It's about what happened while I was going back home
Around 19:00
local time (that's
07:00 PM, to any
yanks who may have wandered in), I got off my
bus home. I wanted to go to the
shops, so I got off one
bus stop early. The bus was fairly crowded, and it's a busy
commercial street.
About 10 seconds after I got off, the bus turned to leave the stop...
...and a tyre blew out.
Note: At the time I did not realise this. Mentioning it here completely destroys the dramatic tension of the story. But some things are more important than dramatic tension.
Perhaps this is a good time to remind my readers that I live in Jerusalem. And these days, making a very loud noise near a bus is a great way of getting attention.
It was very loud, but it wasn't enough noise for a bomb on the bus, I thought. But I've never heard one; how am I supposed to know how much noise a bomb makes? Or perhaps it was a bomb on the bus just ahead? Maybe I was just dazed?
For a few seconds, people just stood there; people inside shops went out to see what happened. Then my brain got back into gear; I started thinking. I was intact; no blood. People next to me were the same. Glass shopping windows were likewise intact. It had to be either a blown tyre or a small bomb or a larger bomb further away. But people were pointing out a small cloud of smoke above the bus. Of course, the bus had just been leaving the stop; some buses emit clouds of smoke when they start picking up speed.
The street was quiet, I realised. There probably weren't any wounded nearby.
If it's a blown tyre I should just walk away. But suppose it isn't. It could be a failed explosion. There could be another device just nearby (in the past, purposeful "double explosions" have been used by terrorists). And what was I doing standing there thinking while completely exposed? I still had line of sight to the bus!
At last I knew my first order of business: Nip around a corner so I couldn't see the bus (shrapnel travels in a straight line; you don't want to see where it comes from...). OK, now I could think some more. Why are those people gawking where I'd been doing the same? I manhandled a few around the corner; some more followed.
Suppose there's a second explosion now, a big one. I'm standing next to a glass shopping window! Which way will the glass break? Should I go into a shop? I decided overpressure in the street was more likely than underpressure, so I stayed outside.
At last I felt able to think rationally. It couldn't have been a nearby bomb -- not enough noise during the BOOM, no shattered glass, and not enough noise afterwards. So there was no point in trying to help; there couldn't be any wounded nearby. The bus down the street had driven away; it hadn't been involved in anything. My bus was still standing there, with passengers getting off. So it had to have been a tyre blow-out. I waited for word of mouth to filter up the street to me; when the blow-out was "confirmed", I decided to move on.
15 minutes later I reached home and made myself a nice cup of tea. And then I performed my only responsive action: I made some phone calls to parents and friends, letting them know I'm all right. I didn't want them to hear a partial newsflash: "Reports are coming in of an explosion near where ariels lives; we are not yet sure if this is another a terrorist attack, or if there are any casualties".