WHERE THERE'S SMOKE, THERE'S CONFUSION

Two of my classes are canceled this morning because my students are taking a fieldtrip. I was quite looking forward to sleeping in but instead I was woken up by a fire alarm and the din of collected confusion in the hallway just outside my apartment. The alarm sang from the corner unit for fifteen to twenty minutes until someone finally called the fire department. Before I got the chance to sit up in bed, sirens and a bright red strobe light filled the room. Okay okay, fuck it! I'm up! I pulled on a jumper and poked my head into the hallway just in time to see three hulking men break into the offending unit and pull out one confounded skinny boy in orange boxer shorts. The hallway quickly filled with smoke. I heard one fireman talking to the boy, asking him if he'd been drinking the night before. The boy said he thought the alarm was coming from his clock radio. Suddenly in the midst of all that chaos, in the midst of black boots and smoke, the boy finally seemed to understand what was going on around him. "Oh my god I'm sorry," he said, "I didn't know."