Hi Mum, it's Sammy (clone 59 - part 1)

Hi Mum, it's Sammy. I've just arrived at the small island community of Barnacle Bay.

Bought a small place at the edge of town. The real estate guy called it a fixer-upper and you know what that means. Cheap and breakable fixtures with no nice features anywhere. At least the price was right.

I was thinking about what kind of job to get. A job is an obvious first priority, even a cheap house uses all of your savings.


I wanted something exciting for my job. Something where you can make a difference.

So I joined the local fire department. They signed me up immediately and gave me a uniform to wear.

The pay sucks. Be here 9 to 5 for 5 days a week and only get 200?

Must have been recruitment week at the station. This gal is Sophie Pesce, she's also just joined.

Why the hell do I have to wear a uniform and she doesn't? Is this discrimination or what?

It wasn't long before I had to rush out on my first emergency.

Ironically, the first fire was in a house next to the fire station. In fact, I believe that it is Sophie's house.

There's something familiar about standing in a wall of flame, but I can't quite place what.

It wasn't too big a fire. It didn't take long to put out.

Funny thing, Mum. Neither Sophie nor another dude who came in later actually helped. I can see one person staying behind to man the station but surely you send at two to an emergency?

Nice, I got a small bonus for saving the house. A bit of extra money is very welcome.

After the emergency, it was back to the station.

After spending hours here, I'm getting the idea about why the pay is so low. It seems that we mostly just chill out around the station and maybe at some point we have to rush to an emergency.

Lucky for me there is stuff to do around the station. Exercise equipment, tv, foosball, and books to read. My first choice is always exercise. Hauling the fire equipment around is hard work. And being able to run from one place to another might turn out important in the long run.

There is a real kitchen at the station. For some reason, I couldn't cook a proper meal. All I could do was grab a snack from the fridge. A quick sandwich for energy then, I guess.

"Sophie, why didn't you come along to the fire today? I could have used some help."

"Someone has to man the station."

"Ok, then why didn't that other dude come?"

"He was trying to prove he could outlast me at aerobics."

"And?"

"Damn it, he did. Next time, I'll show him."

Sigh, which means I get to solo the next fire too.

I've been meeting tons of people around town. This one is Amelia.

I quite like her. She's very pretty.

I decided to see how much she'd like a small present from me.

"Hey, Beautiful. I have a little something for you."

"What? I love surprises! What is it?" She is very bouncy when she's excited.

"The most beautiful bouquet of roses, for the most beautiful girl in town."

She was very impressed. We went on a date.

I brought her home to my place. For a first date, things went very well. We didn't get too involved, being the first date and I had to get some sleep before work tomorrow.

Would you believe that the bills are piling up already? Fortunately the property tax of my home is quite low.  It's lucky since I'm not exactly swimming in dough just now.

I invited Amelia over to the station.

She was really excited by my uniform and the fact that I'm a fireman.

She's so cute when she's excited, bouncing around like a 4 year old.

When she stopped bouncing, I moved in for a kiss. I think she liked it. I know I did.

None of the other crew goes out on calls with me. I've been to a couple more fires now - alone.

In one way, that's a bonus. I get to drive the nice big fire truck.

So this is what the other fireman do while I'm out actually putting out fires. They are up here exercising again.

Eventually I went home and prepared a meal. I went for a nice salad because it's hard to overcook a salad.

And here I am, sitting on the tub to eat.

What, no furniture? I hear you exclaim.

Well, that's not the reason.

I was being a gentleman. I had a house guest and let her have the only chair in the house. It's the least I could do for MJ. MJ was the reason I wanted to be sure the food was ok. It's not good to invite someone to a meal and have the food inedible.

She's another pretty lady. This town has a lot of them.