Something’s Wrong

The voice on the police radio asked for a rescue truck.

Billy reached for his pencil.

A delivery truck had struck a loading platform behind a warehouse. Part of the steel canopy had come down. One man was trapped; another was keeping traffic out of the service lane.

Jenny was already beside the wall map.

“Two streets past the garage,” she said.

Seth stood up. His shoulder still ached from putting away the practice bar the night before.

Beside the window, Flaming Head lifted a little higher. The flame above his round face bent and settled again.

“Stay here,” Jenny told him. “We’ll come back.”

The warmth of his answer reached her and Seth together.

“Be careful.”

Billy looked from one to the other. Seth passed the words on.

“We will,” Billy said. He put the pencil in his coat pocket. “And we ask for help when we need it.”

Fist floated through the open doorway first.

“Coming?”

Seth followed him.

* * *

The truck stood crooked against the loading platform, its engine off. A broken timber lay across its hood. Above the platform, the remaining canopy sagged between two bent supports.

A man in a work apron waved them into the lane.

“Over here. He’s talking. He says he can feel his foot.”

Billy stopped beside him. “Anyone else under there?”

“Just Eddie. Driver’s out. He’s over by the wall.”

“Keep everyone back from the canopy.”

Seth crouched at the platform’s broken corner. A steel crossbeam had fallen diagonally from the damaged canopy to the concrete below. One end lay on the platform. The other pinned a worker’s boot and lower trouser leg against the lane.

Eddie lay on his side, propped on one elbow. Dust had caught in his eyebrows.

“Super Zerdo,” he said. His face loosened with relief. “Boy, am I glad to see you.”

Seth looked along the beam before touching it. The overhead end had settled into a split in the platform’s wooden edge. If he raised the lower end, it might pivot there.

“Don’t pull your leg yet.”

He planted both boots and worked his fingers under the steel, clear of Eddie’s foot.

Only a little, he told himself. He did not have to lift the whole thing over his head. Just enough to let the man move.

He pushed through his legs.

The beam rose a fraction. Grit slipped beneath it. Pain tightened across his shoulders.

“Nearly,” Eddie said.

Seth tried to gain another inch.

His hands began to shake.

“Wait.” He lowered the beam carefully onto the same patch of concrete. “Don’t move.”

Eddie looked at the steel, then back at him.

Seth crouched beside his shoulder.

“I can’t hold it high enough. We’re going to support it.”

Behind him, Jenny had gone still.

Billy knelt on Eddie’s other side. “What’s your name?”

“Eddie.”

“All right, Eddie. Tell me if anything changes.” He looked toward the man in the apron. “You have solid timber blocks? Short pieces. Nothing split.”

“In the yard.”

“Blocks, please. Stay clear of that roof.”

Jenny touched Seth’s shoulder.

“The garage has jacks. I’ll ask.”

He nodded. She left at a run.

Fist hovered above the lane entrance, where he could see both the street and Billy.

“When the rescue truck gets here,” Billy called, “bring them straight through.”

“On it.”

* * *

Jenny reached the corner and had to shorten her stride.

The familiar rush had not come. She could hear each white boot strike the pavement. By the garage door, her breath was scraping at her throat.

A mechanic looked up from a wheel.

“Man trapped at the warehouse,” she said. “We need a jack. Low enough to go under a beam.”

He set down his wrench.

“Rescue crew coming?”

“Yes.”

He pulled a heavy trolley jack from beside the workbench.

“This one. I’m coming with you.”

Jenny took the handle while he wheeled it over the threshold. Together they hurried it along the pavement. Its little steel wheels rattled at every joint.

She glanced toward the warehouse corner. She should have been back already.

The mechanic caught the jack as a wheel struck a crack.

“Easy. We’ll get it there.”

* * *

Seth was still kneeling beside Eddie when the jack arrived.

Billy had placed the timber blocks within reach. The man in the apron stood by the lane entrance, keeping curious workers away from the damaged platform.

Jenny let go of the handle. For a moment she stayed bent over, one white glove against her knee.

“Got it,” she said.

Seth looked at her flushed face. “You all right?”

She nodded, catching her breath.

A siren rose beyond the buildings.

Fist shot toward the street. A few moments later he returned ahead of two firefighters carrying equipment.

Billy stood to meet them.

“His boot’s pinned under the lower end. The other end’s caught in the platform. We haven’t moved him.”

One firefighter crouched beside Eddie. The other examined the beam and the supports above it, then directed everyone clear while the crew secured the fallen steel against slipping.

Seth stepped back. His fingers still felt the edge of the beam.

The mechanic handed over the jack. Under the crew’s direction, its saddle rose against the steel. Timber went beneath the beam as it lifted, filling the gap a little at a time.

This time, when the steel moved, it stayed up.

“Leave the boot,” the firefighter beside Eddie said. “We’ve got room.”

Seth knelt where she pointed. Jenny took Eddie’s other side.

Together they helped him slide clear, leaving the trapped boot behind. He cried out once, then gripped Seth’s sleeve.

“My foot?”

The firefighter was already checking it.

“Let us look.”

Seth kept his hand beneath Eddie’s elbow until the crew took over.

* * *

The ambulance attendants settled Eddie onto a stretcher. He was still talking when they lifted him inside.

Seth sat on the curb outside the lane. He opened and closed his hands.

Jenny sat beside him.

For a while they listened to the firefighters working behind the truck.

“He thought I could just lift it,” Seth said.

“I thought I’d be back before you needed me.”

She rubbed a mark from her white glove. It stayed gray.

Billy came over with Fist at his shoulder.

“The driver’s being checked too,” he said. “They’re keeping the lane closed.”

“Eddie?” Seth asked.

“They’ll know more at the hospital.”

Seth looked toward the ambulance. Eddie caught sight of him through the open doors and raised a hand.

Seth raised his own.

“You stayed with him,” Billy said. “That helped.”

Seth nodded, but his eyes went back to the lane. The beam stood on timber now, with a firefighter checking beneath it.

Jenny rested her hand over his.

“We need to tell Flaming Head.”

Seth looked down at their joined hands, then toward the street that led back to the facility.

He wondered how much strength Flaming Head had spent getting home to warn them.