Chapter 4
Fill ’er up?
I headed down Baker road toward the admissions building. As I reached the end of the block I noticed there was a crowd of people gathered in front of the corner gas station. My first thought was that it was a car wash thrown by college kids drawing the crowd. I quickened my pace a bit not wanting to miss out on anything that brought out more girls in swimsuits. What a great choice Florida was I thought again still feeling euphoric from the excellent pizza I had devoured.
As I approached, the crowd was quickly backing up into the middle of the street. I could now see billows of smoke rising from the direction of the pumps. I wondered why all the people weren’t just turning to run away from the gas pump fire. Then I saw her… an older Buick Cutlass at the pump with a large puddle of gas that had ignited burning up on all four sides of the car.
Frantically pacing back and forth behind the car, much too close to the flames the young woman screamed. “MY BABY!!! MY BABY!!!” Pushing my way to the front of the crowd I could see that the gas pump hose had a big slice in it. Gas was gushing out from the slice and was pooling underneath the car.
The car was running which must have been the cause of ignition. When the flame flickered apart for just one second I saw it… a car seat in the back seat. When she screamed my baby she was not talking about some car she had grown fond of. There was a baby in that car seat. As the woman continued to scream, I took off on a dead run for the far end of the gas pump island. The crowd now backed up to the far edge of the road anticipating the car and pumps exploding.
The flames billowed out from under the car on all four sides going up about 8 ft high and they were hot! Scorching hot! I could feel the heat as I ran to the opposite end of the pump island. I already had my pocketknife out when I got there. Grabbing the air hose I had seen, I thanked God gas stations in the south still provided free air. I rammed my palm into the T-valve turning on the air and then jerked my knife across the end of the hose cutting off the fitting as I ran back to the Buick.
The air screamed out of the hose just as I had hoped. Dropping the hose to the ground at the driver’s side door I positioned it with my feet so the air blew the flames back away from the driver’s door. I quickly leaned in closer to the car smashing in the driver’s window with my elbow. Reaching in through the broken window I dropped the car into drive. I was glad it was running, but if it had been off maybe there wouldn’t have been this massive inferno to begin with.
As the car started to move forward slowly, I stretched my leg out as far as I could in order to hold the air hose on the fire as long as possible, while steering the car with my left arm. By the time I had to let go of the air hose the car was moving at about four miles an hour.
Too busy to turn my attention from the smoldering car more for than a second, out of the corner of my eye I caught two big rescue fire trucks screeched to a stop, sirens blaring.
Now trotting along side the charred Buick I steered it toward the large soft plastic garbage dumpsters that were twenty ft ahead. The fire on the ground was still being fed with gasoline flooding out of the hose. The car hit the dumpster head on with a soft thump and crumpled it bringing the car to a nice gentle stop, a safe distance from the pump fire and possible explosion yet to come.
I threw the car back into park, and then ran around to the back passenger side door. Pulling my shirt off over my head I used it to pull up on the scorching hot door handle.
After getting the door open, I ducked into the backseat to unbuckle the child. The car still wasn’t a safe place. The baby girl was about two years old, with light brown shoulder length curly hair with large round light brown eyes to match. She was very alert and all smiles. She hadn’t been fazed at all by sitting in the car with the towering flames surrounding her. She wasn’t harmed physically or mentally that I could tell.
“I gotcha baby girl!” I said, trying to sound as calm and collected as the little girl seemed to be.
She just looked at me with the biggest smile and held out her arms to me.
“Boy,” her voice was soft and warm.
Wow…. what a beautiful little girl. When I picked her up she wrapped her legs instinctively around my waist like we had done this every day. I carried her toward her mother who was still in hysterics, tears pouring from her eyes as she reached out to take her from me. “Thank you God, Thank you, God.” she uttered through her chocking sobs.
The fire on the ground at the pump was now out. The firemen had flooded it with some foamy retardant and were now bringing spray canisters over to the car to spray the under side of it, to prevent any chance of it exploding. Two EMS men escorted the woman and her child to a safe distance as well. The crowd was now quite large, as this had turned into quite a spectacle. The roads were being blocked off for the safety crew and cleanup work to begin.
All seemed to be in control now, and I still needed to meet with the council.
Walking down Baker road I wondered if I should clean up before going in to see the council, but I didn’t want to give them time to change their mind or have the classes fill up and not get in. Abandoning the idea of cleaning up I pulled on my tee shirt and walked into Admissions. Charlene, the welcoming girl, was still there at the enrollment table.
“Hi Charlene, I would like to see the council to accept their offer to be in the SA program.
“No need,” she said.
My heart stopped.
