Holding Out For a Hero

About sixty minutes earlier . . .

Janine Melnitz sat at her desk, absently manicuring her nails. It was another slump, but that was summer. Children and schoolteachers weren’t the only ones who took a vacation every year at this time. Supernatural entities plagued the Big Apple mercilessly during the fall and early winter, but the summer was definitely their downtime. There had only been two calls all month.

The firehouse was quiet. Slimer was off on some escapade. Egon and Ray were holed up in the lab, as they always used the dry spells to catch up on research. Peter was in his office pretending to work, and Winston was sitting at the table behind the file cabinet reading the latest Mary Higgins Clark mystery. He could have read his book in the rec room, but then he would have missed all the fun. Peter had been trying to relieve his boredom in typical fashion . . . by pestering Janine. Winston smirked as Peter meandered over to Janine’s desk for about the tenth time that day. He was a glutton for punishment if ever there was one, but his ego just wouldn’t let her have the last word.

Janine smiled to herself as she sensed his approach. Peter’s attempts to annoy her usually flustered her terribly, but now she couldn’t be brought down. The departing spring had brought her something wonderful and unexpected. She and Egon had been seeing each other very seriously for just over nine months, and her left ring finger had born a shimmering testimony to their undying devotion for nearly three months now. Egon loved her, thick Brooklyn accent and all. She felt confident and beautiful for the first time in years. Nothing could shake her, not even Dr. Her Her unflappability just gnawed at Peter’s composure, which made her victories over him so much sweeter.

“I wasn’t kidding Peter. Bug me again and I’ll make you sorry,” she said without looking up.

“Big talk, Big Red. But talk is cheap, varmint!” He gave her his best showdown-at-high-noon stance. “DRAW!”

She took a deep breath and screamed at the top of her lungs, “EGON!! PETER JUST TRIED TO COP A FEEL!!!!!”

Now, she knew Egon was engrossed in his research and wouldn’t hear her if she’d been in the next room, but the outburst had the desired effect. Peter immediately ran back into his of sho shouting, “I DID NOT!!!”

Winston chuckled behind his novel as Peter ran past him and slammed the door. Janine hadn’t even stopped buffing her nails this time. ‘That’s gotta be a record,’ he thought.

The phone rang. Janine was startled out of manicuring her nails by the now unfamiliar sound. “Ghostbusters. Uh huh . . . uh huh . . . sure. Yeah, they are. Right. What’s the address, ma’am? Alright, they’re on their way.” She hit the alarm as she finished jotting down the information. Winston dog-eared his page and came around the file cabinets to stand in front of her desk. Peter came out of his office rather warily, but Egon wasn’t waiting to clobber him as he’d expected. In fact, he and Ray didn’t come down the fire pole until a moment later.

“Okay, guys. There’s a sweet old lady in Queens with a ghost problem. Sounds like a Class 2. Nothing too difficult. She didn’t sound very scared, just concerned that it would trash her apartment. Here’s the address.” She handed it to Egon, giving his fingers a quick caress. He gave her the faintest of smiles before sprinting over to his locker. In less than a minute, they were suited up and Ecto-1 raced out of the garage, sirens blaring.