05.23.06
Flaming buses
Woken by a loud bang at about five this morning. Not much noise followed, making it the more mysterious.
Some members of the household, watching the morning news, excitably suggested that the cause was “a shooting in South London”. Spot me the morning where there hasn’t been a shooting in South London.
All, or most, was revealed when, on the way in to work, I walked past a Routemaster bus being hauled up onto a recovery vehicle. The road was covered in what looked like fine mulch: in fact it was sawdust that had been soaking up petrol for the last couple of hours. Some the inside of the bus was burnt out, seats blackened, parts of the frame poking through like broken bones. Uncomfortable memories of last summer, buses and sirens. Funny how the sunshine brings out memories that had been carefully furled away, like sunflowers.