What Would We Do Without You, Lori Lynne Vincent Episode #3

Jake regains his composure and yells at the two, wet firefighters in the hallway, “Firefighter Vinnie Cappaletti; meet Lieutenant James (Jimmy Mac) McDonnell”.

Vinnie extends his hand and Jimmy Mac hands him his coffee mug and says “Straight up black”.

Jimmy smirks at Jake as he comes into Jake’s office, while pretending to open the door!

“Prick!” says Jake.

Vinnie could hear them both laughing as he went in search of the coffee maker. Probably in the kitchen, he suspected. Where the hell is the kitchen? he asks himself.

Lori notices Vinnie walking around with a Taz mug and asks, “Does Jimmy Mac know that you have his Taz mug?”

Lori Lynne Vincent wasn’t afraid to ask questions and challenge firefighters, especially if she is feeling under-appreciated. She came to Grandview by way of the Canadian Rockies. She learned two things when she was just three years old: (1) how to ski; something that she still does when she can scrape up the money and (2) how to fight with her older brother and sister. According to Lori’s sister, Lori could throw a cross check into her brother that would make him cry. She learned that from watching her favorite hockey team.

Lori was already working and earning money at age 12 by cleaning tables at a restaurant owned by a family friend. Lori was your typical teenager. She snuck cigarettes from her mom’s purse and drank her dad’s booze. She thought that she was suppose to go to college like everyone else, so she enrolled in a junior college in Vancouver and promptly dropped out, due to inattention to her classes and too much attention to a green, leafy substance!

After knocking around at several jobs-mostly in Hotel and Travel-Lori was on the computer and saw that Grandview was looking for someone to organize files, reports and records, so she sent a resume and cover letter. She was hired at her first interview. Lucky bastards, she thought to herself.

Fast forward to the present and Lori is struggling with her weight. She is prone to binge eating, because she can’t stay in a relationship. She can’t seem to meet Mr. Right and blames it on her weight. Maybe Mr. Right will be a famous chef. More likely, a hockey player who likes to ski!

She is a heavy smoker and coffee drinker. Lately, she has developed a taste for Red Bull and vodka-mixed. She likes to party, even though she is coming up on 40. Many days, she gets home just in time to shower and change clothes and get to the fire station. Make up is applied while driving!

She often wonders if a drooping eye that she has had since birth has kept her from meeting the right man. But it is barely noticeable to strangers. Looking into a mirror reveals even the smallest of flaws! She will mention it first, thinking that if she doesn’t, people will be pre-occupied in their mind with its “grotesque form”.

Despite what she thinks, Lori is attractive in her appearance and likes to dress in bright colors. Her language is also colorful and has been the source of more than one letter of reprimand in her file. Her typical response is “screw the Pointy-Haired Boss”; an obvious reference to the Dilbert comic strip-her favorite.

Vinnie notices that Lori is looking at his butt, so he asks her, “Why are you looking at my back pockets?” trying not to state the obvious.

Lori says, “Actually, I’m looking at your a** for two reasons: the first is that I am imagining it without Jimmy’s boot in it and the second is WITH Jimmy’s boot in it! I will take bets that he can bury his size 13 boot in your a** and that you will spit out the shoelace! Yep; place your bets everyone. You could be the next contestant on “Boot in the booty of the newbie!”

Vinnie was indignant. “It just so happens that Jimmy has sent me to get him a fresh cup of coffee…to replace the one that I spilled…on him!”

“S***! And he didn’t give you an atomic wedgie right then and there?” Lori asks in amazement.

“Nope; he went into Jake’s office as if nothing happened,” Vinnie says matter-of-factly.

“Oh! Something’s going to happen!” Lori warns.

Just then, the tones drop and so does Jimmy Mac’s favorite coffee mug…

The Adventures of Jake and Vinnie© is a fictional literary work. It is protected by federal copyright. The article is published under The Adventures of Jake and Vinnie© umbrella and is the intellectual property of Art Goodrich a.k.a. ChiefReason. It cannot be re-printed in any form.

Need to Vent, Jimmy Mac?

