![](\"http:\/\/dowbrigade.com\/images\/fireone.jpg\")
Our
\n new phone emitted its distinctive series of chirps and squeals as we
\n drove through a low mist yesterday, nearing Harvard Square to meet
\n our younger son, who is once again apartment hunting. The new phone,
\n which actually has a miniature keyboard with one key for each letter,
\n has yet to reveal its deeper secrets, but at least we know how to answer
\n an incoming call.<\/p>\n
"Dad, where are you?!" It was our son. He seemed awful excited for the
\n situation. We had plenty of time to get to the appointment. <\/p>\n
"We’re about three blocks from the square. Where are you?"<\/p>\n
He ignored our question and we assumed we was where he said he would
\n be; in the heart of the Square, in front of the Citizen’s Bank by the
\n Information Kiosk next to The Pit, where local Goths, Skinheads and
\n chronic truants hold sway.<\/p>\n
Instead,
\n he practically shouted into the phone, "I think a bomb just exploded
\n in Harvard. I think a building is on fire! I can see flames shooting
\n up!"<\/p>\n
"Don’t move! I’ll be right there," we were so excited we forgot to use
\n the third person.<\/p>\n
Quickly we found a parking place, in front of the Post Office on Mt.
\n Auburn St., and got out of the White Whale. We could see a smear of dirty
\n black smoke staining the sky like charcoal on a soft, pencil-drawn sky.<\/p>\n
By the time we got there police and fire had arrived. Traffic was shut
\n down through the square. The fire was not a building – it was a white
\n limousine, which had apparently exploded just as it was entering Johnson
\n Gate,
\n the main entrance to Harvard Yard off of Massachusetts Avenue, a mere 50
\n feet from the office of Harvard President Lawrence Summers.<\/p>\n
Smoke and the smell of burning plastic was everywhere. It was still
\n only 3 or 4 minutes after the explosion, and the firemen already had
\n the flames out, but the acrid, plastic-smelling smoke was reducing visibility
\n to a few meters. We looked around for casualties, people coughing, or
\n burnt, and didn’t see anything. But we couldn’t see what was going on
\n inside the Yard, where most of the police seemed to be gathered.<\/p>\n
![](\"http:\/\/dowbrigade.com\/images\/firetwo.jpg\")
What we
\n COULD see, clearly, was that the center of the zone of destruction was
\n clearly the back seat of the limo, the passenger area, which was
\n completely burnt out and gutted. The front of the vehicle was damaged
\n where the driver had plowed into the gate, but the engine was not burnt,
\n nor was the rear, where we assume the fuel tank is located.<\/p>\n
No, it looked as though some kind of explosion had occurred in the back
\n seat. It was hard to believe that anyone who had been inside at
\n the time was still alive. Yet we saw no bodies or even injuries.<\/p>\n
After about 15 minutes of watching much coming and going, uniforms,
\n and trench coats, ambulances and police cars, our son started to get
\n anxious about missing his appointment.All of the cops we asked either
\n said, "We don’t know anything more than you do" or "Just an accident,
\n move along".<\/p>\n
We left, figuring that we would hear something on the news station
\n on the radio, or on line when we got back to our computer. It definitely
\n looked like a hit, or a suitcase bomb, had gone off in that limo. Who
\n was the target? Somebody on their way in to see Pres. Summers? A big
\n shot parent of a Freshman yard resident? Had they survived? Who would
\n be blamed?<\/p>\n
Imagine our surprise, and subsequent conspiratorial suspicions, when
\n not a word, not a story, not a mention of the incident reached any of
\n the local or internet news streams we monitor. We include a couple of
\n the pictures we took just to establish we aren’t halucinating again. Just
\n an accident, probably. Sure.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Our new phone emitted its distinctive series of chirps and squeals as we drove through a low mist yesterday, nearing Harvard Square to meet our younger son, who is once again apartment hunting. The new phone, which actually has a … Continue reading