2006-01-15

I was in a midtown street scene. A well-known street, but small, the kind that usually has more foot traffic than cars; lined with small but busy storefronts. Amalgam of the Byward Market and Bloor Street. This time, the crowds dominated everything. I was with someone, maybe family, and we seemed to have to go with this crowd. At least I thought so. As I made my way down, I realized that--
with everyone moving the same way,
with no cars driving,
with groups of people running about the middle of the street to some hard purpose,
with most of the shops boarded up,
and most of all, with those demolition charges,
danger was upon us; this was some kind of evacuation, being played out by its own twisted rules.

We found ourselves in a line for something. Once we got near the front, we saw that it led to some guy in front of a store that he and his buddies had seemingly broken into; they were selling cigarettes, but just a few at a time. I sheepishly shrugged when I got to the front and he offered me a couple out of a pack. My companion and I both declined; neither of us smoked. He looked ready to swear up and down and rail against our obvious stupidity, but thankfully no one on this street had time for any unnecessary words.

Further down, some kind of home-made tower of demolition charges was being set up near a storefront. I gathered that it would be to block the street with rubble once everyone had got past this point, or once there was simply no time left -- what were we running from, anyway? -- but the people setting up these demo charges weren’t soldiers or people in uniform -- come to think of it, I hadn’t even seen any cops.

Right in front of us, a couple of people were setting up a smaller column of demo charges. This seemed to be some kind of paper/cardboard box structure, with I-guess-explosives inside somewhere. It was leaning up against another building. The person lit the bottom of this paper structure. It caught fast, but no one in the little crowd seemed ready to move away. I yelled at my companion, who got too close, seemingly unconcerned. I got her further away, then it blew. Kind of anticlimactic, really -- it didn’t even damage the storefront, but it knocked over a lamppost -- and the way it fell, it almost hit me. So much for my concern for safety.