What if?
By
This is a Christmas story about what Station 51 A shift and the world would be like if Chester B. Kelly had never been born. Based VERY loosely on the great Christmas classic, It's a Wonderful Life, starring Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed. I have put Chet into one of my very favorite Christmas movies.
Chapter one
December 20, 1973
It was a typical December in Los Angeles, California. Chilly but comfortable.
The men of A Shift Station 51s were busy decorating the station on a surprisingly quiet afternoon. They all had the Christmas spirit and hummed or sang along with the Christmas music from the radio. All except Chet Kelly, who sulked on the couch. Even Henry couldn't cheer up the usually jolly Irishman.
Christmas was no longer one of his favorite holidays. He liked Halloween and Thanksgiving better.
He was ALMOST always stuck with his mom at his brother and sister-in-law's-ALWAYS alone. New Year's Eve was worse!
What he really hated was being lonely and alone. He felt like he had no real friends-let alone girlfriends.
Last year wasn't so bad. At least he'd been dating Camille but she broke it off when he just suggested getting serious!
<Man, I'm 27 years old and NOT even dating. GOD, I AM SUCH A LOSER! >
As he sat sadly on the couch, John Gage came over and sat next to him.
"Hey, Chet? Why the long face, buddy? It's almost Christmas! What's wrong? Usually, you are the one who cheers us up!"
"Yeah, well, Gage, just leave me alone, ok? I'm really NOT in the mood!"
With that Chet stood up and walked to the locker room to be alone.
Suddenly the klaxons sounded: "Station 51, Station 36, Engine 60 Large structure fire 3651 Carson Street. Cross Street Main."
"Station 51 responding. Time out 14:53. KMG 365"
They all ran to their stations and Mike Stoker followed the squad out.
Arriving on scene, Chief McConnikee ordered Engine 51 to the rear of the building, telling the paramedics to prepare for possible victims.
"This is a toy warehouse and there was a sale going on and Santa was here. So there are a lot of kids and parents here. Also we aren't sure what caused the fire, so please use care."
Roy and John entered the inferno and began searching for victims.
Chet and Marco grabbed the two and a half inch hose and began attacking the fire with Chet as lead man.
Going more into the fire, both men could feel the intensity of the heat and knew they would be here for a while.
Chapter two
Johnny and Roy had located five victims and were working on them. One was a four-year-old boy with smoke inhalation who was doing well. Another was his mother who also had smoke inhalation as well as second and third degree burns to her face and arms from protecting her son. The third victim was a young man, age 18, with a fractured left ankle. He was an employee who had a shelf fall on his foot during the panic. The fourth victim was a Code F. Both men had done all they could, but the child was just too severely burned and injured to sustain life. She was a little girl of seven years and had been held by her father, who miraculously had only received some smoke inhalation and first degree burns to his arms.
All were transported to the hospital via ambulances and Roy and John accompanied them. Captain Stanley had assured them Marco or Chet would drive the Squad and pick them up.
Santa, an off duty fireman, had been able to calmly get most of the people out of the burning building. He was now entertaining them across the street and thanks to him, the firemen were able to work unimpeded.
Meanwhile, in the back, Chet and Marco and the others seemed to be fighting a losing battle. Seemed that no matter what they did, the blaze kept getting more intense.
Chief McConnikee came back and ordered Chet and Marco to enter the blaze with their hose.
Upon entering the inferno, Chet immediately felt lightheaded, but ignored it.
Chapter three
Suddenly there was a flashover and Chet was thrown off his feet. Getting up and slightly disoriented, he realized he'd lost his contact with Marco. Becoming a bit panicked, he turned around, but all he saw was a wall of flames.
"Hey, Marco! Somebody!? Hey! It's me, KELLY! HELP!"
"Chet? Can you hear me? It's me, Marco. Where are you, pal?"
"I'm not sure, Marco. Last I knew you and I were together fighting this and now I'm alone and surrounded by a wall of fire."
"Ok, Chet, keep calm. I hear you. I'm going to get some help. Just hang on, buddy."
"HT 51 to Engine 51. Cap?"
"Engine 51 to HT 51. Year, Marco, over?"
"HT 51. Cap, I'm ok, but Chet is surrounded by an encroaching wall of flame. I need help here NOW!"
Suddenly Chet felt faint and yelled, "Marco! Help, I'm going to pass out!" and he fell to the floor, with his helmet coming off as he did.
The fire came nearer to the downed man and actually alit his turnout pants.
Chapter four
Suddenly Chet awoke to find himself sitting on a park bench in a beautiful glen. <I must be dead>
As he sat there, trying to figure this out, he suddenly saw an older man walking purposefully toward him.
