Re: Where were you and how did you hear about it?
The night before, I had worked out hard and had gone for an extensive bike ride, I was immersed in an almost fanatical fitness program that was paying off in spades ... I had cracked the 500 pounds lost barrier, was deeply in love and the world was a happy place, that could only get better.<br /><br />I woke up at 1152, and as was my custom I logged on to AOL to see what was going on in the world. The welcome screen showed the Towers still standing, with billowing smoke pouring out of them<br /><br />My mind, still waking, hears a ding, an IM ding, my friend Dee from Maine is saying OMG Ray, OMG, are you OK? are you OK?<br /><br />whats going on???<br /><br />We are under attack! The Towers have fallen, theyve attacked the Pentagon and a jet has been crashed!<br /><br />Instantly one thought comes to mind ... My Jennie, who is five minutes from visual contact with the towers, and a mile from Earle Naval Base ... rumored to be nuke fortified, and most certainly a target in an attack<br /><br />I have to find out if Jennie is ok, ill get back to you - I could hardly type that sentence, my fingers were icy, numb, the screen was blurring<br /><br />All circuits were busy up there, no cel, no landline, nothing<br /><br />no cars allowed up there, I cant even go try to find her<br /><br />I go outside, cel phone and cigarette in hand, and look up at a cerulean blue sky, not a cloud in it<br /><br />not a plane either<br /><br />I lived under a holding pattern there, always jets overhead<br /><br />always<br /><br />this couldnt be happening<br /><br />I tried not to think about those who died, those who were trapped, those that leapt to escape the hell, knowing death was awaiting them a thousand feet below<br /><br />and untold thousands more, that couldnt find loved ones, wives and husbands and lovers and children and parents and friends that could have been, should have been in the Towers at that time<br /><br />and Jennie, too close to harms way, too far for me to reach<br /><br />Helpless<br /><br />Cracking sounds stopped me from staring up at the empty sky ... the plastic housing of the cel phone was being crushed by my hand squeezing it too tightly<br /><br />I called an EMT buddy of mine, to see if I could borrow his blue light, emergency vehicles only, it was only 79.3 miles to make sure Jennie was ok<br /><br />Dude, you got to chill out ... its gridlocked up there<br /><br />There was so much uncertainty that day, so much unknown, is this the beginning of world war three?<br /><br />at 309, I got through to her ... she was shaken, and had been crying most of the day, two co workers had apparently (and in fact, DID
) lose a son and a husband in the attack, and friends all had losses connected by family, friends, in laws, she lives practically in the shadow of the towers, they have been a part of her life for thirty years<br /><br />Blue beacons were put in place to serve as a memorial to the lives lost, rising thousands of feet into the air. The night they turned the blue beacons off, we went to a pier right across from the Towers. All I could do was hold her as she wept, until dawn came and the light of day, pink and purple and finally shades of blue overcame the beacons, and we left, still trying to makes sense of it all.<br /><br />I know when I rage against "the ragheads" its pointless - but Ive seen the pain it causes, Ive seen what it did to her, she cant even see a picture without crying, its an abstraction in the rest of the country, but to those that lived with them, with the souls that teemed within those mighty towers, they are real, the people were real<br /><br />Now all that is left is a scar on the ground and in the collective souls left behind to go on<br /><br />The only thing left is the pain<br /><br />
