Aaron stepped
off the plane on November twenty-sixth at ten-thirty at night and looked
around. The temperature was about seventy-five degrees and there was a light,
floral-scented breeze blowing. God how I
wish you were here with me, Clark. Despite the months of therapy and
support group meetings, he still missed him, although not as much.
Duty was pretty
much the same as it was at Nellis Air Force Base. Again he was assigned to the
day shift, but due to his rank had more administrative duties and less hands-on
duties, except when it came to actually fighting fires, which, thankfully, were
very few. While he was friendly with his coworkers and would occasionally
attend the back-yard barbeque or company picnic, he pretty much kept to
himself, refusing to form any close friendships. He didn’t want to put himself
out there to get hurt again, understandably. He did the normal tourist things,
visiting the Arizona Memorial, Waikiki Beach, Walmea Bay, Fort DeRussy, the
Pacific National Cemetery, Diamond Head, and various other places on Oahu when
he came upon a place that caught his attention the most. He parked his car and
walked into the building and looked around in wonder.
“Aloha. Welcome
to Candle Crafts.” Aaron continued to look around. “I take it this is your
first time here?”
“Yes it is. I’ve
never seen a place like this before.”
“Probably
because there isn’t one like it. I’m Alani. Let me show you around.”
“Thanks. I’m
Aaron. Nice to meet you” He noticed the gay pride rainbow triangle pin on her
lapel.
“Nice to meet
you too” She replied, noticing that he noticed her pin. She guided him to the
left. “Over here on the left we have our retail store.” She led him into the
store. “Here we have a wide variety of candles in all shapes, sizes and scents.
We have them grouped together, as you can see, by scent, so that in each
section, all of the different types of candles, whether they’re tapers,
pillars, votives, what-have-you, are all the same scent and are sealed so that
they can’t absorb the scents of the candles around them, and shoppers won’t get
overwhelmed by the mingled scents.”
“I know what you
mean. Whenever I go into a place like Yankee Candle, the scents are so
overpowering I get a headache just walking through the door and I can’t tell
which scent is from which candle. This setup is pretty cool.”
“Thanks. Over
here we have our supplies section where you can get just about anything and
everything you need to make your own candles.”
Aaron’s face lit
up. “Way cool. Where can you go to make candles?”
“Somehow I knew
you were going to ask me that question. Come with me please.” She led him back
out of the store, past the front desk and into the biggest candle making studio
he’d ever seen. “Do I need to get a fifty-five gallon drum to catch all the
drool that’s coming out of your mouth?” She said giggling.
“Wow” he said in
a barely audible whisper as his gaze took in the ginormous room.
“You’re
obviously a candle maker so let me tell you how things work around here.
There’s a space utilization fee of twenty dollars per hour. We supply all the
equipment you need as well as mold cleaner and mold release. On the wall behind
us you’ll find all the molds. Each table also has wicks in bulk. The only time
you need to purchase your own wicks is if you want a special wick. What you do
is go into the in-house supplies section of the store and get whatever supplies
you need. Each item has a stack of tickets next to them. For each item you
take, take a corresponding ticket. When you go to the cashier, she will assign
you a table and stamp a ticket with the time you arrive. That ticket; along
with all of the tickets from the store go into a box for the table you are
assigned to. When you are finished, you go back to the cashier to checkout. She
will pull everything from your table box and scan everything into the computer
to ring it all up at the same time, so you’re only paying once. The best part
is, when you buy supplies and use them here, its fifteen percent off
everything.”
“That’s a really
neat way of doing it. I have a feeling I’m going to be spending a lot of time
here. I noticed the prices of the supplies are really not that bad.” His cell
phone rang. “Excuse me a minute. This could be important. Suarez” He listened
for a moment. “On my way” He hung up. “I’m sorry. I’ve just been recalled back
to Hickham for a major structure fire. I’m a Firefighter. Thanks so much for
the tour and the information. I’ll be back soon.” He left and ran out to his
car. As he sped off towards the base he thought Clark would love this place. The Arts and Crafts Center on base doesn’t
have anything for candle making.
Six months
later…..
“SUAREZ” The Chief bellowed from
his office. It wasn’t an angry bellow, so Aaron knew he wasn’t in trouble.
Still, he wasted no time in answering the summons.
“Yes Chief?”
