Waking in Reverse

It happened again today.

I was sitting in my cubicle just like any other day when my ears started ringing. I saw spots, then my vision dimmed. Through the ringing I could hear voices -- angry voices shouting and spitting. I smelled acrid smoke and a vibration in my feet like the ground shaking.

And then it was over, and I didn't know who I was. Like waking up from a dream in reverse, it was several minutes before I remembered my name, and almost an hour before I figured out where I was. And as the mundane world returned to my mind, the angry voices faded. I had heard every one of them clearly. But the words they had spoken gradually left me, until all I could remember was that the loudest voice had been my own.