story9150.xml

story9150.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2003-03-12

MARIA D. PENA
WRITING M/W
NARRATIVE COMPOSITION
1-27-03

WHERE WERE YOU ON SEPTEMBER 11, 2001


I couldn?t believe that it was true, what I was listening to on the radio while I was driving to work, I thought that I misunderstood what they were saying. A few minutes later, while walking through the houses that our broker was selling, I had already witnessed the crash of the first tower on their TV. I couldn?t believe what I saw when we got to the next house it was the second tower and on when we got back to the office it was the Pentagon. I was shocked and went home. There my mother and my brother were watching the news and it was showing the smoke coming out from the buildings and desperate people were jumping from the windows, the collapse of each of the large twins, the huge cloud of dust splitting to the sides and reaching the crowd running away. We were all shocked and panicked We knew what was happening by the news but we didn?t want to believe that it was really happening until we went out and drove across the Hudson and saw a large cloud of smoke coming out from the place where once there were the beautiful twins in the middle of the most beautiful view that I have ever seen of a city, ?The Big City?. I cried just by thinking of such an evil destruction could be true, that doesn?t just happen in the movies. I cry every time I think about all the people suffering: The ones inside those buildings before of the collapse, panicked in the middle of the fire; those that were still inside the underground levels after the collapse with the hope to survive; all the families and friends outside suffering for the lost ones and others suffering with the hope that the missing ones could still be alive underground.

As the news continued giving new information and I heard the speculations of human loss, I felt more and more insecure. They were saying that it was the beginning of a war and the US. was going to respond. My family asked me to go back to my country because they thought we were going to be in the middle of a war and something bad could happen to us. I just thought that I could die any time, any where and the only thing I could do about it was to have my soul ready for that moment, even though I felt scared to death.

Six days later I took my brother to a hospital in Manhattan for a scheduled surgery. That scared me even more. There was only one of the tunnels opened by then and every car going to the city was checked by the police before entering the tunnel. Our car was the only one in the tunnel. Days before there were hundreds driving into the dense traffic of Manhattan. When we entered the city, we were checked again, asked about our business there and where we were going to. There were few cars driving in the city and the police were all around checking cars, questioning the drivers and setting up detours. Many streets were closed.

While my brother was at the surgery room my mother and I were at the highest floor in the hospital?s cafeteria having coffee and looking at the dark gloomy cloud of smock that was going to last for various weeks spreading out a stink of destruction and death. The same stink that I was going to smell again a month later when we went back. I wasn?t expecting by then that I had to walk around the streets next to ?Ground Zero? and look by my own eyes what it was left after the tragedy: A wall covered with names and photos where flowers and religious? objects were placed on the memory of the lost ones, the rubble of the destroyed buildings, a heavy stink of death that forced people to use masks while walking, and the sadness reflected on their faces.

Although I am not American, I am a human being and I feel a very deep pain for this cruel tragedy. This wasn?t just an American lost, this was a human lost.