Blackbook

It was already around 4AM when I got home. The gate was opened by Uwa. As I got out of the car, this high-pitched really irritating sound pierced my eardrum. I looked around and for a few seconds, I wondered what in the world was causing such a racket so early in the morning. The it hit me! FIRE ALARM!

The sound was coming from inside our house! I asked Uwa if she even had any idea what the noise was. She had no clue but said that she’s been hearing it for quite a while already! CRISIS!

I quickly walked into the house. It was coming from my dad’s always-locked office. I held the doorknob to check if it was already hot(yeah, i would like to thank the movie, Backdraft). It wasn’t. Then I checked to see if there was any smoke coming out from the space underneath the door. None.

Cool, I still had time before I became barbeque.

I calmly told Uwa to go get the fire extinguisher. Then I went upstairs to wake up my dad and get the key to the office. I tapped on the door.

"Yes?" my dad called out in a sleepy voice.

I chose my words carefully–no sense alarming the oldies by saying that there’s a fire. "Kailangan ko yung susi sa office niyo kasi TUMUTUNOG yung fire alarm dun," I said in my calmest voice.

"Fire?" he said, a bit awake now. I heard him slowly getting up.

I told him to just give me the key and I’ll turn off the alarm.  He still went down. It was his office.

Still no smoke downstairs. Uwa wasn’t there with the fire extinguisher. This is what I get for not panicking. She probably thought I was joking!

We slowly opened the door. No flames, no smoke. We checked the electronic devices and their wiring. We sniffed the air. Nothing.

I deactivated the fire alarm. I got ready for bed.

The alarm went off again a bit later. I got the key again, went down, grabbed the fire alarm from the ceiling, and removed all of its batteries. Good night.

*I’ll just have to reorient (I already did before!) Uwa and the others what the high-pitched sound means and what they should do if they hear it.

* * * * *

My reaction to the situation was ok. I guess I’ve learned a few things over the years.

I remember a time while I was still living in Thailand more than a decade ago. I was only around 10 years old then. My parents and I had just entered a supermarket inside a mall.

We had just taken several steps when we heard a scream and saw a woman running towards the exit behind us.

"Pai! Pai!" she was shouting. Pai means "go" or "flee" in the Thai language. I also thought she might have also been shouting "Fire!"

People around us panicked and rushed to the exits. My mom took hold of my arm. And I, the little coward that I was at that time, started to run towards the nearest exit…

A hand suddenly grabbed me from behind and forcefully pulled me back. It was my dad.

"What are you running from?!" he scolded us. Did we know what was happening? How did we know that the danger was not in the direction we were going to run to?

He pulled me towards the direction where the screaming woman came from. Some people were there, anxiously looking around. A guard was there looking bewildered, not sure of what to do.

Nothing. There was no danger. No fire. Only a screaming woman.

Life in the mall went back to normal.

"See?" my dad told me.

I felt foolish. I had always said that I wanted to be a soldier. Yet, there I was, in full view of my Commanding Officer, retreating from the battlefield without even the slightest trace of the enemy.

I never forgot that incident.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 24th, 2005 at 1:42 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.