"Chester Kelly?"
"Yes, that's me. Who are you?"
"My name is Tim and I am here to help you?"
"Help me? Huh? Are you a fireman or paramedic?"
Smiling, Tim laughed. "Well, my son. I was a fireman at one time, but that was over a century ago. No, I'm here to help make you see how important you are to those who love you."
Chet looked at Tim and laughed.
"What is this? A joke Gage put you up to? Over a century old? C'mon man, I may be dumb but I'm not that dumb! Sure! If that were true, than you'd be a ghost which means I must be dead."
"No, Chet, no joke. I'm not a ghost, I'm an angel sent to you in human form to help you. We heard you say you didn't feel like anyone cared about you"
Suddenly Chet heard his own voice, "I hate this time of year-nobody cares about anyone else, but now they all become hypocrites. Man, I bet Gage is glad I'm not participating. They must have some good laughs on Kelly, when I'm not around. My family is stuck with me, but I bet even they wish I weren't around. Man, I wish I were dead. I know noone would miss me and I am SURE the world would be better off without my sorry ass in it."
Chet stared dumbstruck at Tim. "How...Wha...That was me! How did you do that?"
"Chet, remember I'm an angel and am able to do a lot more than you think. Do you really feel like the world would be a better place without you in it?"
Chet got up and paced around a bit and stared off into space for a while.
Turning to look Tim in the eyes, he nodded. "Yes, Tim, I really do. I know John Gage would be a much happier person without 'the Phantom' to bug him. And I know the station would run much smoother and more efficiently without me there to foul things up.
My folks would get over me quicker than I would like them to, I just know it."
Tim looked at this very sad human and thought for a bit.
"So you think all these people that claim to care about you are just hypocrites who only tolerate you because they have to?"
"Well, not my folks or brothers. But my friends...they're not exactly hypocrites. I think they just pity me. And I HATE BEING PITIED!'
"Well, Chet, don't you think instead of pity it just may be worry or love?"
"LOVE? HaHa! No, I really doubt it. I'm sure nobody really cares about me. After all, I'm a nobody. My life has made no significant impact at all. I mean, big deal, I'm a fireman, but there are a million firemen in the world. What difference, do I, an insignificant speck of a man make?"
"You don't think you make an impact as a fireman? What about Marco Lopez, your partner and best friend?"
"If I weren't here, Marco would just have another partner, more competent than I. And as to him being my best friend, I know it's the other way around. I'm sure I'm a chain around his neck. I AM not important in the grand scheme of things."
Chapter five
Tim just looked at the younger man and smiled. Suddenly he disappeared and Chet found himself back in the toy warehouse, lying on the floor, surrounded by flames.
He ineffectually slapped at his turnouts and legs, writhing in pain.
"Marco? Are you still there? I'm in trouble here, man!"
"Chet, buddy, it's me, John. What's up, pal?"
"My legs are burning and I think (OW) I may have third degree burns here! And my chest feels like it is on fire-I feel lightheaded and nauseous. HELP ME!! JOHNNY? I don't want to die like this."
"Don't you worry, Chester B. You won't. You gotta give your pigeon a chance at revenge."
Chet tried to laugh and make a retort, but it hurt too much.
Suddenly he saw someone walking out of the blazing fire.
Blinking his eyes in disbelief, he said, "Who are you?"
"It's me, Tim. Remember? Do you still think noone cares about you? Do you still think the world would be a better place if you had never been born?"
"Yeah!'
John became panicky when he heard Chet's one-sided conversation.
"CHET! Who are you talking to? Don't go getting delirious on me."
"I'm talking to Tim, an angel who used to be a fireman, Gage."
John just looked at Roy and shrugged nervously.
"Chet? It's me, Roy. Did you hit your head? Put your oxygen on, ok, buddy? You'll be ok."
"Roy. I didn't hit my head and I already have the O2 on, but Tim is still here. Aren't you, Tim?"
Tim nodded.
"Your friends cannot see or hear me."
"Yeah sure. I guess I am dying. That's why you are really here. Um, well, noone will miss me. I sometimes think the world would be better off if I were never born."
"Do you really feel that way, Chester B. Kelly?"
"Yes, yes, I do."
"Well, I have the power of granting you that wish. Would you like to see what the world would be like if you had never been born?"
"Yeah, sure."
Chapter six
Suddenly Chet found himself watching a scene from his youth. He smiled at the pleasant memories.
He saw his older brother, Den, and his younger brother, Jim, rollerskating and kidding with friends. Suddenly Jim lost his balance and fell into the path of an oncoming car that was unable to stop. The child was crushed under the front tire.
