Buck briefly found himself the center of attention

L.B.: A GIRAT exclusive, Left Behind, pp. 250-251, posted Feb 16 2007, comment at February 17, 2007 at 06:53 AM

Buck briefly found himself the center of attention. Someone recognized him and expressed surprise and pleasure that he was alive. Buck tried to quiet everyone.....

In my version of Left Behind (god forbid!) this scene never happens because Buck isn't stupid enough to have himself presumed dead, and even if there was a rumor that he was dead, it's not definite enough (and post-Event, no one cares enough) to publish his obituary.

But, supposing that for some reason a rumor that Buck the GIRAT was dead had got around the press corps, at least the chunk of it that covers stuff like a new leader of a small country making his maiden speech at the UN: there would be reporters (named by name or by journal, depending how Buck thought of them) thumping Buck on the shoulder, and saying things like "Hey, back from the dead! or "'Course I knew it wasn't you in that car, no one's quick enough to get Buck" or "I was worried about you, glad to see you're OK, let's meet for a drink after this," or "Didya see that they published your obituary? Pretty good, huh, and now they'll have to write you a new one! Wonder who they've got to write mine?" Meantime Buck has an eye on the door where the GOFAT, young Nicolae Redford himself, with a twinkle of understated jewellery, is about to enter, and is trying to avoid committing himself to anything and get people to hush up so he doesn't miss any of his latest crush-object's wonderful oratory. Mostly, I imagine, this would involve manly grunts and chuckles and pats on the back in a heterosexual kind of way, as Buck tries non-verbally to indicate that this is great but hey, guys, let's all listen to Nicolae! Maybe he'll recite some more lists!