Julian, since his last birthday, has accumulated an impressive collection of vehicles. Most notably, his favorite, the Fire Dut.
He points out the real ones with glee from the back window of the car as we travel through town. Today, there was one parked in front of the store as we were headed in. The boys inside saw us coming, or rather saw Julian's huge eyes and dashing finger.
"Dutt! DUUUUTTTT!"
We see a waving hand from inside the vehicle. Julian walks around to the passenger side to catch a peek at the chrome work, when the door latch unlocks with a hydrolic "shoooopp!" and out comes officer Gordon, grinning like Opie.
I ask, "You must get a lot of excited little boys running over to the truck".
"Oh yeah, you bet. I love it".
He sits down on the step and asks if I have a camera phone. Do I have a camera...
But as soon as he leans over and picks up Juju, he starts bawling.
"Uh, oh. I was afraid I saw that coming. Maybe in a few more years."
Julian refused to even look at the truck any more, never mind the sweet, freckled face Officer Gordon.
And with that, not wanting to upset him further, he went back up the stairs into the truck, and waved goodbye.
I bet he was just like Julian- waving at trucks, looking wide eyed whenever they parked in front of the grocery store, looking for his little reflection in the shining chrome. And he never forgot how that felt. You could see the little boy inside of him, grinning ear to ear to be able to wear those red suspenders, and sit up high in the shiny red truck.
2 comments:
So cool! I'll have to let our fireman friend, John Nevandro, read this. I wonder if he was one of these wide-eyed boys pointing at the "fire duts".
Oh boy we have to get Julian's cousin Ben to send a pic. Actually, Juju has two firefighter cousins - Ben in Ohio and Kyle in Massachusetts.
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