In the spring of the following year, Joe’s firm sent him
East for a tour of sales outlet, and in a small Midwestern town he awoke one
night in the same hotel room of his dream. He had not noticed the similarity
when he went to bed, but when he awoke he knew at once it was the same room. He
looked at the chair by his bedside, fully expecting to see the small
gray-haired man who wore glasses, but nobody was there. Yet the feeling of
repetition, of exact sameness, was strong and persisted. Joe arose and began to
pace back and forth. Almost at once he felt the heat and heard the shouts of
terrified people. Running to the window, he saw flames licking out from the
floors below him. He ran to the door. Smoke billowed in, fire blazed upward.
For an instant he panicked, then he remembered the words of the man in his
dream. He went to the window, opened it, found the ledge, and walked along with it
to the corner. There was a drainpipe. He slid down it to the ground,
blistering his hands in the process, but arriving safely. Dozens of people
perished that night. Nobody escaped from the upper floor but Joe. There was
considerable speculation over how he had managed.
An old-timer on one of the newspapers, a reporter said to
him, “You made it out like old Alex.” Joe asked who Alex was. The reporter told
him that there had been a similar fire at the hotel fifteen years before. Alex
had been a traveling salesman, and he had escaped from the upper floor by sliding
down the drainpipe. Joe wanted to know where Alex was now and was informed that
Alex had died. “What did he look like?” Joe asked “Little guy,” said the
reporter. “Gray hair wore thick glasses.”
OTHER POST:
THREE STORIES
THE FARMER'S NEW COOK
IDENTIFICATION IS MISERY
THE SCORPION AND THE FROG
OTHER POST:
THREE STORIES
THE FARMER'S NEW COOK
IDENTIFICATION IS MISERY
THE SCORPION AND THE FROG
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