Fire

This afternoon as usual my parents and my sister came back from church to pick me up for lunch. I don't go to church with them because I'm not a christian, but I guess the family tradition of spending Sunday with family still holds. It was drizzling so we went to Hougang plaza for lunch (there's shelter). We parked in the plaza carpark and walked to the kopitiam nearby. After we ate and on the way back to the car, we noticed smoke around, and then the fire alarm came on. Hougang plaza was on fire. It was quite dramatic, smoke coming out from the windows and the grocery shop was all hazy. I wasn't too worried at first because my family was with me and we were walking outside the building, we were safe. But then the car was not. It was parked inside the plaza carpark. I lightheartedly stated, perhaps it is time to get a prius. My dad was quite anxious. The smoke was coming out the most from the window right next to the carpark entrance. There were a lot of people outside the carpark worried about their cars. Then my dad made up his mind, and to the civil defence guy's protest, he jogged into the carpark to retrieve the car. I was seriously scared, at that moment, that he would be hurt. My morbid mind flashed images of charred and burnt bodies I have seen on the news and the internet. Sometimes I wish I had protected myself more from such violent images. After a heart in the mouth wait, he drove out of the carpark and we quickly got into the car and drove off. The inside of the car smelt of smoke.