oom, the silence pressing in on me, a hollow echo of the silence at home. Five

him to be at the station, a choice he made without a second

duty, always chasing the next fire, the next emergency. When I called him, breathless with the first kick f

ised he would, but a call came in, a multi-car pile-up on the interstate. He never showed

ly was

spital, her little body burning up in my arms. She died in the pedi

s. "Mark, Lily's fever is 104." "Mark, please answer, the do

le

rtment. A major building collapse downtown. Mark's unit was first on the scene. He was

he door, I heard shouting. It was David Chase,

y going to die for h

fr

t Sarah and Lily down... wasn't it all just so you could hear her voice on the

hit me,

r family's business went bankrupt. She disappeared. Sarah was the one who was

was never about the job. It was about a woman.

in the same orbit, to understand his world of saving lives. I remembered him after his family lost everything, a broken man. I was the

er had never died. I was just a placeholder

g that had been slowly dying

shaking as I pulled out my phone. I didn't call a

steady. "You once told me about a flight