It's not every morning you walk out of a Starbucks and find yourself in the middle of a real-life fucking action movie.
Let me back up...
I stopped off for coffee on my way to work yesterday morning. While getting out of my car, I vaguely noticed a man across the street dealing with his car's overheated engine. When I walked back outside not five minutes later, I stopped in tracks, uttering the words, "What the fuck...?"
The car directly across the street from mine was on fire. The entire top half of it was covered in flames, and huge plumes of smoke were billowing upward over Wilshire Boulevard. The car's owner was nowhere to be seen. Passerbies began to linger on the sidewalk, faces dropped, cell phone cameras coming out. "Oh shit!" said a guy over my shoulder. I started towards my car, thinking I should jump into it and drive away, but very quickly thought better of it. The flames were growing bigger, spreading across the vehicle. My car wasn't more than a dozen feet away. A passing driver sped up to get beyond the blaze. A man stood next to me on the shop's patio. "Oh, man,"he said. I absent-mindedly held my cell phone, wondering if someone had already called for help. A few spectators walked to the sidewalk directly across from the car, positioning their phones for a better picture. Then the flames reached something combustible, and an explosion shattered the driver's side window and sent debris into the street. "Get away from there!" people shouted. "Don't go near it!" The man next: "Oh man, if that hits the fuel tank, it's gonna' blow." I tensed, and backed up a few feet, but kept eying my own car. "Jesus," I said. Then the man turned to me, "You know, this reminds me of a time I was in Sedona..." As he kept talking, I could hear sirens in the distance, and soon two fire trucks appeared off of Wilshire and parked.
Note my silver Volvo in the foreground.
When things were sufficiently doused, I slid into my car and eased past the fire truck...
... because I was late to work. But I hoped my boss would understand that I'd woken up to a scene from Children of Men or Breaking Bad.
Let me back up...
I stopped off for coffee on my way to work yesterday morning. While getting out of my car, I vaguely noticed a man across the street dealing with his car's overheated engine. When I walked back outside not five minutes later, I stopped in tracks, uttering the words, "What the fuck...?"
The car directly across the street from mine was on fire. The entire top half of it was covered in flames, and huge plumes of smoke were billowing upward over Wilshire Boulevard. The car's owner was nowhere to be seen. Passerbies began to linger on the sidewalk, faces dropped, cell phone cameras coming out. "Oh shit!" said a guy over my shoulder. I started towards my car, thinking I should jump into it and drive away, but very quickly thought better of it. The flames were growing bigger, spreading across the vehicle. My car wasn't more than a dozen feet away. A passing driver sped up to get beyond the blaze. A man stood next to me on the shop's patio. "Oh, man,"he said. I absent-mindedly held my cell phone, wondering if someone had already called for help. A few spectators walked to the sidewalk directly across from the car, positioning their phones for a better picture. Then the flames reached something combustible, and an explosion shattered the driver's side window and sent debris into the street. "Get away from there!" people shouted. "Don't go near it!" The man next: "Oh man, if that hits the fuel tank, it's gonna' blow." I tensed, and backed up a few feet, but kept eying my own car. "Jesus," I said. Then the man turned to me, "You know, this reminds me of a time I was in Sedona..." As he kept talking, I could hear sirens in the distance, and soon two fire trucks appeared off of Wilshire and parked.
Note my silver Volvo in the foreground.
When things were sufficiently doused, I slid into my car and eased past the fire truck...
... because I was late to work. But I hoped my boss would understand that I'd woken up to a scene from Children of Men or Breaking Bad.
