The Kelsey's

While at work the fire alarms went off. Unusual, but not anything to panic over – the assumption is that it’s a drill. So everyone pops out of their cubicles to see if anyone else is going to be the first to head for the exits. We stand around discussing the idea for a moment and as momentum grows and people begin to meander outside – the alarm stops. So maybe it wasn’t a drill, it was a malfunction. I go back and sit down.

Then a voice is heard over the intercom. “There is a fire on the first floor, please wait for instructions on evacuation.” There is a very small second floor, but most of this building is on the first floor. So should we wait until there is an explosion, or flaming men go running past before we take this seriously? After having a good chuckle at the announcement, our boss proceeds to tell us a story about a fire alarm he once participated in during his army days.

He is interrupted by another announcement: “There is a fire on the first floor. Please evacuate.” So out we go into the early September heat. I grabbed all my things just in case we are told we can’t go back in the building – you see, I’ve had some experience with these sorts of things during the great St. Louis power outages of ought six, the summer one – not the winter one.

I put my things in my car and figured while I was out standing around, I’d call my wife to share the adventure with her. She reminds me that this is the 3rd and we still haven’t collected our rent. Now is a good time to call. So I call and ask if this evening is a good time to come by and pick up the rent check.

“I’m not going to pay your rent this month.”
“Why?”
“The rent is to expensive. We’ve liked it here, but we have to move.”
“When?”
“Today.”
“Well what about September’s rent?” You can see I wasn’t quite following.
“You’ll just have to take that out of my deposit, I need this money for my new place.”
“When am I going to get my key back?”
“Well, we’ll move today and the place will still be a little messy. I’d like to clean it up, that will take a couple days.”
“O.K., I’ll call you back on Friday.”

So, not only did my building catch on fire (they let us back in about 20 minutes later), but I lost my renter. It turned out to be a real banner day.

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