He had always been blessed with the personal attribute of looking on the bright side.
Regardless of this, his life was pretty dull. His work was boring, he lived alone, his apartment was uncomfortably small, the owners never did any kind of repairs, the wallpaper was peeling and the toilet never did flush properly. He had no partner and very few friends to speak of, it had been raining a lot recently and he really hated the rain, and on top of it all the neighbours that lived on either side of him were extremely noisy. On this occasion their din was worse than usual; there was a lot of shouting and a banging of doors. He had figured that it was a case of both sides holding rowdy parties at the same time.
He was sitting in his lumpy armchair, looking through to the kitchen at the huge pile of dirty dishes, when he first heard it. It sounded like some kind of police siren. He got up and opened the curtains. Looking down from his twenty-second floor, he saw a dozen vehicles and lots of flashing lights. A stream of people where running out of the building, directed by the police. They were being herded away. He could make out a huge crowd gathering in the park across the road.
One officer was holding a megaphone and making some kind of announcement. He could barely make out what he was saying, but it sounded like a warning to anyone left in the building. He definitely heard the word ‘bomb’!
He opened the window to hear what was being said. Over the loudspeaker the man was saying that the bomb squad were unable to defuse the device in the basement and were convinced that it would bring the whole building down. He was saying that the lifts were not working and residents should use the stairwell.
After a short spell of silence, the voice said that the bomb squad estimated that detonation would take place in less than a minute.
He walked back into the kitchen. He stood for a moment pondering. No matter how hard he ran, he’d only make three or four floors in less than a minute.
There was always a bright side to these things, he thought.
He wouldn’t have to do the dishes!