It had stopped raining, perhaps not for long. She looked at her watch, it was nine oclock. Still nine? Maybe her battery was dead? She decided to check it out later, now she had to run back to work, or rather, to her Office.
Part six (a second chance)
She ran towards the bus stop, the bus no. 29 was scheduled for 9:15 and, if her watch hadnt stopped, calculating her twenty minute stopover at the store, she had probably lost it. The next one would pass at 9:40. So there was no need to rush. Walking, she removed her watch from her wrist and checked the dial, which appeared to be running again and it signed 9:10. Sonia thought that some juice would do her good, to regain a little strength following the bad news she had received and her strange encounter. She entered the bar close to Damiens store, the same one where Massimo had stopped due to his urge to smoke a cigarette.
It wasnt a relaxing drink. As soon as they served it to her, outside she saw a parade of ambulances and police cars with their sirens on. People rushed out to see what had happened, even Sonia, who looked out and saw the cars trying to convey to a single lane, leaving room for the emergency vehicles, which were desperately trying to find a passage way in the traffic. From a distance, less than a kilometre away from her viewpoint, she could clearly see a black smoke cloud rising to the sky. For about fifteen minutes, she and many others, some patrons of the bar and others just passers-by, kept watching in order to understand what had happened. It had to be something serious.
Some rumours were passed from one person to the other, bringing back news that was mostly unreliable. Some said it was a bomb, some claimed that a tank truck had exploded, some already shouted about a terrorist attack, others said that it was a terrible car accident.
Sonia realized that the situation was getting worse. She would not have made it to the Office on time for her morning meeting, as she had promised her colleague who had called her earlier, so she thought it best to warn him of her delay or maybe even her impossibility to attend, which seemed to be the case. She went back into the bar and dialled her Offices number.
Stefano, her colleague, anxiously answered following the first ring: Sonia, finally! Is everything alright?
Yes, of course Stefano, why do you ask?
So you werent on that bus?
My God, no, - said Sonia, alarmed what happened?
A bad accident, Sonia, theyre talking about it on the local radio station, the bus that you usually take, number twenty-nine, collided into a truck and caught fire. A disaster, they say that one person is dead and several wounded!
Sonia recoiled. She couldnt believe that such a thing had happened and that it had happened to her bus that morning, and at that hour. Yes... That hour... The hour her watch had stopped on, allowing her to avoid such a tragedy.
I was late Stefano said Sonia reassuring her colleague so thankfully I didnt take that bus. Now I see that there is a lot of traffic and I wont be able to make it on time for the morning meeting. You can go ahead without me; well catch up later, okay?
Okay Sonia, dont worry! And as Stefano hung up, she could hear the relief in his voice.
It was almost ten oclock. Sonia considered that it would be better to go back home by foot, it wasnt that far away.
The morning was gone now. Once home, she would try to put the pieces of the puzzle together, the absurd picture of a nightmarish morning, which ended luckily for her, compared to the tragedy if she had taken that unlucky bus no. 29.
Part seven (Damiens resistance)
On Saturday mornings, especially a sunny one such as that Saturday of the end of April, Damiens store was rarely visited, while in the afternoon there was always a lot of work, whatever the weather. Therefore Damien took advantage of that time to restore his manual regeneration atomizer, a job which gave him great satisfaction.
The work consisted in building a coil, namely a spring made by winding a resistance wire around a small screwdriver, forming a series of turns, very tight and not crossed, heated by a flame of a caramelizer and then pressed down again with pliers.
Finally this coil was mounted on two conductive towers, placed on a base, called the heart of the atomizer, and through this spring, he passed a cotton strip which he then put around it, after closing the whole device with the steel cylinder that was the pre-funnel of the atomizer.
Once he soaked the cotton with the liquid to be vaporized and once he assured himself that the resistance he built had the right value of desired ohms, once he set the right dispenser voltage, he pushed the button of his electric battery. Thus, the incandescent resistance caused the liquid with which the cotton was soaked to nebulize into the atomizers combustion chamber, coming out full of aroma and fluffiness, when a person inspired from the little tube called drip-tip. Every time he built a coil, he had the foresight to try its incandescence before he dipped the cotton into it, in order to be certain that the resistance became incandescent from the centre outward in a uniform manner and within the required time.
That Saturday morning, something extraordinary happened to Damiens resistance, something which explains the need for the above explanation.
The coil had just been placed on the conductive towers, Damien had screwed the little screws that held the two ends of the resistance wire to the positive pole and to the negative pole, and was about to mount the stand on its battery to test its value, when Sonia stepped into the shop.
Good morning! said Damien. He sounded as though he was expecting her.
Good morning Damien said Sonia with a radiant smile I came to thank you for the other morning, you have no idea how lucky I was to stop in here!
Damien looked at her with the tenderness of a father who is about to receive a gift from his child, he leaned on the counter, resting on his arms and turning his palms to Sonia as if waiting for a gift.
What happened? He asked while holding out his hand to shake Sonias, and she promptly shook his back.
Did you hear about that bus, number twenty-nine, which caught fire at the end of Via Baracca?
Damien nodded and shook his head as if to say: Okay, go ahead!
I couldve been on that bus, and maybe I wouldnt be here to tell you about it! She said with her eyes wide open.
Yes, I heard about it, an awful story, I heard that the passengers couldnt get out of the vehicle. He said.
Sonia was wearing a pair of tight-fitted faded jeans, a pink cardigan and a pair of strap sneakers, also pink. Even without heels she was tall.
Although not as much as Damien was.
Sonia told him that her watch had stopped and that thanks to that, she had missed the bus that went up in flames, and especially thanks to his kindness, when he had distracted her by offering her a coffee.
They chatted about this event for a while and finally Sonia decided she could trust Damien and the items he sold. She asked him if she could try a VAPE and he happily agreed, also tempted to bring out a sampling of coloured batteries so she could choose the one which, (he was sure); she would buy that Saturday morning.
Sonia had a craving to smoke, and talking to Damien elated her extraordinarily. She had never felt so attracted to a man, mentally and physically.