A 14 year old Angela Ramirez was seated at the dinner table, munching through her second piece of toast
when her Dad's assistant Rollie Tyler entered the loft. She greeted him, spraying toast crumbs, "Hey
Rollie!"

"Hey Angie - shouldn't talk with your mouth full, you'll start seeing in the dark. Where's Manny?" Rollie
grinned over at the young girl as he dumped his bag.

"I'll see in the dark if I eat my carrots, Rollie, not if I stop eating with my mouth full! Dad's upstairs."
Angie poked her tongue out at him as she thumbed in the direction of upstairs.

"That's talking with your mouth full. And you better get your backside in gear - your bus followed me
down the street." Rollie's grin widened, Angie always ran late for the bus.

As Angie got a panic stricken look on her face and leaped to her feet, Manny Ramirez came down the
stairs. "Mornin' Rollie. Hey Pumkin' got a kiss for your Dad?"

The 14 year old grabbed her school bag from beside the kitchen counter, paused to give her father a quick
peck on the cheek and ran for the door. "See ya on set after school Dad! Bye Rol!"

After school Angela Ramirez took a different bus, one that dropped her and her friend Pete Jacobs at the
set of 'Crime Busters' - an action adventure, blow up the bad guy kind of movie. The two teenagers found
a stack of boxes and bins labelled Ramirez FX, so the dumped their school bags and watched the hive of
activity that surrounded them. From what they could tell final preparations were being made on an
explosive sequence. Angie could see her father and his assistant laying the final squibs and she headed
over to talk to them.

Manny and Rollie didn't notice Angie's arrival and were called away to talk to the director before she had
managed to dodge the array of cameras and light that blocked her path. Manny stayed with the director,
involved in a semi-heated discussion as Rollie headed back to where their gear was to make some final
adjustments on the small switchboard they used to trigger the explosions. The young special effects
assistant noticed Angie's friend Pete standing there and grinned. "Hey Pete. School out already? Where's
Angie?"

"She went to talk to you and Mr Ramirez. You guys all set to blow this place up?" The teenage boy had
all the inquisitiveness and excess energy of any other teenage boy. And watching things get blown up had
to be (in his humble opinion) one of the many perks that came with being friends with Angie Ramirez.

Rollie's grin turned into a laugh, "Yeah Pete, you two turned up just in time to see it." The grin became
more serious as he noticed his boss beckoning him back over. "Pete - I've gotta go and see Manny. Don't
touch anything Ok. You do, and you could stuff up hours of work, not to mention making me mad."
Without waiting for a response, or noticing the gleam in the boy's eyes he jogged away again.

Pete slowly approached the switchboard, his eyes gleaming as he imagined the power controlled by the
tiny box. His hand hovered over the buttons, so wanting to push one to see what would happen but
knowing he shouldn't. Rollie was heading back towards Pete, the director discussion over. "Pete!! Don't
touch!!"

The boy looked up in fright, guilt written all over his face. He ripped his hands back from the switchboard,
and struck the lower corner of it with his right hand. It triggered an explosion, and the fire that had been
designed to follow. Screams and shouting followed, issued by many members of the cast and crew,
particularly those standing nearby. As the general hubbub died down a little a shrill scream was heard from
the middle of the conflagration.

Angie had missed catching her Dad on the far side of the set but she had stayed there. FX blood running
though her veins, she had stopped to study the layout of the charges, putting her mind to work figuring out
the likely results to the activation to the charges… what direction the fireball would go… what parts of the
structure were likely to fall… She was about to head back to where Pete was when the charges went off.
The small explosion didn't injure her to any great extend but it did throw her back into a dead end corner,
the fire now closing off her only means of escape.

The teenage girl screamed again, "DADDY!!!" The smoke was starting to get into her lungs and she began
coughing.

Manny Ramirez and Rollie Tyler looked at each other in panic, both recognising Angie's terrified voice
instantly. They both ran in the direction of the fire determined to rescue her. Angie screamed again amid
the coughing, terrified and feeling the extreme heat of the fire that had her surrounded. Her eyes were
stinging from the smoke and she coughed again. Rollie had been closer, and thanks to his youth and height
he reached the fire several moments before Manny. He didn't stop to wait for his mentor, diving through
the flames to rescue the young girl.

Manny stopped just outside the reach of the fire. He had seen Rollie leap through the flames and he knew
there was no point rushing in there as well. The seasoned special effects expert was just as terrified as his
daughter was, he couldn't lose her too. He couldn't lose his little girl after losing her mother, he couldn't
lose the rest of his family.

Angie had curled up in the corner of her dead end, pulling back as far from the fire as she could. Tears
were streaming down her face as she continued to cough. She barely registered the tall figure that leapt
through the flames until he reached down to her, drawing her up into his arms. She instinctively wrapped
her arms around his neck and clung on as he turned back to rush through the flames again.

Manny watched as his assistant leaped back through the flames, his teenager daughter in the young man's
arms. Rollie stopped just beyond the reach of the flames as members of the crew moved in with fire
extinguishers. He crumpled to his knees, coughing as he placed Angie on the ground, she clung on to him
sobbing.

The relieved father almost sobbed as well, the relief that his daughter was safe and sound washed through
him. And as he watched the young man hold his daughter another relief followed. He realised the young
man, his assistant, had become as much of their family as Angie and Manny both were. And he realised
with great relief that if anything ever happened to him, Angie wouldn't be left on her own. There was
someone else in this world that cared for her, and was willing to put their life on the line for her, she had
more than one other person in her family again. He smiled at the thought.

The End...