“Aaron, the Navy over at
Barber’s Point Naval Air Station is going to have a squadron of F-16’s there
for a month on a joint training exercise. Their fire department is not trained
or equipped to deal with hydrazine or APU fires. Since you’ve been around
F-16’s at Nellis, I need you to put together a comprehensive training course
for their personnel. How long do you think you’ll need to put it together, and
how long do you think the course will take?”
“When do I have to have the
course ready?”
“As soon as possible, but within
the next two to three weeks.”
“Two to three weeks.” He
repeated then was silent for a couple of minutes as he turned things over in
his mind. “It will take longer than that to get copies of the training
materials ordered from the mainland. Could we get the Commander to sign off on
a request for local reproduction because of the short turn-around time?
“I’m sure we could. You give me
what you want copied and how many copies you want and I’ll take them to the
Commander.”
“Okay, then, I should be able to
put something together in about a week, depending upon how often I get pulled
way for other things.” He stated truthfully, sensing this was an important
matter.
“Fine; as of now you are relived
of all other duties and responsibilities other than actual firefighting. This
is your number one priority. I’ll make sure everyone knows it.”
“Thanks Chief. There’re just a
couple of things I would like to ask, though.”
“What’s that?” Despite the
Chief’s gruff, no-nonsense demeanor, he genuinely cared about the personnel
serving under him and did his best to make sure that everyone knew they could
come to him at any time with questions or problems.
“I can put together a training
course no problem, but what about hands-on? I mean, an instructor can talk
until they’re blue in the face, but as you know it won’t really sink in without
practical experience.”
“I’m way ahead of you on that
one. I’ve spoken with the Squadron Commander over at Kunson Air Base in Korea,
where the F-16s are coming in from, and they’re sending over hazmat suits,
hydrazine containment and cleanup gear, everything you’ll need so it won’t take
away from our equipment. They won’t need it there because all of their planes
will be here.”
“Awesome.”
“You said there was something
else?”
“Yes. Once I get everything set
up. I’d like to run through it a couple of times with some of the guys,
preferably the newbies, to make sure I’ve covered all the bases, and that they
can understand everything I’ve covered. First I want to go over everything with
a couple of the regular guys who have been here for a while so they can tell me
if I’ve missed anything, then go over everything with the newbies so I can make
sure they understand everything.”
“Sounds like a plan to me. I
want you to get started right away and as soon as you have something I want to
look it over first.”
“Sure thing, Chief” He left and
started pulling everything he could find on fighting hydrazine fires and on the
F-16’s auxiliary power unit. Four days later he knocked on the Chief’s office
door. “Got a couple of minutes, Chief?”
“Sure, come on in and have a
seat. What’ve you got for me?” The next half hour they went over the training
course that Aaron had prepared. “I’m impressed. I’ll have Mike, Sam and Jesse
meet you in the training room tomorrow morning and have you pitch it to them.
If you have to make any additions, and from what I’ve seen, I don’t think you
missed anything, can you have it ready to present to the new personnel by next
Wednesday morning?”
“I don’t see why not. I need
enough copies of these to go around.” He handed the Chief several training
guides.
“I’ve already spoken to the
Commander and he’s waiting on the request form, which I need you to fill out
now and get them over to the orderly room for his signature. Request sixty copies
of each. I want to make this part of our regular training curriculum as well.
Once he signs off on the forms, take them immediately to Reprographics over in
building two-seventy-four. They already know you’re coming with a high priority
request as I’ve put in a call to PACAF[1] Command
who have called them and made it top priority. You did a great job on this
Aaron.”
“Thanks Chief. I’ll head over to
the orderly room now and get the paperwork filled out for repro. I’ll also see
about how to order extra copies as I don’t know how many will be left over
after the Naval training classes.” I hope
he’ll give me enough time to go over the curriculum and the materials with
whoever is going to be going over to Barber’s Point to train them.
“Okay. Once you’ve completed all
that, take the rest of the day off. You’ve earned it.”
“Yes Chief. Thanks! Have a great
one.” Aaron left; did what he had to do and within a couple of hours he was
back in his room in the NCO barracks trying to figure out what to do. After
showering and changing into swim trunks and a button down short-sleeved shirt,
he decided to go make some more candles at Candle Crafts, where he was a
regular customer. While working on a particularly tricky color mix he was
approached by an older woman he had seen many times there. He had assumed,
correctly, that she was the owner.
“Excuse me, but you’re Aaron,
right?”
“Yes ma’am.” He said politely,
continuing to carefully mix the colors to get the exact shade he wanted.
“You have a great technique.
