Wake Up Call
Since I moved to Seattle, I’ve wanted to reduce my Coke consumption so that I could sleep better and earlier, and because it’s not healthy. I broke down while at the store last night and bought some Coke. I drank three cans’ worth in a glass with ice—and it was good—starting at 9:30 PM, so I was hopped up on caffeine for the rest of the evening, and I didn’t get ready for bed until about 2:30 AM. I was listening to my iPod when a shrill screech seemed to pierce my ear drums. I thought my iPod had malfunctioned and tore the ear buds from my head, but the sound wasn’t coming from them, it was coming from my smoke alarm.
I was already in my pajamas, so I hurriedly redressed, grabbed my keys and jacket, and locked my door. I was startled to find that all the fire doors had closed automatically; it seemed real enough. I opened the closest fire door, then realized I should take the stairs and went the other way. The alarms were so loud I had to tilt my head as I passed the shrieking smoke alarms as if I were crossing a gale wind. I finally exited the building and stood around with other residents at the front entrance as a couple of fire engines arrived with sirens blaring and lights flashing.
It was a false alarm, of course. It took them only ten minutes to finish checking and turn off the alarm, shorter than I expected. The air was cold outside, but I had my jacket, so I was fine waiting. Many people were wearing just jackets over pajamas and flip flops. It was the first time I got a sense of the kind of people that lived there; younger than I had seen or assumed. We reentered the building, and as I passed a fire fighter I heard him say that they had temporarily disabled the elevators. I tramped up the stairs to my floor, but found they ended at a locked roof access door. It took me about ten minutes to wander around the floor below to find another staircase that opened onto my floor, and I happily changed clothes again and fell into bed. Surprisingly, the caffeine didn’t keep me awake and I dreamed.
