Sunday, May 29, 2011

She had just arrived back from Italy...

She had been on a business trip there....
What was supposed to be 5 days, had been extended to 14 days....
(to her extreme dismay)..
and she missed her man like crazy....
He had been so aloof ....really FINE....about her staying longer...
Something about this cold reaction had made her nervous or wary or something....
So she had attempted to leave him countless voice mails,
but his phone seemed not to be taking them////..
Hmmm...
And to boot, that actress, ex girlfriend of his had moved back to New York....
She'd actually read about it during her long wait,
 in some 'rag' at the airport..
Now understand that she'd been involved with this guy for over 3 years...
Heavily involved...
But you know...
WE ALL KNOW....
when something's up....
We can feel it just beneath our skin.....

She hailed a cab....
fixed her makeup and hair on the way into the city....
She'd go straight to his place....
It was Sunday, so.....
What happened next would haunt her for many, many years to come....

When she arrived in front of his townhouse....
she found literally dozens of people standing there on the sidewalk,,,
with candles and flowers....
a vigil of some sort...
Her heart began to pound ....
There was a giant photo of HIM on an easel ....
What the HELL was going on ??

She asked a young girl who was sitting on the stoop in front of the house...
The girl told her that the man who had lived here had been attacked
on the subway by a group of Fundamentalist Terrorists...
(in broad daylight !!!!)
There had been 6 people in this particular car on the train...
(ALL JEWS, as it happened...)
2 had even been wearing head coverings (Kippot) ...
They had been literally ASSASSINATED by the Islamists......
and then the murderers  had blown themselves up...
along with the bloody bodies of the JEWS in the train....
There were no real remains to speak of....

She lost her breath....lost her balance...
fell onto the sidewalk in front of the townhouse....
and WEPT there,
lying on the ground......
for hours and hours....
until finally she passed out cold....

IS IT ALL RELATIVE ?

What makes a traumatic situation real and not somehow sensationalized or exaggerated ? What constitutes real trauma ? Is it all relative ? I...