“Uh, left on Rhode Island, right on Montana… uh… left on…”

Frustrated, I looked down at my paper. There were lots of street names, copied from the chalkboard—just no descriptions of how to get there, which was the purpose of the whole exercise.

It will come in due time, I suppose. I’ve been trying to learn the area as best I can without formally receiving any maps or running routes; it’s been mostly based off of talking with the wagon driver and the other guys on the back step with me. We’re all supposed to know our first-due area like the backs of our hands, and now that I passed my seventh-month test last tour, I’ll be receiving a list of common addresses to tackle—not to mention major buildings, abnormal addresses, hydrant locations, short streets, and a plethora of other data that we need to know.

I remember when I was sixteen and volunteering as an EMT, I had a map of our first-due area that I had drawn my self, and I used to drive around the area on the weekends to get a feel for it. I may have to do this again; granted, the area I’m supposed to know is much larger now, but I believe the process is the same.

Just add it to the pile of stuff to study; a fellow probationer told me that your eighth-month test is the hardest, because it’s more of those damned questions on top of trying to turn your head into a mapbook.

Either way, it’s just another step. As one of the more senior technicians told me last tour:

“One day, you’re going to be here at night, sleeping. And then the bells are going to go off. And as you wake up, you’ll hear the address… and a map is just going to pop right into your head. You’ll know exactly how to get there… and by the time you fully wake up, you’ll realize that you’re sitting outside of that very house with the parking brake on.”

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Note: Similar to “The Sitting Room,” “10am” will be reserved as a header title for anything related to drills and training—the name stems from the fact that by Department rules, every shift is to train on something at 10am each day (with certain exceptions, but the general idea holds true).