"NO, that is not what happened! I got to him and caught him. I ended up with a broken arm. Here's the scar!"
He lifted his left arm and found NO scar.
"No, Chet. You don't have a scar because you were never there to save Jim. You were never born. Your parents only have two children.
Den was too far away to get to Jim and he blamed himself for the accident."
The next scene he saw was his mom and dad at the funeral. Chet turned away with tears in his eyes.
Chapter seven
John looked at Roy with panicked eyes.
"What the hell is going on? Is Chet hallucinating or what?"
"CHET! Chet? Can you hear me? Don't give up! YOU ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOU THINK!"
"Chet? This is Roy? Can you hear me?"
Getting no answer, both paramedics became extremely apprehensive about their coworker.
Meanwhile, Chet was seeing what life was like without him in it.
He'd seen his mother and father in a car accident when his father died because Chet wasn't there. {Chet remembered that he'd awakened his father just before he ran the car off the road.}
His mother was left paralyzed and living in a nursing home, alone and abandoned. Den, being eighteen at the time, was left to fend for himself.
Instead of joining the Navy and fighting the war as a seal, he was drafted into the Army. While in Basic Training, he became involved with drugs and ended up killing his sergeant over a minor disagreement.
Instead of being a decorated Naval veteran and police officer, Dennis Kelly was in Leavenworth Prison for life.
Tim saw Chet shaking his head.
"How could I have prevented what happened to Den? I understand how I could could have with mom and dad, cause I was there, but with Den, I wasn't even around. We went to different high schools."
"Yes, Chet, but it all happened BECAUSE you were not there to help prevent it from happening. Because of the accident, Den became disillusioned and easily involved with the wrong crowd. Before being drafted, he'd already been in trouble for petty crimes such as shoplifting and looting. Not only did he not have Jim to care for, but also he didn't have you. He was lost, scared, lonely and alone."
Chapter seven
The next scene was the Station. Marco and his partner were arguing over who should be lead man while Captain Stanley tried to break things up.
"MEN, please stop arguing. Marco, I want you as lead man and Dan you WILL work with Marco!"
The klaxons sounded and the scene changed.
Chet could NOT believe what happened next.
The guys were at a rubbish fire and Marco and Dan were fighting it, when Dan deliberately pushed Marco into the fire.
When asked what happened, Dan claimed, "I guess I lost my footing and pushed Marco by accident. Sorry, Marco."
Marco's injuries were minor but his anger was not.
When he returned to work for his next shift, he confronted Dan.
"ACCIDENT, MY ASS! You pushed me!" And Marco pushed Dan in retaliation.
The argument quickly became violent, with both men grabbing whatever sharp objects they could find. Dan grabbed an axe, while Marco grabbed his pocketknife. In the altercation, Dan ended up with the knife in his side.
While the paramedics cared for Dan, Captain Stanley instructed Mike to call the Code I in and alert dispatch they need the police, too.
Captain Stanley grabbed Marco and pushed him into his office.
The captain understood what had caused this, but he also knew the rules. Firemen could NOT be allowed to inflict injury on one another.
"Marco, are you ok? You know I have to report this. I don't know what this will do to your career. But I promise you this, Dan is GONE. He is nothing but trouble and.... Oh, shit, Marco what will this station do without you?"
Marco just looked at the captain; he was too stunned by his own violent actions to respond, until he realized what the captain meant.
"Do you really think I'll lose my job or go to jail?"
As they were talking, Reed and Malloy arrived and knocked on Captain Stanley's door.
Upon entering, they informed the men that Dan's injuries were minor and he would be treated and released.
Pete Malloy then asked Marco to stand up with his hands behind his back. Pete felt terrible because Marco was a particularly gentle man.
"Marco, we have to take you downtown, now. Jim, read him his rights, ok."
Jim read Marco his rights as he led him to the squad car.
"Well, Pete, what is going to happen to Marco?"
"If Dan doesn't press charges, which I don't think he will, Marco will probably have to do community service for a while.
What will the department do to him?"
"To be honest I am not sure. I've never had to deal with this sort of thing before. I will call headquarters and find out. Please tell Marco to call me whenever he wants, Ok?"
Marco was released because Dan did refuse to press charges. He was ordered to do one hundred hours of community service at the local Boys' and Girls' Club. Dan resigned from the fire service.
Tim explained to Chet that the reason all this happened was because Chet never became partners with Marco. Marco never got a partner he felt really comfortable or safe with.
Chapter eight
Next there was a brush fire which Chet remembered being at. What he saw was definitely different than what he saw happening.
