 |
 |
|
| The Golden Horn |
| Page Seven |
|
"Wait right here.." And Gail swept out of the sunny Victorian parlor into the den Cap could just barely see. She returned with a box that seemed to be stuffed with shredded white tissue paper. Gail took the picture of Cap's first official inspection from his hand and replaced it with her gift. "What's this?" Gail's face grinned. "Open it and see. This is part two to go along with your debut captain's photo." Hank swallowed and opened the box. The white delicate tissue paper fell away to reveal an old fireman's dress hat. It had a charred brown edged hole crowning where its headpiece frame cloth had been burned away and the metal worked captain's rank front emblem was still holding its shape where the stretched cloth used to be. Captain Stanley gasped when he realized what it was.. "He saved this?" "Of course he did. It was the first time a junior man ever held him accountable for questionable behavior and Melton always said that it was an extremely valuable lesson he learned that day." her voice adopted a McConike sounding timbre. "Never wound a newbie in an inspection line no matter how tempting a joke might be. Or it'll come back to bite you.." she concluded. "He saved that as a reminder of you. Your revenge taken by burning this had a profound effect on Melton. He never tired of watching your career grow or watching you develop the skills and integrity that a true captain of the line only rarely gains. He was so proud of you, Hank." Cap's eyes filled likewise and he gently touched an ashen edge of the hole in McConike's old cap's hat. "I never knew.." "And I never knew how dedicated you were to him, until the day you had that courier come to my house with his white helmet for the funeral with a letter from both you and Ben. I was deeply touched to learn that both of you were adamantly refusing the department's move to promote one of you to the Chief's spot, in his honor.." "It's the least we could have done. The way they fill a gap's sometimes heartlessly swift." "Well, that helmet's back in service now. I called Ben Stone myself and asked him to accept the post. He's been training for it all this week while you were still in the hospital. I--I hope I made the right decision in my recommendation to the Department heads. I know how much you would miss your men if I had urged you to take it. You would have done it in a heartbeat out of loyalty to me and Melton, without regard for your own wants and desires." "Gail.. That's not true.." "In a pig's eye, Hank. Look, you're not even meeting ME in the eye so I know you're lying.." she smirked. "I've had the time I needed, Hank. It's ok for someone else to carry on the job Melton loved so much. I'm ready to see the Chief's spot pass on to the next man believe me. I wouldn't have sent the helmet back if I hadn't thought so." "You sure you didn't do that out of some quirky loyalty you might have to all of us captains that Chief McConike has trained?" "Well, maybe just a little.." Gail admitted at last, smoothing down her paisley china blue apron. Hank smiled, gently putting away the ancient hat back into its box along with the photo Gail had given him. "Then loyalty must be an infection that knows no bounds for we are both afflicted with it most grieviously. And for that matter, so was Melton. For it is because of him that we're both now sitting here talking about the future." "A future that I thought I would never be able to face. Yet, now I am.." Gail said, her face dawning with sudden comprehension. "I'm very glad to hear that. To a degree that you couldn't even possibly imagine." Cap replied softly. He slowly caressed the hat box under his hand, marveling in the soothing feel its surface had on his skin and his soul. ---------------------------------------------------------- |
|
The sun was so far set that Mike Stoker had already taken in the station flags. Cap had not moved from his space at the kitchen table. In front of him was a bolt of white cotton cloth, fabric glue and a stretching frame. Roy, Johnny, Chet, Marco and Mike all watched with fascination as Cap completed his restoration of the famous burned McConike hat. No one was brave enough to ask how Cap had come by it again after so many years. But finally, Chet came out with it. "So why'd ya do it?" The room fell silent, even the sounds of four pairs of lungs suddenly stopping their breathing in shock at Kelly's bold bravado. "Huh?" Hank grunted as he carefully painted gold leafing over the captain's rank crest on the newly restored hat's metal working, distracted. Then the question finally sank in. "Oh,.. uh, well. Let me set this brush down first. Let's see. The reason why.. Hmmmmm." "Cap.." Gage complained. "Oh, ok. ok. This is how it was. Well, you know how you and Kelly got into that game one year with the waterbombs in the whole Phantom fiasco?" "Yeah.." Kelly said, swallowing nervously at finally being on the verge of getting the answer every man in the department wanted to know about Hank Stanley. |
