Here is all you need to know for now: Timing is everything and it was the one thing we didn't have.
The night before was one of those nights where anything felt possible, like even the air around you had confidence and was pushing you to follow your dreams. A summer night. It felt like magic, like the bonfire was keeping itself going and the string lights were really stars and all the voices were their own music. The last thing I remember was him taking my hand as if it were involuntary. It was nothing but it was everything. I walked home or maybe I floated, I slept for once, but then everything changed.
First it was the power. It was as if someone accidentally hit a switch, every light in Manhattan turned off and the city collectively screamed from the shock because that shouldn't happen, especially not here. But it wasn't just here. It was the whole country, maybe more. The darkness was replaced quickly with fires, lights from planes and helicopters. I only know what I know because radios provided what they could until they were shut down, and of course I had a radio. It was like a movie but it was real, it was happening, it happened.
I feel like I live my whole life on the edge of a seat just waiting for something to happen so I have something to do or get involved in. I sit in ordinary places all the time and think "Okay what would I do if _ happened right now?" and then I play out the whole scenario of action and adventure in my head that I though I wanted.
So when the fire alarm went off in my building and the voice shouted to come out with our hands up, it was like I had done this before. I took a few minutes and I packed the largest backpack I owned with essential clothing for any weather, my iPod, a box of granola bars, water, a kitchen knife, a flashlight, a copy of The Fellowship of the Ring, a notebook, and a blanket. My family were all in Ireland for a family reunion, my best friend was in the Bahamas on vacation, but then there was him who shouldn't matter but did. So I texted him "where we are all mad" because I knew he would know to meet me at the Alice in Wonderland statue in Central Park, he just would. I climbed down the fire escape, jumped the last few feet, and then I ran.
The thing is we think life is predictable, maybe we even want it to be. I never wanted it to be, and now it's not. I am ready, I am running, I am risk.