He saw Roy and John assisting a pregnant woman and he recalled going up to warn them that the fire was dangerously close.
But what he saw was John and Roy help deliver the baby but unable to save the mother because noone had warned the paramedics of the nearness of the brushfire.
Chet just stared at Tim with tears in his eyes.
"But why couldn't someone else have gone to warn the guys? I was not the only fireman there."
"No, you weren't, Chet, but because you weren't there, Captain Hammer never thought of it. If you remember, YOU were the one who made the suggestion that someone should go warn the guys."
"Oh, yeah, I did."
Next Chet saw the basketball game he'd won for Station 51s with only seconds to spare.
But this time, they lost and Captain Stanley took his anger out on the whole A shift.
Then the worst thing happened, he saw the rescue where John got bitten by a rattlesnake while Roy was on his way to the hospital with the victims.
He saw the guys, sans him; attempt to help John while John tried to medicate himself. But none of the others knew how to help Johnny and by the time they reached the hospital, it was too late. John Gage had died of a snakebite because noone knew how to help him.
Chet yelled, "NO, that's not true. I knew how to remove some of the venom and toput the tourniquet on."
"Yes, Chet, you did, but remember, YOU were not there, YOU WERE NEVER BORN you could not help any of your family or friends because you were not on Earth and they never knew about you, either.
Do you still think your life has no meaning, Chet?"
Chet stared and shook his head no.
"No, you are right. I mean, if John is dead, then Roy will not have anyone, just like Marco and my family is gone. So I guess I've leaned a lesson. I do know that I've touched more lives than I thought. I also realize that Christmas and friendship and love mean more than material gifts-they are priceless. Christmas means love and remembering good times with family and friends."
"Yes, Chester B. Kelly, I do think you have learned something. You are much more important. Most humans, like you, feel insignificant once in a while. It is normal. But remember all the people you touch and those that have touched you. Remember all mankind is unique and each person has their own special gift to give. And at Christmas is when one should make the special effort to share it more than at any other time of the year."
Chapter nine
Suddenly Chet heard what sounded like his mother, but he knew that was impossible. After all, he was STILL at the warehouse.
With his eyes closed, he yelled, "John! Roy! Marco! Help me-I'm here in the fire and my O2 is almost gone."
"Chet? Please open your eyes, son. Chet, it's your mother. PLEASE!"
"Mom?" He opened his eyes and saw he was in a hospital room surrounded by his parents and brothers.
"Dad? Mom? Jim? Den? You're OK!"
"Of course, we are. YOU are the one who got hurt. Don't you remember? You were hurt in a fire four days ago!"
"Four days! I was out for four days!?"
Seeing Chet's agitation, Jim immediately rang for the nurse.
'Hey, Big Brother, calm down. John and Roy said you were really out of it for a while. They even said you told them you were talking to Tim, who you said was a century old fireman. Do you remember?"
Chet smiled to himself, but replied, "No, Jim, I really don't. I do remember my turnouts being on fire and calling for help."
His family just looked at him, because he'd been heard talking to someone even while semiconscious.
"Hey, why so glum? It's my legs, right? TELL ME!"
"No, Chet, you do have third degree burns on both legs but you will be ok. We just were afraid of brain damage, but we are happy that you seem ok."
"Yeah, Chet, seems you are as crazy and dumb as usual."
"Ha, Ha Den, takes one to know one."
Everyone laughed and were glad to see things were getting back to normal for the Kelly family.
Epilogue
Even though Chet had to spend Christmas Eve and Day in the hospital, he had a wonderful time.
John Gage and Jim Kelly had gotten a four foot real Christmas tree and decorated it with tiny firemen and apparatus and put Chet's badge at the top.
On Christmas Day, his whole family and the off duty A shift celebrated the day with him. Dixie, Drs Brackett and Early came by, too.
He was so shocked to see how all the wonderful people really did care for him, he was at a loss for words.
"Hey Chet, ya twit. What would our world be like if the PHANTOM weren't in it?"
"Lonely, Cap, real lonely."
"And boring, real boring."
Everyone smiled and laughed at John and Marco's answers.
Chet just looked lovingly at his 'family' and said, "Thank you, everyone. Merry Christmas to you all."
That evening, just before he fell asleep, Tim visited him.
"Well, Chet. Do you feel better now or do you still feel lonely?'
"No, Tim. I feel very lucky to be alive. Thanks to you and my friends and family I now realize how precious life is."
Tim smiled and faded away.
As Chet closed his eyes, he could have sworn his badge was shinier than ever. He fell asleep and dreamed happy thoughts.
? Merry Christmas to all!!
