Why am I late? Well I was just driving down MLK when... [An original monologe by Alexander Cole]

"Oh! I'm so sorry Proffesor. Yes I know I'm late. What? Why am I late? Oh. Well you see I live in southeast portland, a good 20 minutes away, and I have to commute each day. What? Yes I know this doesn't explain why I am late. So what happened was, I was driving down MLK and I left ten minutes earlier then I usually do because I wanted to meet with you about the assignment that's due next monday. Well you see, I was just driving down MLK when I saw smoke bellowing up from a building a block off the street. So naturally, hopeing that nobody was hurt I pulled over to see if I could help. Well the building on fire ended up being the Portland Orphanage that I had just volluntered at only a few weeks ago.

Well the fire department had not shown up yet, and so I assisted the nuns that run the Orphanage to carry the smaller orphans out of the burning building. Well after a few minutes the Firetrucks did show up, and we had already got most of the orphans out. The ambulance came and picked up the injured ones, but they could not fit all the injured into the back of the ambulance, and the other ambulance was stuck in trafic on I5. So I volentiered to take two of the orphans in my car and follow the ambulance up to OHSU for treatment. So I got the car, shuffled the two children in and took off following the ambulance accross the river and up the hill. Yeah, I know.

Robbie is the boy, he had some bad burns on his legs but was being real tough about it--he's only about 12 or so. The girl Vanessa, she's about 8 and very quiet. She had broken her leg when the stairwell collapsed as she was trying to escape. The only thing she said was "I hope Emily is alright." Robbie told me Emily is Vanessa's best friend and that she was one of the girls who was put in the ambulance infront of us. Well we made it to OHSU pretty quickly and I helped unload the orphans. I carried Vanessa in, and we got them all admited. Unfortunatly because of their orphan statis, they had nobody to sign off on the liability forms. I ended up signing for them because the proper care would not be administered unless someone signed the form. There was really nothing else I could do, so I told the nurse that I had to get to class and that I would come back after it was over. So I drove here as fast as the speed limit would allow and here I am. So the reason why I am late is: I was helping orphans escape from a burning building. Yes sir. Thank you proffesor, it won't happen again."