speaking of which

Just now I heard a loud pop, the kind that could be a car backfiring (what does that even mean?) or something large falling over.

I wondered if I should feel scared, if the people in the neigborhood just north of mine - well-kept houses, manicured lawns, known for being gang territory - felt scared.

Two or three minutes later I heard sirens, then a brief silence then more sirens.

Probably it was a great luxury of mine that I could sit and wonder whether to be scared.

Probably somebody is being rushed to an emergency room right now and somebody else is in tears.

Probably.

As I write that, I feel nothing.

It's dark and the city plods on.