story117.xml

story117.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-03-03

I had woken up that morning, like any other weekday morning, getting ready for class. I came upstairs from my basement apartment, and was surprised to see my dad. He works in D.C., recently leaving a job at the Pentagon, but was never there by the time I was up for class. He explained to me that he was home waiting for a floor repair company to come and replace our kitchen floor. None of the televisions were on in the house, and just as I was getting ready to leave, our phone rang. My dad picked it up and the color drained from his face. I remember him saying, "What are you talking about? Are you serious?" and then him turning on the television. We were shocked. The first iamge we saw was one tower of the World Trade Center in flames. Two minutes later we saw the second plane fly in from the side of the screen, and couldn't turn away as we saw it strike the second tower. We just couldn't believe our eyes. Then came the next wave of horror. All of a sudden the picture changed, there was a building in DC completely engulfed in black smoke..."the Pentagon....." my dad barely got the words out. At the same time I was setting down my bookbag, my dad said, "you're not going to class today". I assume the look on my face told him that I had no intention of going anywhere that day. My mom, who was in DC at the time, and also the one who made the phone call to the house, was trying her hardest to get home. She wasn't near the Pentagon when it happened, but because of all the traffic it seemed to take forever for her to get home. The rest of the afternoon seems like it was in slow motion, yet fast forward at the same time. It's a blurr to remember where I went, or what I did, but I remember the day passed very slowly.