Essential

It is essential to remain calm in a crisis. She remembered this as the smoke started to fill the room and people began to squeal. Fat Pete the photocopy-man was first out the door. With some relish he put on the yellow tabard and blew his whistle. Wet-Emily and Soppy-Sarah made it first to the exit. They had been on the hockey team and knew how to sprint. They held hands and sobbed. What fuckers she thought. She pictured them sitting on the back of the ambulance in tin foil blankets recounting their near-death experience to the best looking paramedic. Some things never change. The middle-aged ladies (none of whom warranted comedy names they were so amorphous) gathered handbags and photos from their desks. She felt the groan of the floor under their combined weight as they walked away. She sat at her desk. It was strange. It was just as she expected. The story ran in a perfect arc right from the moment she bought the kerosene and matches. She knew she would be left in the flames but just a little part of her hoped somebody would have finally seen her.