Through the window of a Dublin bus

It was raining in Dublin today in the late afternoon.

On leaving my office I intended cycing home but the rain persuaded me to take the bus instead.

The Dublin Bus app is a modern-day magic.

Upstairs on the number 14 a past pupil spots me. He is studying law and French in Trinity. A nice fellow.

Two or three stops after he gets off the bus there is a loud bang. I look out the window and see a cyclist fall to the ground. A car had hit him and he was now writhing with pain on the ground. He may have been badly hurt.

Imagine it, two or three seconds earlier he was cycling away, probably coming from work and heading home to his family.

In seconds his world had changed, maybe for ever.

It seemed no one on the bus had seen it and certainly no one was interested, upset or concerned.

We are all seconds away from disaster. How fragile we are.

Had the rain not persuaded me to take the bus, where would I have been at that moment?