Fire Engines and Police Cars

Gabriel, the three year old Indian boy with eyes like black marbles loved standing on the porch and pointing to the police cars and fire engines and identifying them. The family moved back to New Jersey after spending a year here. I miss them. I miss the scent of chicken coconut curry cooking, wafting onto the sidewalk as I walked by. I loved saying hello and chatting with the mom, studying to be a nurse, and the dad, an engineer who was working temporarily for CVS. They became great friends with the Indian family next door to them where Colin and Edwin and Hayven live and they stay in touch driving down to New Jersey to see Gabriel's family. Colin and Edwin want to be police and firemen too. They asked me for the Fire Chiefs autograph and he wrote them each a long letter. Chief Shattraw knew what this was about."These are our future firefighters! We are nothing without them," he said.