Chapter 1 - Part 1: Light My Fire

Morand Cagley wasn't sure what he was doing here.  All he knew was that he needed a change from his old life, where he'd always felt out of place.

When his grandfather died and left him an empty plot of land in a place called "Harmony", it sounded like the perfect thing to uproot his life and get out of town.  With no family to speak of and not a friend in sight, there was no one to stop him.

As soon as he graduated High School, he bought the next plane ticket out of town and wasn't planning on going back.

Unfortunately, the airfare was expensive and left him with absolutely no money.  He'd never even considered what he would do once he got to Harmony.

Morand's first stop was the library to look for work.  He didn't know what he wanted to be exactly, only that he wanted to prove to those back home that he WAS someone, not just someone to push around and use as a punching bag.

One ad stood out among all the rest, simply because it stated "live on-site".  He took it immediately.

Morand wasn't even sure if he wanted to BE a firefighter, or more importantly if he could even pull off the job.  However, not sleeping in the middle of a field seemed like a worse situation, so he took the position and moved into his bunk at the firehouse.

It was long hours filled with repairing broken down alarms, doing maintenance on the truck and watching as everyone else ran off to be a hero when the bells rang, leaving him behind to "man the station" and "hold down the fort" and "try not to lift anything too heavy".

That last comment (and many more like it) would come from Jess Tuttle, who was exactly the kind of person that Morand was trying to leave behind.  Jess constantly made fun of him for his small size, his glasses, his hair, basically anything he could.  Morand figured it was all part of the job, to give the rookie a hard time and tried not to let it get the best of him.

Finally, his day came.  Jess was out sick (with a hangover, do doubt) and everyone else was out on a call when the bells went off.  Morand jumped into his firesuit and raced to the scene to find a highrise complex engulfed in flames.  He used what little training Jess had showed him and by his own surprise managed to subdue the flames and put out the fire!

Not knowing anyone in town and having no friends back at the station, Morand had to find some way to burn off all this energy.  On the way back to the firehouse, he stopped into the the first bar.  He hadn't even ordered a drink yet when he launched into the events of the fire, the danger, the heat, the drama!  The bartender listened half-attentively, doing her job well and getting a kick out of this young kid's excitement.  She told him that he should do something to remember this day forever.

So he did.  He didn't care if the tattoo guy laughed at him because he insisted on wearing safety goggles during the procedure, he was just impressed with himself that he would go so far as to get a tattoo at the suggestion of a (rather beautiful) bartender.

The cycle began.  Fight fires throughout the day...

Then visit Cheri at the bar in the evenings.

"Hon, you've been coming in here every night for two weeks.  Most nights you're my only customer.  People might think you have a crush on me."

Morand only blushed.

The next evening, Morand had a couple more than usual and started letting himself go a bit.

"You know... you're the nicesht person I've ever met, Cheri.  You're so pretty and kind and ... pretty."  The rest was more rambling about how attractive he found her, about being lonely and alone and all by himself.  Cheri almost felt bad for the guy.

The next night, Morand sat quietly embarrassed at the bar and didn't say much.  He felt he'd already said too much the previous evening, when really all he meant to tell her was that she'd become kind of a friend to him.

Cheri seemed to be warming up to him a little more as well, even showing off some of her more fancy drink making skills.  After the bar closed and Morand was getting ready to leave, Cheri stopped him.

"Morand, you're a cute kid.  I don't want you to feel so lonely."

That's when she kissed him.  Full on the mouth!

"Come with me, upstairs," Cheri said, "I know one of the rooms is empty."

Morand wasn't sure what to do, but followed her anyway.

Title / The Doors