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Coffee And... Evacuation
by Louise Bergmann DuMont (Louise's bio)
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When the alarm sounded, I was caught off guard. The open packet of pre-measured coffee dropped to the floor, creating mottled brown designs on our blue corporate carpet. As my co-workers spilled out of their offices and hurried toward the stairway, I dropped to my knees and with the aid of a few paper towels attempted to clean up the mess. It's only a drill, I thought. What's the harm in cleaning up the mess first?
Scooping up the grounds as best as I could I tossed the waste into the trash just as the security guard came upon me.
"Are you still here? You need to evacuate the building," he said in a stern voice.
"I know. I'm sorry. When the alarm went off it startled me and I dumped coffee grounds all over the place. It took longer than I thought to clean it up." I said calmly pointing to the shadow of coffee still evident on the carpet.
The guard frowned obviously affronted by my lack of discomfort in remaining behind. I set the remaining paper towels down on the counter then started back to my desk.
"Where are you going? The exit is this way," he shot steel-bound words at me even as he covered the area between us in record time. This guy meant business.
"I, umm, was just going back to my desk to get my purse." I replied as casually as I could over the sound of the still blaring alarm.
With an arm gently but firmly on my elbow, he turned me toward the stairwell. "You've got to exit the building. I'll make sure everything up here is secure."
No longer willing to protest, I hurried down the stairs and out the building.
"You just getting out? Where were you?" a friend asked as I joined the group at the rear of the parking lot.
"Oh, I was making a pot of coffee and I spilled the grounds. Didn't want to leave the mess… actually, I wouldn't have come out at all except that the guard found me as I was finishing up. He insisted." I added, placing my hand on my hip.
My friend responded with no sympathy for me whatsoever, "What's the matter with you? Once the drill is over you can always go back and clean up. What if there was a real fire or a bomb in the building? You think the danger would disappear simply because you didn't think it was real?"
Just then the alarm stopped and the guards began motioning the employees to return to the building, "See! It's only a drill!" I protested.
"You didn't know that for sure," she shot back. "There are some things people just shouldn't take chances with."
When we got back to our desks, I took a moment to reflect on my friend's advice. I was ashamed to admit she was right. There are some things a person should not take chances with.
Where we will spend eternity after we leave this earth is one of those things. It occurs to me that many people treat their salvation the same way I treated the evacuation drill. Bad things only happen to someone else and there always seems to be time to look into God issues later. Unfortunately for some people, that won't be the case. If you have not taken God's promises of heaven and hell seriously, perhaps now is the time to do so.
"See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation!"
II Corinthians 6:2
Copyright 2002, Louise Bergmann DuMont. All Rights Reserved. Used by permission.
| About Louise Bergmann DuMont: Louise Bergmann DuMont is the facilitator of the North Jersey Christian Writer's Group and a recent winner of CWG's 2001 conference scholarship. She has written for numerous local periodicals, journals and newspapers and recently began expanding her horizons to include more widely circulated publications. Louise's interests include gifted/learning-disabled children and fiction/fantasy writing. She is married and has three sons. E-mail Louise |
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