The "Fire!" Alarm
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Jon lived on the top floor of the a five story building. This is not uncommon for most people in the city to live on the top floor but Jon was scared of heights. At night Jon would sit awake scared that a fire would break out and he would be trapped on the top floor and die. Each night Jon would make himself a pot of coffee so that he was able to stay awake and think about how he was gonna die on the top floor of his building in a fire. Each night Jon would fall asleep eventually and dream about how he was going to die in a top story fire. This fear followed him around each day as he would walk through the city and look at all the tall buildings. He would think to himself that he "better not enter that building because he would die in a fire for sure in that building."
One night Jon fell asleep on his couch. It had been a long day of worrying and he was ready to fall asleep and worry some more. In the middle of the night he woke up and smelled something burning. "Oh my lord, it's a Fire!" he said as he ran out his apartment door and down the stairs to the fourth floor.
"FIRE!" he screamed as he ran past the fourth floor where people woke up and heard them.
"Fire!" they all yelled and began to run down the stairs.
"FIRE!" he yelled as he passed the third floor.
"Fire!" all the people on the third floor yelled as they followed him.
"FIRE!" Jon yelled as he passed the second floor.
"Fire!" everyone from the second floor yelled as they woke up and ran down the stairs to the first floor.
"FIRE! FIRE! FIRE!" everyone yelled on the first floor, waking the building manager.
The building manager saw everyone running and yelled "STOP!" and everyone stopped. The building manager was extremely cranky because he was having the best dream about everyone in the building paying their rent on time, so he was short with everyone. "How do you know there is a fire? The fire alarms and sprinklers are not going off. Not to mention I don't smell any smoke."
The people from the second floor said, "We didn't see the fire or smell smoke but we saw the people third floor running and yelling fire."
The people from the third floor said, "Well we were only running because we heard the people from the fourth floor yelling fire and saw them running."
The people from the fourth floor said, "Well that is true but it is only because we saw Jon running and yelling fire."
Jon said, "That's because there is a fire in my apartment now we must go so I don't die."
The building manager looked at Jon and asked, "Did you see the fire Jon?"
"Well no, but I smelled it."
"You smelled smoke?"
"No. I smelled something burning, I didn't stop to look I just got out of there because I knew if I didn't I would die."
"Well there is no fire Jon so let's go to your apartment and see what you are talking about."
When everyone arrived at Jon's apartment they saw that there was no fire, though they all agreed they could smell something burning. All day Jon had remembered to worry about dying in the tall building. He remembered to sit awake at night and think about burning to death on the top floor of his building in a fire. He remembered to make a pot of coffee so he could stay awake longer and worry about dying in a fire. He even remembered to dream about dying in a fire on the fifth floor of his building. Jon remembered to do all this, but forgot to turn off his coffee pot. Jon had not smelled a fire at all, but rather Jon had drank almost all the coffee in his coffee pot and had smelled the last little bit evaporating from it. Jon felt foolish.
Author's Notes
This is a retelling from the "Foolish, Timid Rabbit" in the Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babitt. I updated the story to use people instead of animals. The lesson of the story is not to panic so I used the scenario of a Fire to express that because we have always been told "Don't yell fire if there is not fire" because people will panic and run and people can get hurt. So I thought this would fit right in perfect with the story of the rabbit.
