The Jigsaw Man by Gord Rollo Page A

first, Drake would
    see the guilt in my eyes. So I quickly thought of some¬
    thing to say to him, hoping to deflect his attention
    elsewhere.
    "So, did you manage to put out the fire?"
    Without breaking eye contact, Drake replied, "There
    was no fire. I told you this morning it was a false alarm."
    N o w he was really staring down my throat, as was
    Dr, Marshall. Both of them were actually leaning for¬
    ward in their chairs, hovering above me like birds of
    prey ready to tuck their wings and swoop in for the
    kill.
    Fuck, Fuck, FUCK! N o w what was I supposed to do?
    "Fire? Hey, what are you guys talkin' about?"
    It was Red Beard butting into the conversation, tak¬
    ing a break from cramming whole sausages into his cav¬
    ernous mouth, unknowingly saving my ass with his
    question. He gave me an excuse to break eye contact
    with Drake and forced Dr. Marshall to answer him.
    I was so relieved I could have kissed him. Instead, I
    reached for the pancakes and syrup again, staring back
    down at my plate while Dr. Marshall explained to the
    table how there'd been a minor electrical glitch this
    m o r n i n g that had triggered a fire warning sensor on
    their security panel. Drake had investigated, naturally,
    but there'd been no cause for alarm. I risked a quick
    glance around, and only Red Beard and Wheels looked
    surprised by the news. Obviously only Bill's room and
    mine had been checked.
    "Wow," Red Beard gasped. "Good t h i n g it was only a
    false alarm. A fire in a j o i n t like this could do millions
    of dollars' worth of damage. Trust me, when I was in
    the department, we used to see a lot of nasty ones. A
    fire here would put up a hell of a fight."
    Red's admission that he used to be a fireman was
    enough of a revelation to everyone present, and the focus
    of the conversation was turned away from me and onto
    Red Beard, who thoroughly enjoyed the attention. He
    explained how he'd been a full-time firefighter in N i a g
    ara Falls, N Y , for thirteen years before he'd lost his leg in
    a warehouse fire. The roof had collapsed, crushing his
    left leg beneath a steel girder and tons of flaming rubble.
    'You weren't really a fireman, were you?" Drake asked,
    sounding positively shocked.
    I almost burst out laughing, hearing the skepticism
    in the head of security's voice. He was making the same
    stupid prejudiced assumption nearly everyone makes
    about the homeless. Drake simply couldn't picture it in
    his thick head that Red had ever been anything other
    than the desperate loser sitting in front of him today.
    He thought—and trust me, he wasn't alone—all home¬
    less people were lifelong drunks and fools. Sure, those
    types of bunis were around, people so messed up on booze
    and drugs they'd paved their own way onto the street,
    but in my experience, those types of people were the
    minority. Most street folk, like Red Beard, Blue J, and
    I, were normal, ordinary, hard-working, productive
    members of society before our worlds crashed down on
    top of us. Don't get me wrong. We were far from in¬
    nocent victims—we all make our own beds—but peo¬
    ple like Drake would never understand that people like
    us were exactly the same as people like him.
    "Sure I was," Red Beard shot back, his angry tone
    making it clear he was frustrated by the same tired
    prejudices I'd j u s t been t h i n k i n g about. "I can prove it,
    too. H e r e , take a look at t h i s — "
    Red pulled up his left sleeve and showed us a large
    colorful tattoo that was inked onto his bicep muscle.
    His arm was covered with tattoos but this particular
    one was of a bright red fireman's helmet, with a yellow
    ladder and an axe crisscrossing in front of it. The words
    N . F . S T A T I O N # 5 were boldly written below.
    "She's a beauty, huh, Drake?" Red Beard taunted,
    pride evident in his defiant voice. "Our whole shift went
    out, got right shit-faced, and decided to get these.
    Never regretted it for a minute."
    Drake glared at the tattoo for a few