Delirium

I went home early from work yesterday puking my guts out. After sleeping on the hallway floor just inches away from the toliet for several hours, I managed to pull myself into my bedroom where I drifted in and out of sleep. I spent a few hours in the foggy state...you know the stage where you trip and fall. AT one point I heard screaming all around me, shouting, running in the leaves. My mind raced...a massive game of tag? No, it's too late. World War III? Am I dreaming? Is this real? When I finally convinced my eyes to open, my bedroom was dancing with blue and red lights. The screams that I heard were real, only now could I tell that there were people running all over the yard outside...the leaves krinkling beneath every not-so-delicate step. There was crying, shouting, sirens blaring in the night.

I made my way carefully (as I did not want to puke anymore) to Tanya's room. "Tanya? What's going on?" "I don't know," she answered. Her sleep induced state had prevented her from even hearing the chaos outside. From her window we watched as firemen and policemen ran quickly around the street. Fire trucks and police cars were parked in every spot they could fit in. The kids from the street ran around yelling. There were some ladies crying. The building across the street was on fire. Smoke billowed from every opening. Four families watched as their lives went up in flames.

Strange how something so catistrophic can happen and yet the street be so serene the next morning. I walked to the car this morning as usual. Birds chirrping. Throwing my arm in the air in attempted waves at passing neighbors. Had I not seen for myself what had taken place the night before, I never would have known. I would have walked to my car in the brisk morning air oblivious to the boarded windows of the apartment building.

It is not light that we need, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.
Frederick Douglass