Episode #4

Lieutenant James (Jimmy Mac) McDonnell eats and sleeps fire tactics.

He has read every piece written by Dunn and Norman. As a kid, he dreamed of getting on the FDNY. He wanted to serve in the department of his heroes and mentors. Success to Jimmy was nothing less than getting to the rooftops of New York City.

Jimmy Mac is fourth generation firefighter. His great, great grandfather was a world-class boxer, which came in handy back in the 1800s, when rival fire companies would fight-literally-for the rights to suppress a fire. James Earl McDonnell had an undefeated record as a boxer AND as a firefighter! Jimmy Mac has a callbox J-key as a memento from the golden years of firefighting.

Growing up in Hunter’s Cove, Jimmy Mac can remember as a five-year-old of getting so excited when he heard the fire trucks, that he would run out of the house, grab his bike and chase the fire trucks. Try as she might, Jimmy’s mom could not catch him before he would dart into the road on his bicycle, imitating the siren at the top of his lungs!

Were it not for her brother, a policeman in Hunter’s Cove, Jimmy might very well have made it to the scene or die trying. But a very dejected Jimmy would be delivered back home, safe and sound, as a passenger in his uncle’s squad car and with his “fire bike” stowed in the back seat.

As consolation, Jimmy’s dad would come home at the end of his shift and tell Jimmy all about the call and answer the barrage of questions that left him and Jimmy physically exhausted. But John Earle (Big Mac) McDonnell loved his son very much and his son’s love for the fire service. Though Big Mac knew the dangers of firefighting all too well, he wasn’t about to discourage Jimmy’s dream of getting to the best job in the world.

But Big Mac drew the line when Jimmy wanted a battery-operated siren for his bike. There were just too many things that could go wrong with a five-year-old running around the neighborhood, blasting a siren at all hours of the day and night. Nope; Jimmy would have to wait for his turn at sounding the siren.

What Jimmy got instead was a bed built by Big Mac to look like a fire truck; right down to the ladder that Jimmy would take off of the hangers, so he could sleep up in the “hose bed”. Jimmy slept in that bed until he was ten. Then, it was time for a “big boy” bed. However; Jimmy’s bedroom was re-done in authentic firehouse décor and his tree house had a pole that Jimmy could slide down.

As an explorer, Jimmy got to spend countless hours at the fire station-listening and learning. Jimmy was masterful with ropes and knots. He got to help out in the kitchen and was quite a cook by age 15. His firehouse chili has won several chili cook-offs. Only his Irish stew is better.

Jimmy turned 18 just before graduation and was allowed to ride along on fire calls. As summer vacation started and Jimmy would turn his attention towards daily workouts in the hopes of getting a full time firefighter job, a spot on the Hunter’s Cove Fire Department opened up. Jimmy applied and thought his dad’s influence would surely lock his chances. But instead, it went to a young man recently married with one on the way. Jeff Wilkins had already been a full time firefighter for four years at nearby Ellisville. Though Jimmy was disappointed, he was also glad that Hunter’s Cove was getting a good man. Jimmy knew that there would be other chances and that he had to be patient. In the meantime, he would help wherever he could and improve his practical skills, while he took fire science courses at the local college in the fall.

In the final semester of his senior year, Jimmy got called to the fire station. When he got there, Big Mac was on the phone and motioned Jimmy to come over. Jimmy stood there for a few minutes and was holding a coffee mug that he grabbed from his dad’s desk. As he was reading the inscription on it, Big Mac handed him the phone and said, “An old friend of mine wants to talk to you”.

Jimmy thought that he would humor his old man and took the phone. While he studied the mug, a voice on the other end said, “Jimmy? Mac has told me some good things about you. How would you like to come to work for me in Grandview?”

Jimmy dropped his dad’s coffee mug…

The Adventures of Jake and Vinnie© is a fictional literary work. It is protected by federal copyright. The article is published under The Adventures of Jake and Vinnie© umbrella and is the intellectual property of Art Goodrich a.k.a. ChiefReason. It cannot be re-printed in any form.