Free Ashes - Book 1 by Leslie Johnson Page A

movie on TV about the Rangers. Those guys were all buff and I decided to join the army. I went to the recruiter – my mom still doesn’t know about that – and he gave me some advice. Of course I was too young to join anyway, but I had laser focus.
    “I wasn’t so worried about bulking up huge. I would run in the hills around my house. I made my own obstacle course and one of my friends had a bunch of guns. His dad taught us about gun safety and, as crazy as it seemed, just let us go out and shoot. We even reloaded our own bullets and I learned about hunting and shooting. We would spend every hour shooting or pretending we were Rangers.”
    Ken removes his goggles and hangs them on his shirt. “I sense something coming up.”
    “No, not really. Of course, as time went on, other things came up, but basically I stuck with it. I hated my step-dad and I couldn’t graduate fast enough. I wanted out of my house and made plans with my buddy to move in together. He had the firefighter bug, but still loved shooting and losing ourselves in the hills.”
    Joe walks up and grabs the gun. “Ken, is Gage telling tall tales again?”
    Ken laughs. “You know Gage better than I thought. My fault, I egged him on.”
    Joe mock glares at him. “Oh, so you were trying to distract him, huh. You aren’t getting out of here today until you are comfortable shooting. You don’t have to go buy a gun, but I want you to at least learn to be safe and be able to protect yourself. I’ll be back after Gage finishes his old wives’ tale.”
    I look at Ken, trying to deflect the story. “How about you? When did you decide to become a firefighter?”
    He shakes his head. “Another day, Gage. Now finish, I don’t really want to be here all day. I have some ‘business’ with Steph, if you know what I mean.” He smirks at me.
    “You know you can’t do any ‘business’ with her for at least twenty-four hours, right?”
    He looks at me in disbelief. “You shitting me?”
    “Nope. Google it if you don’t believe me.”
    The poor guy looks crestfallen. I laugh and continue my story. “Well, after I graduated, I moved in with my buddy, Paul. I decided to wait a year to join the army. I wanted to have a little freedom. Paul took me to the training center a couple of times while he was taking some classes to get him ready for training. He ended up not making the cut, but I realized I loved the adrenaline rush and decided to join. The rest is history.”
    Ken scratches his chin. “That can’t be it. How could you be so committed to the army and then become a firefighter? Something’s fishy.”
    I start to load some bullets into the magazine for Ken to use. “I don’t think it was a split-second decision. It more or less evolved. Like I told you, Paul knew he wanted to be a firefighter for many years and we also practiced some of that stuff on our outings in the hills. One time when we were both fifteen, we hitched a ride to Carlsbad with Paul’s older sister, Paulette. She was in college and was meeting a couple of her friends for a few days of partying at the beach. She didn’t want us to go, but we told her we wouldn’t bug her. Whoa, she was hot.”
    Ken takes a seat on the chair off to the side. “This is getting interesting. Even if it’s bullshit, I want to hear it.”
    I grin and polish the fingerprints off the gun with my shirt. “It isn’t bullshit, I swear. You already know what happened. I became a fireman. The end. Let’s just get to shooting.” I push the magazine into the gun.
    Ken holds up a hand and settles back in his chair. “You aren’t getting off that easy. What does going to the beach have to do with becoming a firefighter?”
    I lift a shoulder. “Nothing, I guess. Thinking about Paul made me think about Paulette, which made me think of that trip. Her friend was my first. Actually, they were my first. She had more than one friend.”
    Ken raised an eyebrow. “No shit?”
    I raised one back. “No shit.