The fire and fescue compound was a ghost town except for a light on at the forest ranger’s office. The two crew buggies were gone, as was one of the Ford Super Duty’s. The other was parked in its usual spot, but somehow its presence made the lot seem all the more empty.
Josh roamed the hotshot’s wing for a while—the mess hall, the kitchen, the barracks. It all looked so…small. As if it had shrunk while he’d been recuperating at Suzanne’s. But of course it was small. It was a temporary way station between fires, not a home. And it felt so deserted.
He should do something. Occupy himself. He stumped into the storage cache and did a quick inventory. Nothing was out of place, nothing needed organizing. No new deliveries were waiting to be unloaded. Nothing to do, no one to talk to.
Damn, th