 |
 |
|
"Well, the Chief and I got into it in the same way.. Only we used firecrackers instead of water.." Roy started to snicker.. "Y-You planted a firecracker in his hat?" Cap grinned guiltily, blowing softly on his careful painting, so the 24 carat gold guilding would dry with a rich shine. "Yeah, won that oneupmanship AND the running bet that HQ heads had riding on us. Believe me, it was worth every hour I spent cleaning the latrine with a toothbrush." "So that's why you never give yourself that chore to do. You hate it so much because it reminds you of this burned hat.." Kelly said, putting two and two together. "Not anymore. In fact, as soon as I get my arm healed and get back on the duty rosters, I'll pull the can detail first day, like it SHOULD rotate through. There'll be no more of my pulling rank around here inside the station. Things are gonna be fair and square from now on." "Hey hey hey..." John and the guys celebrated. "Does that mean when I pull a prank on Gage in the future, that you won't be threatening me with a hose tower detail?" "That standing order penalty doesn't count, Kelly. The tower's outside the station. I said I'd be fair about what goes on in HERE." "Oh.." said the gang, severely disappointed. Upon hearing that, Chet, Roy and Johnny fell into age old grimaces of frustration, in three familiar poses of see no, hear no, speak no evil. |
 |
 |
|
Cap never saw their dismay. He was too busy repairing the symbol that used to be a source of pain that was now his ultimate destiny. ------------------------------------------------ The next day, a tall figure in a dress suit fireman's outfit left his car inside the rural Burbank cemetery whose address a new widow had shared with him. It was approaching sunset. Cap Stanley walked respectfully to a recently groomed grave and his understanding eyes fell on the name carved there on the rosy marble. He traced the name's lettering with a finger from his good hand and briefly rested on the still sun warmed stone, relishing the heat radiating there. "Chief.. I'm sorry I wasn't there when you were laid to rest here that day. But I sure know that you were there for me that afternoon in the quarry. I can never repay the debt I owe you for making me fight to live." He sighed and smiled and then he said. "I hope this makes up for it at least a little bit." Cap brought out the chief's old cap's hat, now appearing like new, untarnished and crisp. ::It's been restored with the love only two firefighters can share.:: Stanley wondered as he held it close. Hank hung it on the flower holder attached to the stone marker and touched it one final time. As an afterthought, Cap left behind another gift for the man still looming so large in his life; his own double bugle dress rank pin of captain. The dimming sun glinted once on the insignia and it sparkled like the purest gold into his eyes as his fingers set it on the top of McConike's snow white and black dress hat. "Here's to that big alarm call in the sky, Chief. Hope you're there commanding the scene first at every one of them. And if you meet up with any other of the boys who didn't make it, tell them I'm thinking of them, too..... This is Station 51, KMG 365. Over and out." Hank Stanley began to smile as he made his way back to his car in the newly gathering, tender summer night. Something deep inside of him that had been coiled tightly for so long, unraveled. Hank's relief was so profound, that it drew healing tears to his eyes that ran unchecked, down his cheeks. Cap's heart, was now finally, at peace. Hank Stanley drove back to his station to a future that he now knew with absolute certainty as still belonging to him in every sense of the word. ----------------- Behind, in the darkness, a wrinkle on the hat Cap had repaired, smoothed itself out in the moonlit wind, until it was inspection perfect, as if by an invisible hand from Chief Melton McConike. As if in agreement, a distant L.A. county siren answering a tones out call, wove through the peacefully sleeping cemetery, like a lullaby. ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- FIN- The Golden Horn Season One, Episode Six |
 |
 |
| We hope you've enjoyed the Golden Horn as much as we've enjoyed producing it for you. Please click the green episode banner to view this episode's END CREDITS.. :) |
|
The Golden Horn. To see this episode in a screensaver. Visit the following webpage below and click The Golden Horn Banner found there. Just type the link into your browser's address bar. http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/screensavers.html |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
| To go to Page Eight, Click the Biophone |
