Personal
In retrospect, it was just a steam pipe explosion. Unfortunately, we do not live in retrospect. Had I been living in retrospect, I would have been one calm and collected bitch. In the land of retrospect I could easily be one of the three wise men (err… women) with a condescending smile dispending directions to the confused in the now.
But at the moment my two coworkers and I were just sitting in my office. Chatting about this or that, doing some work, listening to some music… We heard thunder. Considering the fact that it rained not just cats and dogs but elephants the whole morning, nothing is too unusual about loud thunder. Until we realized that it was continuous thunder, rather incessant rumbling, coming from… From everywhere. We looked out of the window. On the street people were running.
The rumbling was growing louder, perhaps just so it seemed. We looked up, we looked down and at each other - all we said was “let’s go!” I grabbed my cell phone and we ran.
You’d be surprised how quickly you could make it down 19 flights of stairs. The staircase is incased by the rumbling, it pulls you down and gives you a swift kick from behind all in one shot. And at that time you don’t know if the building is going to fall now or in five minutes…
Just a steam pipe explosion, in retrospect.
As I got down of the street, passing by our building security who must have been just hit by some magic spell that left them disoriented and unable to speak clearly, I saw a cloud on white smoke spreading across 42nd street. It was unclear where it was coming from, up or down, it just covered the entire block. Emergency sirens were whaling and policemen were running toward smoke.
In the words of Tom Robbins: “Vivid. Just too damn vivid.”
People were running on the street, it seemed to be the thing to do.
So I ran to 2nd Avenue and got on my cell phone. I walked down 2nd Avenue in the crowd of sweaty and disheveled people with wide open eyes. Some stood and looked at the white smoke, others just kept walking holding cell phone to their ear, a couple of women were crying. Gradually, the further down I got, people seemed to coming into their own. By about 23rd Street they were drinking ice coffees and catching cabs. Among them walked a few people like me, sweaty and still scared.
I mustn’t spell out what we were scared of, right? We are all smart boys and girls.
Planet Mercury is our galaxy’s punching bag. Its surface is covered with craters of all shapes and sizes made by various asteroids constantly slamming into it. It’s rather fitting, since Roman God Mercury was said to invent the sport of boxing. One crater on Mercury is believed to be made by an object so large it permanently slowed down and reversed the direction of Mercury’s rotation on its axis. When this object hit it left a Colossal Crater, intuitively called just that. It shook up and tore apart the surface of the planet, making a huge peak pop up on the other side as if the planet just hit puberty.
Most of the smaller asteroids burn in the Earth’s atmosphere. Had an object that big hit Earth, it would wipe out the entire human population - so the smart people with glasses say. Ones who would not burn up instantly upon impact, would perish in the earthquakes or be swept away by tsunamis with thousand feet high waves. And if some lucky motherfucker manages to swim out, climate change would be there waiting to finish him off.
Memories of everything of lemon trees on Mercury and
Come to me with remedies from five or six or seven seas and
You always took me with a smile when I was down
Memories of everything that blew through…
The most spiteful thing about this whole story for me is the fact that is has a moral - now that I have a child I can no longer not care whether I live or die. I do not like it one bit.
But in retrospect it was just a steam pipe explosion. This time.
But at the moment my two coworkers and I were just sitting in my office. Chatting about this or that, doing some work, listening to some music… We heard thunder. Considering the fact that it rained not just cats and dogs but elephants the whole morning, nothing is too unusual about loud thunder. Until we realized that it was continuous thunder, rather incessant rumbling, coming from… From everywhere. We looked out of the window. On the street people were running.
The rumbling was growing louder, perhaps just so it seemed. We looked up, we looked down and at each other - all we said was “let’s go!” I grabbed my cell phone and we ran.
You’d be surprised how quickly you could make it down 19 flights of stairs. The staircase is incased by the rumbling, it pulls you down and gives you a swift kick from behind all in one shot. And at that time you don’t know if the building is going to fall now or in five minutes…
Just a steam pipe explosion, in retrospect.
As I got down of the street, passing by our building security who must have been just hit by some magic spell that left them disoriented and unable to speak clearly, I saw a cloud on white smoke spreading across 42nd street. It was unclear where it was coming from, up or down, it just covered the entire block. Emergency sirens were whaling and policemen were running toward smoke.
In the words of Tom Robbins: “Vivid. Just too damn vivid.”
People were running on the street, it seemed to be the thing to do.
So I ran to 2nd Avenue and got on my cell phone. I walked down 2nd Avenue in the crowd of sweaty and disheveled people with wide open eyes. Some stood and looked at the white smoke, others just kept walking holding cell phone to their ear, a couple of women were crying. Gradually, the further down I got, people seemed to coming into their own. By about 23rd Street they were drinking ice coffees and catching cabs. Among them walked a few people like me, sweaty and still scared.
I mustn’t spell out what we were scared of, right? We are all smart boys and girls.
Planet Mercury is our galaxy’s punching bag. Its surface is covered with craters of all shapes and sizes made by various asteroids constantly slamming into it. It’s rather fitting, since Roman God Mercury was said to invent the sport of boxing. One crater on Mercury is believed to be made by an object so large it permanently slowed down and reversed the direction of Mercury’s rotation on its axis. When this object hit it left a Colossal Crater, intuitively called just that. It shook up and tore apart the surface of the planet, making a huge peak pop up on the other side as if the planet just hit puberty.
Most of the smaller asteroids burn in the Earth’s atmosphere. Had an object that big hit Earth, it would wipe out the entire human population - so the smart people with glasses say. Ones who would not burn up instantly upon impact, would perish in the earthquakes or be swept away by tsunamis with thousand feet high waves. And if some lucky motherfucker manages to swim out, climate change would be there waiting to finish him off.
Memories of everything of lemon trees on Mercury and
Come to me with remedies from five or six or seven seas and
You always took me with a smile when I was down
Memories of everything that blew through…
The most spiteful thing about this whole story for me is the fact that is has a moral - now that I have a child I can no longer not care whether I live or die. I do not like it one bit.
But in retrospect it was just a steam pipe explosion. This time.