The Great Waterbed Incident, Part II

So, as I said, I was anxious to sleep in my own bed instead of on the floor so I decided to go ahead and fill the bed right then. But I also had to go to work quite early in the morning and it was already very late and I was exhausted. So I decided to hook up the hose to the bed and take a nap for an hour or so on the couch, then get up and check on the bed. I figured it would take the bed two hours to fill. So I went to sleep and then woke up an hour later, as planned. I immediately sensed that something was wrong. Very very wrong. My bedroom was at the end of a very long hallway in the apartment. As I approached the hallway in the darkness, I saw it. A large dark semi-circle shaped area on the floor, spreading out from the beginning of the hallway. “That’s not…” I thought as I stepped on it. “Gasp! It is! It’s water!!” I quickened my pace down the hall toward my room, each step creating a splash larger than the one before it as the water became deeper and deeper. I entered the room, the water depth now well over my ankles. The simultaneously noted several things. The mattress of the bed was completely deflated and laying useless in the frame, and half of the bed had collapsed onto the floor. My alarm clock was floating on the water, but still plugged into the wall. Fearing electrocution I quickly unplugged it and ran from the room. I was now in panic mode. I paced around the living room for a while going “ohmygod whatdoido, ohmygod whatdoido.” Finally I gathered enough wits about me to call the building management emergency number to report what had happened. A woman at an answering service answered and I guess she didn’t really listen to what I was telling her because she said “Yes, some other residents have reported a leak as well. We’ll have maintenance look into it.” I said “No, I’m telling you that my waterbed exploded and the “leak” originated from MY apartment and there is about 8 inches of water flooded in my bedroom right now!!” Finally she grasped the urgency of the situation and said she would have someone come up right away. A maintenance man finally showed up, assessed the seriousness of the situation and brought in a wet-vac. By this time, the water had spread all the way into the living room so that now the entire apartment was sopping wet. It took the man a couple hours to suck up all the water. I went back into the bedroom and noticed that the force of the water had moved several heavy things all the way across the room. Such as a steel toolbox filled with tools and a small wooden nightstand. I also noticed that the windows (which went from floor to ceiling) were cranked wide open, with no screens in place. I was so grateful that the cat wasn’t in the room when the bed exploded because he surely would have been washed right out the window, which I remind you was on the 10th floor.