I knew something was out of the ordinary when it happened.

We were eating our supper yesterday evening when, without warning, we heard the loudest noise we had ever heard.  The noise sounded like a bomb exploding.  It was unexpected, and it scared the hell out of all of us.

We all jumped up out of our chairs, our meal of scalloped mashed potatoes, home made meat loaf, salad with bacon, and cherry pie temporarily forgotten.  Dad flew the F-bomb (rhymes with "truck") and mom yelled: "What was THAT?!" while my little sister started crying.  I was scared too: I didn't know what in the hell happened.

I looked out the window ... only, to my horror, to see black smoke billowing from behind the trees in our back yard.  Something had apparently crashed ... but what??

About five minutes after we heard the boom, we heard sirens from fire trucks, police cars, and ambulances racing to the scene.  My dad called the local news station to report of the incident; about a half hour later, they appeared on the scene.  They wanted to talk to my dad about what he thought had happened.  Dad's response?  "Hell, I don't know ... it could be a bomb, a terrorist plot ... I don't know, but something happened; otherwise there wouldn't be thick, black smoke billowing from the trees behind our place!"  Dad sounded and looked visibly upset.

I didn't blame him one bit.  We were all shaken up by the loud, unexpected noise.

Soon, more news media vehicles (and reporters) appeared.  Later on that day, we came to find out that a small plane had developed engine failure, and it went down in the woods behind our house.  It had crashed into another house, killing the three people who were inside at the time, as well as the pilot of the plane and two co-passengers who were with him at the time.  Six people were killed in the accident.

We knew it would be a while before details were sorted out, to determine the exact cause of the crash.  We were thankful that the plane didn't crash into our house; we would have been more than likely killed ... or at the very least, badly hurt.  It could have been a whole lot worse than it was, but it was still terrifying, nevertheless.

There's nothing more terrifying to have your dinner interrupted by a super-loud explosion and then seeing black, black smoke pouring upwards into the sky in the woods behind your place of residence!  I think something like that will stick with you for a long time to come.  I know it will do so with me.