The Smoke Room
Chapter One
1. HOWLING IN THE DEEP BLUE TWILIGHT
Experts estimated the pig fell just over 11,000 feet before it plunged through Iola Pederson’s roof.
The lone witness had been snitching cherry tomatoes from a pot on his neighbor’s front porch when he looked up and spotted the hog as it tumbled through the deep blue twilight. Whether the hog had been howling because he was delighted with the flight or because of the rapidly approaching earth, nobody ever knew. Ultimately the critter pierced Iola Pederson’s roof with the sound of a man putting his foot through a rotten porch.
The pig’s demise pretty much signaled the end of all my ambitions.
My name is Jason Gum. Just call me Gum.
At the time, I was twenty-four years old and had been a Seattle firefighter just under two years, but was already studying to take the lieutenant’s examination in another year. I w ... read full excerpt from The Smoke Room ebook
