story59.xml

story59.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-02-14

At around 8:45, while writing out birthday cards at my desk, a coworker ran by, frantically rambling. It sounded like she said something about a problem with a train (as in an Amtrack train). I figured that another train had derailed and people were injured. I went back to filling out the birthday cards.

Suddenly, I heard the scurry of more coworkers. I finally went to the board room to join them. 10 of us huddled around the t.v. that really doesn't get exactly work well. That's when I heard "A plane has flown into the World Trade Center." (It has to be an accident.) Then, "two planes have hit the WTC," and we all knew immediately what had happened.

On the Southside of our building, we have a very clear view of the WTC. Only 2 month before had I become aware of the view. All of us ran to the windows to see. More coworkers filtered in, claiming to have heard the roar of planes, had seen them fly overhead as they walked to work. Someone brought over a small radio.

Now we could see the holes in the buildings, the fire, the black smoke. But still, we were optomistic. No one spoke of people dying. We talked more about how exactly they could rescue the people above the fire. I naively wondered if they had ladders that long or if they could get helicopters to land on the roof.

We wanted to know WHO had hit the WTC and how big the planes were. Coworkers called other people (relatives at home, friends at work) and slowly we heard that these were not private planes. These were commercial airlines with passengers aboard. (God help us.)

You could see other people leaning out their office windows, going to the roofs of their buildings...(My God, what is going on?!) In just a few minutes, work-aholic Manhattan stopped...everything just stopped.

Right as the news began to filter in, I realized that my brother's offices had recently moved. Being that he handles stocks, I figured that he must be right there. But I didn't have his new number. I ran back to my cubicle and called my mom at home ("I'm okay...but who did this to us?!?!"), my dad at work ("Have you heard from Rob, is he okay?"), my sister-in-law (got her voicemail). No one had my brother's new number. (God, why didn't I get it last weekend when I saw him?!)

Just as I hung up the phone, I heard the screams. The most horrific, desperate screams you will ever hear. And in the moment it took me to run back to the windows, everything went silent. I saw my coworkers screaming faces, but I couldn't hear them. I couldn't hear anything. One of my corworkers was on the floor crying. I saw why...

Tower 1 had collapsed.

(Why did it have to collapse?)

Immediately, our CEO closed the office just as the mayor had closed the city. (I don't live in Manhattan, where do I go?) I went back to my cubicle just as my brother called. He was not near the WTC. He was coming to get me.

I met him in a bar downstairs. It was the only place open and it was getting very crowded. We met an elderly couple from Belgium. They didn't know how to call home from the pay phone. We tried to make small talk and for some reason I said, "You know, this doesn't usually happen. This is America." By then, the Pentagon had been hit and Tower 2 had fallen.

The streets of Manhattan were crowded and slow, quiet and polite. Every person was on the sidewalks and in the streets...walking...walking nowhere. Millions of people on the street, sleepwalking.

Eventually my brother and I made it to Grand Central just as they opened up. People were running to trains as if it were the NYC Marathon. We missed two trains before we got one...to Conneticut. It was our only way out (although my brother lives in NJ and I live in Queens). Suddenly, a man was arguing with a woman. He was pounding his head against the train wall, screaming about how his cousin was in Tower 1 and was probably dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. He kept repeating it. It took us 2 hours to get to Conneticut, where my brother's friend lives.

My family was fine, my boyfriend eventually got a hold of me(he and his family were okay)...we saw the people on t.v. looking for loved ones. We cried for them. Then at 11pm, my boyfriend called again. His friend worked in Tower 1 and was missing. (God, help us!) I watched the t.v. until 1am. As I went to sleep on the floor of my brother's friend's house, I turned to my brother. "I'm afraid to go to sleep...we could wake up tomorrow and the president could be killed, the White House could be gone, more people dead..."

He cried, "I know."

I didn't sleep. At 5am I awoke to the t.v. again.

Two weeks later, we buried my boyfriend's friend.

Gold help us.