I Saved Three People’s Lives

When I was nineteen I saved three people’s lives. I had a roommate, we lived in the upstairs of a house.

She had her cousin staying over for the weekend from out of town. Her cousin was the kind of woman who would throw herself at any guy she saw. She was throwing herself at the guy who lived downstairs that weekend.

The three of them were up very late that night, drinking, talking, laughing, etc. They were making a lot of noise and kept me up late that night. I sat up in the bedroom reading. All of a sudden I started smelling that horrible smell that you smell when there has been a natural gas leak.

I went out into the kitchen and noticed that the gas had gone out on the stove, though the fixture was still turned on. I turned it off. I went and woke the three of them up. They were all dopey. I opened the front door, though it was late in the Autumn and very cold outside, because it was necessary. The stink was awful.

I read recently that our sense of smell turns off when we are sleeping. The horrible smell never would have woken them up. If I had not been there and not been awake, they could easily have all died from poisoning. If I had been sleeping I might have ended up dead. Their drunken behavior could have killed me.

The next day they acted like nothing had happened, even after I told them explicitly what would have happened if I had not been awake to turn off the fixture. None of them apologized for endangering my life.

While living with her, she emotionally and verbally abused and threatened me. She made me feel like a hostage in that place, none of it was my place. I had one half of a very tiny bedroom and she occupied the rest of the space, though I paid for half of the rent and bills. She was an ungrateful bully.

As horrific and ungrateful as she was, then and during the few months that I lived with her and knew her, still she is not the worst roommate I have ever had. But she is definitely clumped up at the top of my worst roommates list.

I saved their lives. None of them told me thank you. Their ungratefulness was horrific. They even refused to acknowledge that it happened. They stared at me and refused to say anything. They acted like it was no big deal, but I know that they knew how dangerous it had been and that it could easily had ended in death, because I told them.

I saved three people’s lives. I think that is a very big deal. I made the world different for them and for everyone in their life and their futures. I think that is one of the biggest things that one human being can do for another. I do value and treasure human life, but the way that they treated me when I knew them, it makes me never want to see or know them ever again. I am well rid of the three of them.

Actually, I saved four people’s lives that night, including my own. I’m proud that I saved my own life.