Yesterday I was walking down East 68th street, towards the park, earlier in the morning then I would usually be out. I had just gotten a new case in the neighborhood.
An old grandmother in the upper east side was seen smacking her grandchild around in the park. The child is with a distant cousin now So at that moment I was going to a case meeting at the Methodist church on the Lexington. What a wonderful block I am thinking.
Though I am not a fan of the this gold crusted neighborhood because of the air that it carries, because it fact it is still new York but wants to hide any think less then ivory and marble. The fact is I don't know much about this neighborhood because I never go here. Never in all my years would I expect to have a case here.
Now I have a case.
As I am nearing the corner, a corner crowded with a Village voice, an AM New York and a Wall Street Journal Boxes, a Korean deli teaming over with little pyramids of waxy overpriced fruits, a police man, two or three high school students and a mother pushing a stoller. In a moment, one moment, I hear cracking sonic boom, I feel unbearable heat against my back, the stinging pain in the back of my head and get knocked to ground.
I lie on my stomach with my right check pressed to the ground. With my left ear I can hear screams, of people and of sirens. I see shoes rush past me, high heals, sneakers, boots. None of of them. I must be one of many. I hear a screaming voice "its gone! Its gone! Just like the towers!"
My eye sight is getting hazy. I try to lift my head but the burning feeling is too strong.