Cafe explosion

It was a dark and stormy... afternoon. There was a loud rumble, but the maid didn't scream. I knew the sound wasn't thunder, but there is so much construction going on nearby that I shrugged the boom off. Twenty minutes later, I strolled out to meet some friends. Our car was gridlocked a block from the guesthouse. Then the cellphones began ringing.

There had been an explosion at a nearby Internet cafe. As emergency vehicles forced their way through the traffic, it became clear we weren't going anywhere. We backed down the dirt road to the guesthouse, where we holed up around the fire with a bottle of wine. The lights flickered, the storm raged outside, cellphones rang with varying rumors and reports of the explosion. First we heard it had been grenades, then we heard it had been a gas explosion. We sat around making tense and desultory conversation, like characters in an Agatha Christie novel.