The board outside the monument read “Open from Sunrise to Sunset”. Let me come back tomorrow, he thought to himself.

That night a deadly fire at a chemical plant on the outskirts of the city poisoned the air. Hundreds died overnight, thousands were affected. Death hung in the air, and lay on the streets. He escaped.

Many years later he went back to the town.Stories of the night still lay in the open. The poisoned chemical hadn’t speared the monument either. It was paler than before, he was told. He almost took a deep breath, but stopped.