I’ve been told by the staff that you’ve been extremely helpful to them with the
other customers, especially the new ones. According to Cheryl, you spent over
an hour of your time helping a customer make some gel candles who has never
done it before and was having some problems.”
Aaron swallowed nervously. He
remembered that day. There were only two employees on and the place was
unexpectedly busy. The retail store was very crowded as it was close to
Mother’s day and a lot of men were there buying candles for their wives or
mothers or both. He had just gotten a bottle of water out of the vending
machine when the customer in question approached the cashier about getting some
help with the candle which wasn’t coming out right. He told the harried cashier
that if it was all right with the customer, he’d take a look at it and see what
the problem was. Cheryl, the cashier, introduced them and told the customer
that Aaron was pretty much an expert at making all types of candles and if
anyone could figure out what was wrong, he could, even better than she. That
being said, he spent the next hour showing the customer what she did wrong and
showed her a few tricks that would make the job quicker and easier, and yield
better results. Cheryl didn’t charge him the standard usage fee of twenty
dollars per hour. I hope I didn’t violate
any policies or get Cheryl in any trouble. She didn’t charge me the usage fee.
“Yes, ma’am I did. I’m sorry if
that was in violation of any policy or if anyone got in trouble. It’s just that
it was an extremely busy day and it was just Cheryl and Linda on and Linda was
swamped in the store.”
She put her hand on Aaron’s arm.
“Relax, dear. Nobody’s in trouble and I deeply appreciate what you did, as do
the girls.” Aaron looked at her blankly. “Oh, I’m sorry, I should introduce
myself. I’m Grace. Grace Turner. I’m the owner of Candle Crafts and I’m very
happy to meet you, Aaron.”
“It’s my pleasure, Grace. This
is a wonderful place you have here.”
“It must be. From what I’m told,
you practically live here.”
Aaron grinned. “I make a lot of
candles to send to the mainland for various fundraisers.”
“That’s very kind of you, but
that’s not the reason why I wanted to talk with you. I’ve talked with several
of the regular customers and the staff and they all tell me the same thing. You
go out of your way to help others, even if it means spending extra time here,
and you know more about candle making than just about everyone. I have a little
proposition for you. I would like to hire you to teach some basic candle making
classes. I would only be able to pay you minimum wage, and wouldn’t be able to
guarantee you a lot of hours, but I can offer you this as compensation. As you
know, the usage fee is twenty dollars an hour, which also includes a
fifteen-percent discount on any supplies purchased in the store. As an employee
you would not be paying space utilization fee and would be purchasing supplies
at cost. In addition, anything else in the store would be at a twenty-five
percent discount.”
He thought about that for almost
thirty seconds. “I’d be happy to teach some classes, no compensation needed.
You need to know though, that I’m in the Air Force over at Hickham and I don’t
always have weekends free.”
“The compensation part is
non-negotiable.” Grace responded matter-of-factly. “Let me tell you what I have
in mind and you tell me what you think. What I want to do is once or twice a
month hold beginning candle making classes during the day, starting out with
the basics which everyone would have to attend, then at various points
throughout the day offer the basics on how to make pillars, gels, that sort of
thing. Once or twice every three months I’d want to offer some advanced courses
such as color mixing, stuff like that. Finally, one night a week, and that night
could vary from week to week, just have you here to answer customer questions
and help them out when and as needed.”
“That sounds like fun. Sure,
I’ll do it.” He said happily as he put the finishing touches on the last
candle.
“That candle is absolutely beautiful.
Do you think you could make another one just like it?”
Aaron looked in the mixing cup.
“I have enough of the color dye mixture and fragrance. I’ll just need to go get
some more wax, another jar and wicks. It’s a triple-wick candle.” He glanced at
his watch and did a mental calculation to see if he had enough time left
remaining to do the candle.”
“Triple-wick? Wow. Not many
people make those. What did you use, bees wax, soy wax, palm wax or paraffin?
And don’t worry about the time. Your clock stopped the minute I walked up to
you and your employee discounts are effective immediately.”
“This one is for somebody
special.” I just wish I knew who that
was. I only know I had to make it for someone. “Soy wax and you don’t need
to do that.”
