Tom, a service worker in a giant office building, gained a work order to clean the Heating and Air Conditioning air duct.
Although he had never done this job before, she thought it would be a cakewalk.
Tom began her work by climbing up to the ceiling and opening the air duct access panels. As he gazed inside the labyrinthine Heating and Air Conditioning air duct, he broke out in a cold sweat, realizing that he had no program where to begin. Tom was in a fix. Just then, he saw a small mouse peeking out of one of the ducts. The mouse looked at Tom, twitches its nose, and then darted away into the maze of pipes. Tom had a brilliant idea. He would follow the mouse through the Heating and Air Conditioning air duct to see where it led. Without wasting any more time, Tom crawled into the duct and started to follow the mouse. The duct was so cramped that he had to crawl on her belly. He crawled and crawled, tailing the mouse as it zigzagged through the Heating and Air Conditioning air duct. Tom was so engrossed in following the mouse that he didn’t realize he had crawled past the point of no return. Suddenly, he heard a loud noise behind him. He turned around to see that the access panel had closed behind him. He was trapped in the Heating and Air Conditioning air duct! Tom started to panic. He yelled for help, however no one could hear him. He was stuck in the air duct for hours until a team of firefighters came to his rescue. They had to break through the duct to free him. From that day on, Tom made sure to double-check the access panels before crawling into the Heating and Air Conditioning air duct. As for the mouse, it was never seen again.