Lucas Parkes

Departure

The horns blew and everyone’s world froze. Billie watched as the coffee he had been delicately holding by the rim seemed to fall in slow motion before exploding all over the kiosk table and the white uniform he had pressed the night before as second transportation security officer. Numb to the heat, which was quickly soaking it’s way into his skin, he turned to look at the horn mounted on the 30 foot steel pipe near the exit. Like everyone of his generation, he had been taught since he was an infant what to do when the horns blew as they were now all across the city. But like cpr, stop drop and roll it is easy in the shock of the event itself to forget everything that matters for a split moment and so he looked down at his shirt then at the train platform before him.