Fire Drill

 This afternoon I stopped by my library to return some materials and read several newspapers. I was just settling in to read an article by Larry Weber about black jelly fungus when this noise occurred. Intermittent bleeping noises sounded. Was this a fire alarm? Turns out it was a fire alarm and we all had to leave. The library empties out. The Great Clips store empties out. The pub empties out. Downstairs another restaurant empties out. And the liquor store empties out. The temperature is about 20 and the wind is blowing hard. We stand there in the cold for ten or more minutes. One elderly Asian man forgot his coat and he is shivering. Some people are doing calisthenics to keep warm. I am pacing back and forth and kicking up the snow. A man in charge of the building arrives and the alarm is turned off. I hear a beautician from Great Clips say a child in the library pulled the alarm. Then we hear the fire trucks coming down the street. A giant fire truck arrives and 3 fire fighters get out and enter the building. I look at that truck with the big wheels and wonder was kind of gas mileage it gets. After the five more minutes the fire fighters come out and we are allowed to enter the building again. I go back in and finish reading my newspapers. I realize that since I retired I have not been in a fire drill. I should have reacted more quickly. At work I was the one who scheduled the fire drill and wrote the fire drill reports.