title: Fireman
 
Story: Daniel was a fireman; it is his life. It all started in 
high school and he decided to continue it afterwards. Now he was 
twenty-two years old and married to Marsha. She was going to have a baby in 
June. He couldn't wait to have a son or daughter; they had decided to 
keep that part a surprise. Daniel was almost never at home anymore 
because he basically lived at the firehouse. This bothered his wife because 
before they were married he was home almost every night. Times had 
changed though and now every time a call came across his pager he had to go.
 
 This behavior had really been starting to get to Marsha. Sure, 
she had tried to talk to him about it but he always changed the subject 
or his pager went off. Finally she had enough of it and decided that 
she needed to show him that she was serious. She went up to the firehouse 
and made a big scene in front of everyone about it. This was their 
first big fight and it ended with Daniel running off because of the fire 
alarm. Marsha decided that enough was enough and she was not going to 
stick around and be treated like this. It may have been different if she 
was not going to have his child but because of that they would always be 
connected in a way.
 
 Daniel called her later that night from the firehouse to tell 
her that he was staying there tonight. That led into yet another fight 
between them. She gave him a choice either he was to start being home 
more often and at night or she was going to leave him. After saying that 
she hung up on him. Daniel didn't know what to think but decided to 
sleep on it. He couldn't give up the job that he loves but he couldn't 
loose the woman that he loves either.
 
 The next night there was a major fire in Richmond and all 
available firemen in the area by were asked to help out. Naturally Daniel 
went and was gone all night. It was not until he was on his way home that 
he thought about Marsha and the choice she had given him. He didn't 
bother calling her or going home because he didn't want to deal with 
fighting with her again. Instead he drove straight back to the firehouse and 
went to sleep.
 
 In the morning he walked into his house to find it empty and 
most of Marsha's stuff was gone. On the table there was a note from her 
that said she was on a train going away for a while. He couldn't believe 
that she would leave him like this but he knew that the first place she 
would go was to her sister's place in New York. He grabbed his keys and 
ran out the door. While he was racing to the train station he called 
and tried to figure out what train she would be on.
 
 Luckily by the time he got there Marsha's train had not left 
yet. He tried to get on the train but they would not let him on because 
he didn't have ticket and they thought he was just trying to get a free 
ride. The train started up its engine and started to roll away as 
Daniel started screaming for Marsha. Daniel stood screaming on the track at 
the departing train as Marsha stood at the back of the train watching 
him. That was the last time that Daniel saw her.