Burn Zone (Hotshots 1)

“It’s not the same thing. I wasn’t kidding the other day. Wyatt saved my life.” Linc looked away, off into the horizon.

“On the job?” Finally done with the shingles, Jacob turned his attention to helping Linc tighten the rungs on the monkey bars.

“That too. There are plenty of stories I could tell you, but I’m thinking of one particular day when we were twelve, maybe. Mom had been gone about a year then, place had gone to shit, but we still hung out there some. Less pesky toddlers around.” He gave Jacob a pointed looked.

“Hey, I can’t help the fact that I’m age-challenged.”

“Anyway, Wyatt and I, we’re playing some game in the living room, and Dad comes in, already lit and on a tear. Doesn’t like us there and doesn’t like the mess of the board game even though the rest of the house is awful. Starts going on about my shortcomings—now remember, I was a skinny kid. Didn’t really grow until late high school. Wyatt was bigger than me back then.”

“I’ve seen pictures. You were shrimpy.” Jacob didn’t laugh because he had a feeling he wasn’t going to like the rest of this story.

“Anyway, Dad, he’d been...mean. Knocked me around a lot. I hadn’t told Wyatt much, but he knew. And that day, Dad didn’t really care that he had an audience. He thought I was talking back, and he wasn’t going to have it. He comes in and backhands me, and I stumble toward the wood stove—the one in the corner of my living room—and only Wyatt catching me saves me from falling into the hot stove.”

“Wow.” Jacob whistled low, wishing Linc’s father wasn’t already dead so he could give him a piece of his mind—and fists.

“But that’s not all,” Linc continued, still not meeting Jacob’s eyes, rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet. “Wyatt stands up in front of me, puffed up like a rooster, and says to my dad that if he ever lays a hand on me again, he’s telling his dad and mom on him, and your dad will make him sorry. Dad wasn’t scared of much, but your dad intimidated most, and he knew he wouldn’t stand for someone beating a kid. He started to cry and said he was sorry he was so drunk. And it didn’t stop the drinking, but that was the last time he laid hands on me.”

“Good.” Jacob wasn’t really sure what else to say—it was a side of Wyatt he hadn’t seen all that often, loyal, protective, doing the right thing, standing up for someone who needed it. “I guess Wyatt did have a heart.”

“He did.” Linc nodded, returning his attention to the bolts he’d been tightening. “I know he wasn’t always easy, especially as he got older. But he was one of the best guys I knew. If he hadn’t caught me that day—who knows what could have happened. And that wasn’t the only time he stood up for me. So when I say I owe him, I mean I owe him.”

“Yeah. I get it.” And he did, even as his back ached and his hands tightened on the metal pole he was holding. He got it. He couldn’t argue with that kind of bond, the deep loyalty that Linc had, even in death, to his best friend. He was still just some pesky kid compared to that. Sure Linc liked banging him, but he wasn’t ever going to inspire that kind of commitment from him, wasn’t going to come close to replacing Wyatt in his heart.

“I’m glad he was there,” he said as they moved on to the next task, attaching the monkey bars to the main structure. And he was glad, glad that Linc hadn’t been alone back then, glad that he was alive now. Any other feelings he had like the bitter disappointment of knowing he’d never measure up to the legacy of Wyatt, well, that was his burden to bear, not Linc’s.

Another question prodded at him, one he’d had for years. “If he had your back so much, shouldn’t he have been more supportive when you came out to him?”

Linc snorted, pausing to shake his head. “There was no coming out. He caught me kissing the visiting team’s running back behind the school senior year. And he was pissed.”

“I can imagine. Not sure where he got his toxic views from, but he sure did like to run his mouth.”

“That he did. Some of it was his crowd. Coaches we’d had in sports. Hell, even comedy he liked. I’d thought maybe us talking would change...but no.” Linc looked so worn down that Jacob could easily picture his younger self, desperate for his best friend’s approval. “Anyway, we had ourselves an awkward few years. We’d always planned on smoke jumping together, but it was...tense. I got on with a crew in Idaho first then I bounced around the West. Stayed gone a lot, thinking it might help. And I guess it mellowed him some. He’d worked his way up fighting fires here locally, and when we ended up on the same crew at last, it felt...right.”