that he was going to have answered before the day was
over. Later on in the afternoon there would be a frantic call to Jackie explaining the
horrible events of today and thankful news to report that Jacen only had two small
second degree burns on each leg and a one degree burn on his right arm. Then
without a second thought, without a worry in his mind, just like he was willing to jump
through a hoop of fire to get to his son who needed him he was going to take Jackie
up on her offer to help him with the best legal defense that money could buy.
Today was the day that Eric Forman was going to file for divorce on grounds on
irreconcilable differences and custody for his nine-year-old son.
It was another day of firsts. It was the first twenty-four period that not once did Eric
think of Donna Pinciotti. God spared his son's life that day creating the new hope
that the both of them needed. Maybe, in a great deal of explainable and even
unexplainable ways it was still a great day after all.