“What do you mean? … They said I had a few days to decide.”
“No, I mean there is no need to see them, they said you would be back today to accept and that I should give you your class list and your new dorm key. You’ll need to move into this building on the second floor. Room 210.”
So they knew I would be back, and they knew it would be today…hmm. I guess not too many people pass up offers from them. Still how did they know I would be back today?
“Wilson, may I see you for a moment please, if you have time.”
The voice came from the top of the stairs as I saw Dr. Ishmail descending to meet up with me.
“Yes, sir.”
He didn’t say another word. He just turned so that I would follow him back up the winding staircase. This time I was led into what must have been his office. It was not at all what I expected.
Inside this very majestic building most of the rooms all looked as if they were carved right out of the history books, and with such well maintained authenticity. The main hall looked like it was right out of the Sistine chapel, decorated with sculptures and mural paintings.
Dr. Ishmail's office was very modern looking, even the furniture. On the wall there were twelve different television channels playing various programs. As Dr. Ismail sat down, the glass top of his desk lit up to display several blue screens. The top of his desk must have been a touch sensitive computer. I was impressed.
“I stopped back to sign up for the SA program.” I blurted out, thinking he was just wondering about my presence downstairs.
He didn’t look up from the computer screen on his desk as he typed something in. “Yes, I know you did, Wilson. We never doubted you would be here with us. We are the ones that have all the confidence in you at this point. Let me show you something so you understand why.”
He looked up and pointed to the wall with twelve channels running. As I looked not knowing which picture he wanted me to focus on, the wall changed and all the pictures melted into one large picture that took over the entire wall. It wasn’t twelve individual picture screens as I had first thought, but it was one giant screen that had the ability to split into multiple channels. I knew Joe would love this thing hanging in our room. I guess it won’t be our room anymore, since I would be moving into the admissions building.
“Wilson, do you recognize anyone in this news footage?”
I refocused to actually watch the picture Dr. Ishmail had covering the wall. It was a picture of me walking down Baker Road with my back to the camera.
The camera panned back to the gas station that had been on fire where several firemen in bright yellow suits were running around. The camera then zoomed in on the mother still holding very tightly to the little girl I pulled from the car fire. The little girl was still smiling, such a happy little girl. The mother must surround her with the deepest unconditional love every minute of every day for her to feel so content and happy in her arms.
The mother was explaining to the news anchorperson why she had left the car running. She wanted the little girl to have air conditioning while she filled the car with gas. She then explained how the hose gushed gas as soon as it was turned on and how fast the car was engulfed in flames and then how….
Dr. Ishmail muted the station and cleared his throat. “Very interesting. You’re downstairs filling out your SA enrollment form and that is you there on the news at the same time, is that correct?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Well, I know it’s you. That was a rhetorical question. Relax Wilson, that channel has been running that clip for about five minutes now. All of the people standing around have given eyewitness testimony as to how this young man walking away was so brave to risk his life. How he was cunning enough to come up with a way to save this little girl while they all stood there in shock. They were amazed at how you pulled her from the scorching car and then just trotted off.”
The doctor turned off his desk computer but left the big screen on the wall in replay mode. Repositioning himself to look directly at me as if he wanted to get a good read on my reactions, he continued, “The mother said you left so fast she did not have a chance to kiss you, hug you, or even thank you. She couldn’t believe when she started to come to herself that you weren’t there. You also have a burn mark of a Buick cutlass door handle on your shirt, so fresh its still smoking.”
I patted my shirt without looking down.
Dr. Ishmail chuckled a bit to himself as if none of this was surprising to him. “This is why we knew you would be in this program, and this is how we knew you would be back today. You don’t make mistakes under pressure, and you don’t fail to act. Congratulations on making the correct decision we knew you would make. And this…” He said pointing to the wall screen. “This was a very selfless and courageous act, I am very proud of you. But I need to ask, why didn’t you stay so that woman could thank you?”
“Well sir, when she took the beautiful little girl from my hands she said “Thank you, God! Thank you, God!” I knew God must have put me there and given me those ideas in order to save that girl, so I figured she had thanked the right person already. Besides, I was in a hurry to sign up so I wouldn’t lose my spot in the SA program.”
Dr. Ishmail laughed to himself again. “OK, fair enough, now go enjoy your last three days of freedom before we make you buckle down. Just saving one girl a day won’t be near enough for us.”
We both laughed as I headed out the door.
I wasn’t looking forward to talking to Joe because I would have to let him know I would be moving out. I hope my next roommate is half as cool as Joe.
CRAP… that car door handle burnt all the way through my favorite Van Halen
T-shirt.