I will never forget
09.11.01
It was a Tuesday morning in September. I had called in sick because I had been diagnosed with Mono and I was still in bed. I lived in Denver, alone in a tiny studio apartment so when I heard my door being unlocked it startled me. The only person who had a key was The Dreamer but he should have been at school. I pulled the pillow off from covering my head and sat up to see, and in he walked.
“What are you doing out of school so early?” I asked as I collapsed back into my bed relieved. He looked at me with grey sunken eyes, as if he wasn’t able to speak. I sat up again worried. “What’s wrong?” I asked anxiously. He dropped his head and closed the door behind him. Still he said nothing. I began to really worry. He was pale and his movements were painfully slow as he put his keys on my kitchen table. He looked at me again, furrowing his brow and finally spoke “oh my god you don’t know do you” he said almost whispering as he suddenly tuned to the TV. “What?” I was getting impatient and watched him switch to MSNBC.
“We are under attack,” he said. My eyes moved from him to the TV, I can still see that scene in my head as if it just happened. What I saw on the television took the breath from my lungs. I stood up in the middle of my bed and covered my face with my hands. Everything around me swam with the sounds of the television. I stood there for what was probably half an hour watching them replay over and over the same scene from the world trade center being hit by those planes. The Dreamer had been talking to me but I didn’t hear a word he had said. I couldn’t believe it. This couldn’t possibly be happening in our country. There must be some mistake. And then the third plane hit the pentagon. I fell to my knees. I don’t think I have ever been so scared.
I could not even blink, I don’t know why but I couldn’t pull my eyes from the images I was seeing. Tower two collapsed first and that is when the tears began to drip off my elbows because my hands were still on my face. People were running for their lives as that huge cloud of debris engulfed the city and took hundreds of lives, right before our eyes. The city turned white. I remember seeing a documentary about the firefighters that survived, one of them explained the debris “nothing was left, it was all turned to dust” he said. This cannot be happening. I must be dreaming I thought. I wish it were just a bad dream. A very very bad dream.
Coincedentally, as we sat in horror watching the images my VCR was set to record a program that morning, instead it taped a horrible day in history. I have still not been able to watch that tape. I am not ready to re-live that day. Movies are being released, and I cry just at the glimpse of the sadness portrayed in the previews. I am not ready, but I will never forget.
I remember reading an article that said “It changed everything about our world when the first plane hit. When the second one hit it changed it again.” I will never forget that day EVER. It changed so many of our lives that day; it changed the world, as we once knew it. Where were you?
It was a Tuesday morning in September. I had called in sick because I had been diagnosed with Mono and I was still in bed. I lived in Denver, alone in a tiny studio apartment so when I heard my door being unlocked it startled me. The only person who had a key was The Dreamer but he should have been at school. I pulled the pillow off from covering my head and sat up to see, and in he walked.
“What are you doing out of school so early?” I asked as I collapsed back into my bed relieved. He looked at me with grey sunken eyes, as if he wasn’t able to speak. I sat up again worried. “What’s wrong?” I asked anxiously. He dropped his head and closed the door behind him. Still he said nothing. I began to really worry. He was pale and his movements were painfully slow as he put his keys on my kitchen table. He looked at me again, furrowing his brow and finally spoke “oh my god you don’t know do you” he said almost whispering as he suddenly tuned to the TV. “What?” I was getting impatient and watched him switch to MSNBC.
“We are under attack,” he said. My eyes moved from him to the TV, I can still see that scene in my head as if it just happened. What I saw on the television took the breath from my lungs. I stood up in the middle of my bed and covered my face with my hands. Everything around me swam with the sounds of the television. I stood there for what was probably half an hour watching them replay over and over the same scene from the world trade center being hit by those planes. The Dreamer had been talking to me but I didn’t hear a word he had said. I couldn’t believe it. This couldn’t possibly be happening in our country. There must be some mistake. And then the third plane hit the pentagon. I fell to my knees. I don’t think I have ever been so scared.
I could not even blink, I don’t know why but I couldn’t pull my eyes from the images I was seeing. Tower two collapsed first and that is when the tears began to drip off my elbows because my hands were still on my face. People were running for their lives as that huge cloud of debris engulfed the city and took hundreds of lives, right before our eyes. The city turned white. I remember seeing a documentary about the firefighters that survived, one of them explained the debris “nothing was left, it was all turned to dust” he said. This cannot be happening. I must be dreaming I thought. I wish it were just a bad dream. A very very bad dream.
Coincedentally, as we sat in horror watching the images my VCR was set to record a program that morning, instead it taped a horrible day in history. I have still not been able to watch that tape. I am not ready to re-live that day. Movies are being released, and I cry just at the glimpse of the sadness portrayed in the previews. I am not ready, but I will never forget.
I remember reading an article that said “It changed everything about our world when the first plane hit. When the second one hit it changed it again.” I will never forget that day EVER. It changed so many of our lives that day; it changed the world, as we once knew it. Where were you?
posted by Jenni at
2:04 PM
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