Was it him? Mystery unsolved

WASHINGTON -- By daybreak, tens of thousands of people were streaming into the capital, bundled up against the 19-degree weather, steam on their breath. Hawkers were selling Obama T-shirts, $2 bottles of Obama Water and Obama-wurst sausages.

But the overwhelming sound in the air was of sirens wailing. It’s one thing to move the citizenry, but quite another to move the glut of dignitaries who were wending through the maze of closed streets in belligerent motorcades.

One screeched down 18th Street at about 7:45 a.m. -- a line of motorcycle police with empty sidecars, several wide, black limos and a medical van. People stopped in their tracks on street corners and stared ...

Was it him?

A white sedan had the misfortune of getting in the way. One of the motorcycles came up from behind blasted his siren and rammed the sedan’s bumper, as if to push the confused driver out of the way. The officer looked serious.

“It’s him! It’s him!” someone traveling in a rickshaw/bicycle-type contraption -- people were getting around any way they could -- shouted, pointing at what appeared to be an armored limo.

It whizzed past, windows darkened, mystery unsolved.

-- Faye Fiore

Photo: The limousine carrying President Bush and President-elect Barack Obama is driven along Pennsylvania Avenue toward the Capitol. Credit: Haraz N. Ghanbari / Associated Press