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I used to work in a medical clinic with two floors, and because of the equipment, there were a few compressed gas cylinders. One day, we were working when a noise started (it sounded like a whistle), and someone shouted, “It’s the gas; the clinic is going to explode!”

Everyone ran. The employees weren’t prepared for a situation like this, so no one helped each other. Everyone was by themselves. Even so, miracles happened: Patients in wheelchairs got up and ran, mothers dragged their kids, a pediatrician jumped through the window on the second floor with two babies in her arms.

And me? I was on the second floor when all of this started. Then I decided to run to the street, but when I was halfway there, I returned to grab my chair. Yes, a chair, a regular and unspecial chair. I don’t know why I did that, but I ran into the street holding that chair. At least I had something to sit on while I was waiting for the firefighters.

P.S. Everyone was okay, after all; no one got hurt. The noise was just equipment in the dentists’ section.

P.P.S. Later, we accompanied the videos from the security camera with Awolnation’s song “Run.”
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Lara Tatsue Kunitaki, originally from São Paulo, Brazil, came to the United States in December 2019. She has always enjoyed writing and encourages others, “Even if your story looks like a tweet, just write it.” Lara Tatsue Kunitaki studies ESOL at the Queens Public Library’s Peninsula Adult Learning Center with Ebru Yenal, the center’s manager.