in harm's way

January 21, 2003

The NPR news really woke me up this morning. It scared me out of my bed. More like out of my wits. Two American civilian contractors had been shot, one dead, near Camp Doha in an ambush. All I heard was "the victims were civilian contractors" and the bottom dropped out of my stomach and my chest tightened. I waited nervously for the story to come around again. The BBC news elaborated, saying that the contractors were working on building the bases. When I heard that, I couldn't sit still but I didn't know what to do either. What time is it in Kuwait? Should I call my mother first? Maybe she's heard from No Prob Bob.

Pacing my bedroom didn't seem to help.

The phone rang. I ran for it, with my pulse racing and my breathing shallow. I mean here I've just heard this news story and my phone is ringing. It's a telemarketer for the Boston Globe. She starts with "how are you?" I choke out angrily "Not so good right now. I can't talk to you." The telemarketer actually said she was sorry. I can only imagine how I sounded.

I could not stand the thought of my morning Cheerios and coffee. The adrenaline has me wide awake enough.

Finally I looked on the CNN web site and found out the dead person worked for some kind of war simulation company from San Diego not the big construction company that No Prob Bob works for. I relaxed a little bit. Only a little... I checked one of those world time zone sites for the time in Kuwait and realized it's 8 hours ahead of us. So I tried calling him on the phone but kept getting fast busy tone (all circuits are busy). I guess every family member of every civilian contractor in Kuwait is calling right about now.

My heart rate returned to something approaching normal and I started to breathe again. I sent email.

I did not finally relax until I got email back from him reassuring me that by luck and the grace of g*d he and his guys are safe.

It puts things in perspective.

Today's Reading
One Whaling Family by Harold Williams, The Measure of All Things by Ken Alder

This Year's Reading
2003 Book List