“Yes I do. I’m going to ask you
to recreate that absolutely stunning candle as your signature candle which
we’re going to use to advertise you. I’ll be right back.” She returned shortly
with the required supplies and Aaron got to work recreating the candle. “I also
need to tell you, and this is something that will be strictly enforced, you
will be here to teach classes and assist customers here in the studio. You will
not be covering the front desk nor
will you be covering the retail store. The only cleaning you will be required
to do will be your own work area and if you
so desire, whatever customer you happen to be assisting at the time. I pay
others to cover those areas. I have a storage room in the back that has a
little room behind it that can be locked. We’re not using it for anything other
than storage of stuff that we can easily find other places for. That will be
your classroom and private office and storage. I’ll have some work tables, fire
extinguishers, burners, double boilers and stools put in there. If you would
please, before you leave, go into the store and pick out whatever equipment you
want for the basic courses, enough for ten people, and tell Sol to put them in
the computer as store supplies and have them put in my office. Then if you
would please, sometime tomorrow, email me a list of supplies you want available
so I can add them to my order that goes out the day after tomorrow. Here’s my
email address.” She handed him a card. “I’ll also want to take a picture of you
with the candle out in the lobby for advertising purposes, so when you finish
making the other one; have whoever’s at the desk call me. Welcome to Candle
Crafts, Aaron. This is going to be fun. I’m so excited.”
“Thank you, Grace. I’m looking
forward to it. Here, why don’t you take the original candle? I don’t want to
hold you up.”
“Why thank you, Aaron. Don’t
forget what I said to do. Oh, and I’ll have your employment paperwork ready for
you to sign before you leave. Consider today your first official day of work.
You’re on the clock as of now.”
“Yes, Boss!” He said with a
grin.
“And don’t you forget it!” She
said laughing.
Damn. Who would have thought that someone, who didn’t know a taper from
a pillar or a tea lite from a votive would end up teaching candle making in a
place like this? Life can sure take some interesting turns.” He pondered as
he cleaned up his work space while the special candle cooled in the jar. Yes,
life does make some interesting turns, but none as interesting as the turn that
waited for him once he started teaching his candle making classes.
Two weeks later Aaron once again
knocked on the doorframe of the Chief’s office. “It’s ready, Chief. Mike found
one minor detail I forgot which I took care of, and the new guys understood
everything completely. Now the only thing left to do is for me to go over
everything with whoever is going to be teaching it over at Barber’s Point.”
“And that would be you.”
“Me?” A surprised Aaron asked.
“Yes you. You’ve worked very
hard to pull this together in a very short time and you’ve done an outstanding
job on it. It would be completely unfair to just take it and give it to someone
else. Besides, who knows the material better than you?”
“Uh, thanks Chief. When do I
start?”
“Thursday, nine am” Aaron
inwardly snickered. The Chief hated using the military time format as much as
he did.
“Yes Chief. I’ll just go and get
everything packed up and ready to go. Do you know how big the classes are?”
“I suggested that they keep them
to a maximum of fifteen.”
“Great. I’ll make sure to be
there around eight so I can see where I’ll be doing the classes and I’ll see if
I can go the day before to make sure all of the equipment is there.
“Excellent idea, but if I’m not
mistaken, you’re not on duty that day.”
“No I’m not.”
“So you will take Tuesday off
and Wednesday will be a duty day for you; which you will use to take everything
over there and get everything set up and make sure you have everything you
need. This way if you forget anything on Wednesday you can take it with you on
Thursday. Make sure you have a contingency plan in place just in case the
hazmat suits or any of the equipment isn’t there or there isn’t enough to go
around.”
“I’ve already thought of that
possibility and I have several work-arounds.”
“Good man. Now back to work with
you.
“Yes Chief.”
Thursday afternoon after lunch a
relieved Aaron walked into the fire department training room at Barber’s Point
Naval Air Station to get ready for the second training session. The first
session went much better than he had anticipated. What he had not anticipated
was the high level of cooperation between the Air Force and the Navy. An F-16
had to be grounded due to a malfunctioning flight control computer which had to
be shipped from Korea, so the officer in charge of the Air Force contingent had
the F-16 towed and parked near the fire station so that the Firefighters could
get an up close look at it and actually see where the auxiliary power unit and
hydrazine tank were located, which make the training course that much better.
Aaron had his back turned to the classroom writing something on the whiteboard
as the next batch of Firefighters to be trained entered the classroom. He
turned around and his eyes scanned the room as he began to introduce himself.
“Good afternoon everyone, I’m
Firefighter Staff Sergeant Aaron Suarez.” He stopped abruptly as his eyes
locked on the eyes of the one person he never expected to ever see again, his
ex-best friend Jerry.
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