Free To Protect & Serve by Staci Stallings Page B

anvils until we decide to be something more. But none of us decides to be more until we really believe that’s possible. You think I ever thought about starting my own company when I was 15? No way. That was too far away to think about, but I was lucky enough to have a teacher who showed some interest in me. She helped me with my art. She made my art important, and she helped me see that there were lots of other options with art other than just trying to get it hung in some gallery.
    “That’s what I’m wanting to give these kids—options. Without them, they’re going to end up in here on one side of the desk. I’m just asking that you take a couple hours out of your very busy schedule to show them that the other side of the desk is possible too.” She sat, sensing that all the arguments in the world would get her nowhere. “But if you’re too busy…”
    Slowly Fletcher leaned forward. “Are the schools in yet?”
    Exasperation jumped from her. “See, that’s the problem, everyone’s standing on the sidelines, going, ‘Well, I’m not committing until they commit.’ And while everyone’s standing around waiting for somebody else to make the first move, we’ve got kids carrying guns to school and jumping off bridges because we’re all just too busy to be bothered, or we’re too worried about how it will look if we get in and nobody else does. Well, I’ll be honest with you, Sir. All the heroics on all the bridges in the whole world aren’t going to matter a single ounce if somebody doesn’t get in this darn boat and start rowing.”
    With steely hard eyes Fletcher looked at her. “You’re intense, you know that, Ms. Matheson?”
    “So, I’ve been told,” she said with no smile whatsoever. “So, what do you say, Sir? You in or out?”
    He took one breath, shook his head, and exhaled. “Okay, I’m in.”
     
     
    “Looks like you pulled some overtime,” Dante said when Jeff walked into the break room on Thursday morning. He was glad to be back to work. Time off was just one solid sheet of agony.
    “Overtime?” Jeff asked as he grabbed a drink from the water fountain. “Is the new schedule out?”
    “No, man,” Dante said in exasperation. “That whole hero thing on the bridge. I think Hunter’s even got it on tape.”
    “Oh, great.”
    “No, man, you looked good. It’s cool.” Dante lowered his eyes with concern. “Isn’t it?”
    “I was just doing my job.” He went to the cabinet and looked inside. “It wasn’t a big deal.”
    “Wrong, man,” Dante said as he stood and set his glass in the sink next to Jeff. “Saving a life is a very big deal.”
    On his heel, Dante turned and walked out as Jeff’s head fell on the weight of the statement. He hadn’t meant that the way it sounded. The fact that God had placed him on that bridge at that moment was not a responsibility he took lightly, nor one he would’ve simply passed on, but he just didn’t like the five seconds of fame that went with it. It was going to be a long day.
     
     
    “Hey, Taylor, how’s it going?” Hunter asked as he strode into the break room where Jeff was grabbing a drink six hours later.
    “Good,” Jeff said. “What do we have left?”
    “Station clean-up. You can start with the bathrooms and then do the break room,” Hunter said, looking around at the tables littered with remnants of meals gone by. “Oh, and don’t forget the gunky stuff around this sink. It’s looking pretty skanky.”
    Dante strode in.
    “Come on, Dant-man, we’ve got an appointment with a basketball court,” Hunter said, turning Dante around.
    “Destroy the skankiness. ” Jeff looked at the sink when they were gone. “I can do that.”  He was right earlier. This day was turning out great.
     
     
    The more they told her it couldn’t be done because nobody wanted to do it, the more determined Lisa became to make this work. One way or the other if she had to drag these people up to that podium, she was going to make