Fly an Airplane Into That Building

It was afternoon, February 19, 2010. Yesterday a disgruntled man had flown a light airplane into an IRS building. As I walked past him I heard him speaking into a cell phone. I glimpsed a young man, dressed for Friday business and getting ready to board a plane for San Diego. He said ”They ought to fly an airplane into that building.” My assumption was that he was making a casual reference to an aging and uncomfortable building that he and his coworkers used. Then my imagination went wild. Who might be listening in on the conversation? Who would pick up these nine words from the background noise and put them together? I watched to see if someone eased up beside him and marched him off and out of the waiting area, but nothing happened. I’ll see if anything unusual happens in San Diego as we deplane, but I doubt it. Perhaps we are not under as tight a security watch as many people believe. But still, I do hope in my heart that someone does listen to conversations like the one I overheard, and can pick out certain phrases from the boring, humdrum, inane conversations that populate our cell phone conversations.
Perhaps someone will meet him when we arrive in San Diego. Perhaps someone will sidle up to him and whisper something like “Which building are you going to fly an airplane into? But then, I am reading a good spy novel – perhaps my imagination is too hard at work.