This meant she left the candle. I just hoped she did it because she wasn’t overly fond of it.

“MFD has got one employee, our fire chief, and he’s only paid part-time. Town can’t afford more,” Mickey told me.

I nodded, uncertain at the flow of our conversation, so I decided not to reply.

“The rest of us, we volunteer,” he shared, grabbing one of his many bowls and turning toward the fridge, still talking. “Would do that for a job if I could. I can’t and I grew up in Magdalene, love it here, great place for a kid to be, good people, got all the seasons, safe, beautiful, don’t want to leave. I wanted to settle here, find a woman here, raise my kids here, so I had to find a way to do what I love doin’ and still put food in my kids’ mouths.”

He put the bowl in the fridge and turned back, walking my way, continuing to speak.

“I work for a local company, does roofing and construction. Job sucks, my boss is an asshole. Wanna strike out on my own but with two kids fast approaching college, can’t take that risk. Gotta eat his bullshit and get a paycheck. But they work seven days a week and the only way my boss isn’t an asshole is that he doesn’t want his house to burn down without local volunteer firefighters to stop it. So he lets me adjust my schedule so I can take some shifts at the department during weekdays, as well as doin’ nights and some weekends.”

“I’m sorry you don’t like your boss but it’s good you get to do what you like to do,” I told him, even though I didn’t actually think him being able to be a firefighter was good.

In this climate, I could imagine fires weren’t as prevalent as in other, drier climates. But fires happened everywhere and I wasn’t really big on Mickey taking his life in his hands to go out and fight them.

However, this had nothing to do with me and would be an unwelcome (and rude) opinion to share, so I didn’t share it.

He put his hands on the counter, his attention still on me. “Life is life. You’re smart, you take what you can get.”

All of a sudden, that feeling of being crushed came back, thinking Mickey, a nice guy, a good father, a handsome man, had this philosophy.

He wanted to stay in his hometown and that was his prerogative.

He wanted to be a firefighter so he made that work.

That was commendable.

But I hated the idea that he felt with the rest he had to take what he could get.

I wanted him to be fulfilled. Happy. If not having it all (because who did?), at least having as much as he could get. Loving his family, his home, his job…his life.

Not taking what he could get.

“Hey, Miz Hathaway.”

I turned at Aisling’s greeting and smiled when I caught her beautiful blue eyes.