Devastation

The only person who actually saw it was Sam.

He was standing outside when the sound came. The rest of us were in the family room watching the Super Bowl when a noise like a supersonic boom shook the walls. The wall-mounted flat-screen wobbled for several seconds after the concussion.

All of us ran outside to see what the commotion was, and there was Sam with his back to us, surveying the damage, and dragging on a cigarette. 

For an instant we were frozen in time, unable to process the enormity of devastation that lay before us. So we stood there behind Sam, taking it all in.

Until Sam took one last drag on his cigarette, flicked the butt into the driveway, and turned around to go inside. He didn't look at any of us when he passed.

To this day I've never talked to him about it.