story1285.xml

story1285.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-08-20

I was in my Economics class when my cell phone rang. Embarrassed, I quickly silenced my phone and went about class as if nothing had happened. Upon leaving the classroom, I checked my voicemail to see that my mother had called, hysterically crying, leaving the following message, "Oh God, the Towers... They're gone... I love you... Call me..." Never had I ever felt so alone in this world. Here I was, hundreds of miles from home during my second week of college, no family nearby, trying to get through to any relative closer to New York and failing miserably at doing so. The phones at my college were so swamped with calls that the network crashed. Finally, by 6 o'clock that night I was able to get through to my mother. Both of us still in shock, all we could do was stay silent on the phone, comforted by the sound of the other's breathing...