The practice alarm

Source: an original fiction extract.

When the hotel fire alarm sounded, Owen was carrying a tray of clean glasses through the dining room. He knew about the planned drill, but the noise still sent a cold line through his stomach. At the staff briefing, the manager had said that everybody must practise as though the alarm were real. Owen put the tray down and guided two guests towards the marked exit. Across the room, a man continued cutting his toast. Owen told him they needed to leave the building. The man said he had been informed that it was only a test.

Owen repeated the instruction. The man asked whether the toast would be replaced when he came back. Owen said he did not know, then wished he had promised anything that would make him stand up. Behind the man, an elderly guest was struggling to pull her coat from the back of a chair. Owen helped her, conscious of the manager watching from the doorway. The man finally rose, holding a half-eaten slice on a napkin. He told Owen that some people enjoyed making a fuss. Owen kept his eyes on the exit sign.

Outside, staff checked names against the guest list. A child was crying because she had left a toy in her room. The manager explained that nobody could go back until the all-clear. Owen stood beside the dining-room group and watched the man finish his toast. He wanted to tell him that a real fire would not wait for breakfast. Instead he asked whether anyone from their table was missing. The man said his wife was upstairs. Owen looked at the list, where their room number had been ticked. He called the manager over immediately.

The man's wife had left early to meet a friend. Another member of staff had seen her go, but the information had not reached the person checking that part of the list. Once this was established, the drill ended. The manager asked Owen to join the staff review. He expected praise for noticing the uncertainty. Instead she asked how the room had been marked complete without both guests being accounted for. Owen began to explain that he had not made the tick. She said she knew; she wanted everyone to understand how it had happened, not to find a person to blame.

Back in the dining room, Owen replaced the cold toast. The guest said the exercise had been a waste of time because nobody had been in danger. Owen answered that they had found a problem with the list. The man shrugged and reached for the marmalade. Owen did not continue the argument. At the afternoon briefing, he suggested that absent guests be recorded separately, with the name of the staff member who had confirmed their departure. The manager wrote it down for the revised procedure. When Owen collected the empty breakfast plates, he no longer needed the man to agree that leaving them had mattered.

Consider the whole source. A reader said: “Owen initially experiences the drill as a test of his own performance. By the end, he understands its value as a way to discover problems, even when other people dismiss it.” Evaluate how far you agree. Support your judgement with detailed references to the text and the writer’s methods.