I was tired of the city, tormented by the poor living conditions that accompanied me every day. I had to make a quick decision to end my lack of energy.

All I heard were the tragedies that my friends or coworkers, whatever you want to call them, told me about when they arrived early at work. Everyone had something to say. A terrible situation that befell them in the afternoon, at night, while sleeping, etc., but it was always a tragedy.

Sometimes, I think they were competing to see whose misfortune was worse. I just hid behind a desk full of papers that I had to approve. From there, they had to go to other offices, so I isolated myself from the terrible sounds I had to listen to every day.

If I didn't find a way to get out of there, out of that terrible monotony of bad comments, I'm afraid I would have gone crazy.

One morning, I decided to quit. I can't take it anymore, I thought. I don't know where to go, but I'll think of something. It didn't take long for an offer to move to another city to come along. Without thinking twice, I said yes, and then I found out what it was about.

So, a few days after my terrible daily trauma came to an end, I headed to another city to start over, God knows how.

I met the person who told me about the new job. He gave me directions back to the office. Luckily, I don't know anyone there. I won't have to listen to stories of daily family tragedies from each of my coworkers during the workday anymore.

I had fled to a city 250 km away. At the office, everyone wanted to know something about me...

-Where are you from?

-Are you married?

-Do you live in this city or somewhere else?

My God, it was the obligatory conversation every day. Everyone approached me at different times, but they asked the same questions.

Can't they work in peace? Can't they do their jobs without having to know about people's lives? I wondered to myself.

I think it's a virus that affects everyone equally. Since coming to this city, I've learned that human behavior is very similar, at least in public service offices.

The problem wasn't them; I'm the stumbling block. I realized with concern that I'm the one who doesn't like to share my personal affairs with my coworkers. Everyone dislikes that. I'm the talk of the town again. They want to know, and I don't give them any information.

One day, tired after finishing my daily work, I went home and lay down; I quickly fell asleep. I don't know when, but I felt like I was sick. My temperature was rising slowly, from 38 degrees Celsius to 39 degrees, then to 40 degrees. I was alone in my room, and I was very thirsty.

With such a high fever, my throat hurt, and I started to shake. I curled up in my bed, but the shaking got worse, and I was shivering with fever...

Until I woke up and realized that I didn't have a fever, it was an earthquake that was causing all that movement in my body. I jumped out of bed and opened the doors to find many people in the street. It was midnight, but it felt like midday.

EARTHQUAKE

Everyone was scared. They said that this time the tremor was stronger than on other occasions. That perhaps a worse aftershock than the first one was coming. I saw the terror on their faces.

That's when I asked myself a question...

My God, where have I ended up?

No, I come from a city that never trembles, or does so only a little every 15 years. I ended up in another city, where it's not tremors, but earthquakes that happen almost all the time.

-What's worse?

-Can you put up with people's tongues and hypochondria, or have to feel these tremors often at night?

No, I'm leaving. I'm going back where I came from. I will learn to live with the parrots, but at least there are no earthquakes.

Sometimes we make important decisions in life without reflecting, just because of the fact of wanting to quickly get out of where we are at that moment. Life teaches us that we must be prudent in making decisions. Because there will always be worse things to face.

This is my entry into the keyword of the week. "EARTHQUAKE"

Link for the contest.