Two Goodbyes
18 February 2015
Friends were visiting for a few days. Yesterday we walked them to the stop for the Number 65 bus. They were on their way to the Gare de l’Est to catch their train home. We kissed goodbye and we said our last things and then we waved and they waved and off they went. They waited and waited and waited all afternoon in the station. Our friends were two of about 500,000 people who were unable to go to where they wanted to go. All of the train traffic from Gare de l’Est was paralysed. It was not easy to get information because no one had much information. There was much talk of a bomb but no one was sure if this was a bomb threat or a real bomb.
Eight hours after we all left the house to walk to the bus, our friends returned and we re-made the bed that they had been sleeping in the night before.
The bomb was a real bomb. It was a 250 kg British bomb from WWII. The bomb had been discovered during some digging near the tracks in Noisy-le-Sec. Noisy-le-Sec is 8 kms outside of Paris. The bomb was too close to the tracks for travel to be safe so all trains both in and out of the station were cancelled. Last night the bomb was exploded by experts just before midnight. Today there was a promise that all trains would be running as normal.
We kissed good bye and we waved good bye and we said our last things all over again. As far as we know, the train of our friends is traveling eastwards at this very minute and they are on it.
EVH
notes from an urban hibernation 