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"Bob"THE WHOLE ROOM LIT UP IN RED!So I was sitting down with a couple of friends that happen to be in the area where I am now. Two of them are here on vacation from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, relaxing since it has been pretty bad sitting down doing nothing, so we went on a hunt for a place that we can sit and simulate a cafe, something that has been a part of our lives for a while now.  The scene is pretty much revolving around one thing, where you from, where you came from, how wrong Hizbulla were, etc.. Breaking this routine is the sudden news flash on the TV screen that has become a necessity everywhere, and all eyes go on telly for a few moments and the whole atmosphere boils up in anger, seeing places that we knew and been through filled with rubble, looking like a setup scene from one of Carpenter's horror movies.BAM! BAM! BAM! and everyone stands up. This was close. You see yellow scared faces filled with disbelief. This area is far from the scene, and secure. Then we learn from the TV that the raids were targeting the fuel containers at the airport. A sigh of relief spreads around. ...She is trembling so much she can't get a hold on the bottle... Fifteen minutes later, a car pulls over near where were sitting; a man walks in, clothes soaked in sweat, trembling, looking confused and scared, asking for directions. "Is there a phone I can use? I need to call my brother, he lives far up in the mountains...."So we give him directions and hand him a phone he can use. "Sit down and catch your breath, drink a cup of water," I say, but he doesn't. He says his family is waiting in the car for him: he has four children. I grab five bottles of juice and a bottle of water and go to the car, and there they are, his wife, young and pretty, shaking so violently that I wanted so much to grab her and hold her in her seat, and suddenly she starts talking as if we had known each other for so long. "We moved from an area close to southern Beirut, we were four families in the house, and suddenly it lit up, we thought we got hit, we never knew what happened, everyone went their own way..." I try to calm her down and hand her a bottle of juice to give to her children; as I begin to pass her the other bottles I notice her struggling to open it, but she is trembling so much she can't get a hold on the bottle, so I open it for her and hand her the rest of the bottles after I opened them. She broke my heart. It was probably the saddest scene I have seen in a very long time; she and her kids in panic, it just breaks your heart.  "Bob" is one half of One Too Many Peaches, a blog from the Lebanon.10:40 AM - 18/7/2006 - post comment
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