Firefighter Seeks Wife
Chapter 1
Cal was getting to the stage in life where he was ready to settle down. He had just had his thirty fifth birthday and it got him thinking about what else he wanted out of life. He wanted a wife and kids like everyone else, but he didn’t have the time to look. The truth was that after working 60-70 hours a week as a firefighter, the only thing he had time for was sleeping and eating. Cal didn’t even have time to clean his house, having to hire a maid to come in a couple of times a week.
He was beginning to think that he was always going to be alone, but then one of his buddies at work told him how he found his wife Ivanka. It was something that Cal has heard of, but he didn’t really think it happened in real life.
“Thomas, I am glad it worked for you, but I just don’t like the idea of it.”
“Why?”
“Because it is like buying a bride, isn’t it?”
“Not at all. It’s pretty simple. They want to come here and they want to be American, we need wives.”
“But you don’t even know them.”
“I didn’t know Ivanka and it has worked out. We have been married for over five years now and I can honestly say that it was the single best thing that I ever did.”
Cal tried not to judge him. He was overweight and though he had a
heart of gold, he had never been very popular with the ladies. It made him think that he didn’t need to go to all of that trouble. Cal was a good looking man and whenever he did go out to the bar, he had no trouble bringing home a woman. But the time after, the trying to date and get in touch, finding dates where they are both free, just never really works out. There was only a few of them that he had really wanted to pursue something with.
“I’m telling you Cal. You would find someone in no time. Good looking guy like yourself, they would be fighting to get over here for you.”
“How long did it take you?”
“Start to finish, we met and married within six months.
Five of them was when she was here. You have to live together a while to see if you are compatible before you get married. You don’t have to of course, if she is willing, but I have heard some guys have bad experiences as well.”
Thomas gave Cal the web address and told him some of the tips that he had found useful. Cal only half-listened, still convinced that he didn’t need that kind of thing. He wanted a wife, but not in that way. He didn’t want to have to buy his wife, he wanted love. Could someone that he just met, really love him? And could he love her? Cal wasn’t so sure.
He did take the piece of paper with the web address and after fighting the urge, he finally got his phone out and started to check out the site. It was kind of like a dating website that he had tried before, but the stakes were a whole lot higher. Most of the girls were from out of country and all of them were beautiful to him. It was weird though, like choosing a woman from a catalogue. It just didn’t seem right. He put his phone away and went to bed. His mind on the idea of ordering a bride like his friend suggested. His dreams were filled with one actually coming to him through the mail.
The next morning, he went back to the address and scrolled through some of the women that were looking for American men. Thomas had told him a little about it, that he had to put up a profile and a pic. Then he should just contact the women that he liked and go from there. He just didn’t get, how it was supposed to go from hey to let’s get married without ever meeting, touching. But he was desperate and lonely, so he made a profile and hoped for the best.
With the start of winter closing in around the small town in North Carolina, there were more fires than usual with everyone pulling out old heaters. One family had almost killed themselves with a propane heater and by the end of the day, Cal felt like he had worked a week. It was always bad that time of year, but it seemed worse for some reason, like it was worse than it had ever been before.
Thomas was driving the truck back to the base when he asked about the wife hunting. Cal eventually agreed that he had at least put a profile up, but was still not ready to go into more details. It was kind of embarrassing, but he had to admit that Thomas may be a lot of things, but he was happy. He got to go home to a wife and young baby, a home cooked meal. Cal wanted the same thing and he found himself a little jealous that he had nothing to go home to. He couldn’t even have a dog because he wasn’t home enough to feed it.
When he got home that evening, to the silence and the television, he checked his mail from the site and was surprised to find a message. There was actually more than one, but there was only one that was in English.
“Very handsome man. Why do you need a wife here?”
There was nothing else, but a picture of a beautiful blonde beauty smiling back at him. He liked the directness of her, as well as the fact that she could actually at least speak enough to type it out. Cal sent her a message back. His was just as short and to the point. “Work too much as a firefighter. No time to find a wife.”
His fingers hovered over the enter button for a while, debating if he should send or not. He finally did and expected to hear something the next day. He went to bed, with only a few hours before he had to get up and do it all over again.
Right before he had nodded off completely, he heard his phone buzz and he opened it up to find a message from the woman, Ana. “I need husband, you need wife. Seems simple to me.”
That was it. He just stared at the screen for several minutes. Then another message came through and he almost jumped with the notification sound. “You there? Call me.”
***
She left a number and Cal just stared at it much as he had the text. He had wondered how it would happen so fast and apparently that was how.
They talked for several hours and at the end of the conversation, she was planning a trip. It happened that quickly, but there was the question of would the conversation be enough and would it translate to when they actually met? Cal still wasn’t so sure, but he looked forward to something more. He looked forward to somehow ending up like Thomas, happily in love.
She couldn’t make it till the next week and Cal was a bundle of nerves. He knew that they didn’t have to marry, but it was a lot of pressure. Ana was willing to go across the world to meet him, so there was definitely a little pressure. Cal kept the good news to himself, not just embarrassed in a way, but he didn’t want to jinx it either. There was always going to be someone that would have something to say about it, the slight judgment, but he didn’t want all the negativity to go into his head. He really enjoyed their conversation and he just wanted to focus on her.
When the day finally arrived, he was almost vibrating with nerves. He had somehow wrangled the day off with Thomas’ help and after standing in front of the mirror for an hour, he drove to the airport in town and waited for Ana.