This was turning into a nightmare. She couldn’t tell the tenants not to evacuate until Julio was absolutely certain there wasn’t a fire somewhere in the building.
“Go shut off the main water valve,” Michelle told Julio.
“Gonna cause a stink. Toilets won’t flush, start backing up,” Julio warned as they went into the Men’s bathroom.
Michelle could see why Julio had been soaked earlier. The main water supply pipe for the entire building was situated underneath the sink, behind the wall. It had broken, torn a hole in the wall, and a geyser of water gushed out sideways. “Gotta do it. It’s causing too much damage to the whole building.”
“Hokay Boss,” Julio said. He flashed a smile and they both exited the bathroom. Michelle watched him run for the fire stairs, and yelled after him, “And turn off that fire alarm.”
The valve to shut off the building water supply was in the lower garage. It would be a while before Julio could get to it and stop the flood.
Michelle went into one of the deserted offices off the hallway and went across to a wall of windows. She looked out at the beautiful volcanic mountains in the distance. The sky was a wonderful blue with puffy clouds scudding. Down in the street, the fire department, with blaring sirens, showed up in remarkably short order.
Michelle’s ears rang with the sudden silence when the fire alarm stopped ringing. She hurried over to the elevators, which were now working.
Before Michelle left the lobby to go outside and face all the employees of the high rise building, she noticed that she had a shoe in each hand as she reached for the front door. She scrubbed her wet feet on the carpet, put her shoes back on, took a deep breath and went outside.
She stood in front of the crowd, waving her arms and shouting above ill-tempered murmurs, to the tenants standing impatiently in the street, and to the firemen in their helmets and yellow fireproof suits, that the building had a major flood, not a fire.
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You can get the first book, The Necromancer >here<
About the Author
Pamela M. Richter, lives in West Hollywood, California.
She has a degree in Psychology, from Northridge State University, has worked as a property manager for Nansay, Corp., a multi-national corporation, and was a dance teacher for the Arthur Murray and Fred Astaire Dance Studios.
