LADDERS
Prompt Ladders : Write a story or poem that uses ladders as a symbol.
I am the fire starter. I am the fire victim. I need to be rescued.
The fire service is here. I can hear them, though smoke still blinds me. Will they find me in time? Will they penetrate the smoke and the flames, the heat and the debris? Will this be the time when they fail? I know the ladders are rising, the spray from the hoses begins to steam away the fringes of the blaze, I see a small gap of hope through the swirling soot and gases. They press on and in, getting closer, alert to my cries, fashioning a tunnel through which they can reach me, swing my near lifeless form shoulder high, descend the rungs with this barely human sack of potatoes. Saved. Again.
I am awake, the nightmare over for another day. The nurses have returned my consciousness, soothed my panic, opened my eyes, the ladders have returned to their turntables, the trucks departed. Nothing to see here. Just a smouldering shell of a man, living a sort of life. A day will pass, the night will arrive, and with it the flames and the smoke.
One day the ladders won't reach.
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