Beauty & the Mouse

Chapter Two

Oliver collapsed into his bed. The vacation was nice, but it was even nicer to be able to lie in his own bed. He pulled the covers around himself and then succumbed to the exhaustion.

He awoke to a blaring alarm. Ollie jumped out of bed. He breathed a sigh of relief seeing his surroundings. He was in his room. His home. He wasn't in the desert. It wasn't an air raid. There were no bombs. No dead bodies. It was the building's fire alarm, he finally realized, taking a deep breath and raked a hand through his hair.

There was banging on his door. "Fire! Everyone out!" a voice yelled, fading away and knocking on the next door down, repeating the phrase.

Oliver quickly pulled on his clothes, which he had tossed carelessly on an arm chair next to his bed, when he'd gotten in from the airport the night before.

The alarms continued to blare. He grabbed his camera bag and tossed the strap over his shoulder. Everything else would have to be covered by his insurance, if the place went up. And Oliver had all his photographs scanned and safely stored on a cloud server, so he wouldn't be losing his work.

He grabbed his keys and went out into the hall to see his neighbors all heading towards the stairwell.

The commotion was overwhelming outside as they waited for the firefighters. No one knew where the fire was or who had set off the alarm. And no one was claiming to have seen any smoke.

Oliver leaned against a tree and watched. He liked to watch. He was an observer of the world. His photographs reflected that. He saw the confusion in the eyes of his neighbors; the fear in some.

He liked watching the children's reactions especially. There was such wide eyed innocence in children's eyes which the camera loved.

Right now, there were sleepy eyed children and some were actually sleeping in the parents arms, oblivious to what was going on around them. Others cried with tears streaming down their cheeks, and mucus coming out their noses. Others yelled for their teddy bears and other various toys.

Dogs barked at each other and the humans bustling about them. Cats meowed from carriers. Someone had even brought out a large cage of parakeets which were fluttering about and squawking.

Oliver held up his camera and took some pictures, capturing those chaotic moments.

He walked through the crowd, taking everything in. Oliver held up his camera again, looking through the viewfinder of his telescopic lens to look further away, and he saw her. The beautiful woman that he would bump into every once in a while.

Ollie smiled. Her hair was a mess. She wore a thin light blue robe that went just to her knees. She had her arms folded around herself, like a lot of the others did against the chill of the night. She blew a frustrated breath at her hair to move it out of her eyes without moving her hands.

He took her picture. She was sexier than any of the models he had ever taken pictures of, he thought, turning as the fire engines arrived, red lights flashing and sirens wailing. Oliver took some more pictures and headed in her direction.

*****************************

Gina was freezing. She sat down on the curb next to her neighbor and friend, Liz, and pulled her short robe further down around her knees.

She hadn't thought of what to wear when the alarm had blasted her out of bed. She had just grabbed a robe, her purse, and keys, and had followed the crowd outside. The cold night air cut through her, but no one would let her back in to get her jacket or to put on some pants.

"Hey, would you mind if I leave you for a minute? There's this hot guy..." Liz said, gesturing across to some of the news people.

"Go for it," Gina said encouragingly.