8:55 a.m. The phone rings and the party on the other end asks what Im doing. Having coffee, I reply. Are you watching TV? came the second query. No, I answer. (I had always watched TV news with my coffee every morning. Except for this particular day.) Turn on your TV, the voice says, a plane just crashed into one of the Twin Towers in New York (reportedly, it happened at 8:46 a.m.). I turn the TV on just in time to see a video of the plane crashing and I feel the cold numbness of bewilderment and of not knowing as every TV news program keeps showing the same scene over and over again. The news reports state that earlier, it was thought to be a fire on one of the towers. Then it has now been upgraded to a plane accident. As the coffee grows cold, I keep on watching, disbelieving my eyes. Then, in what I think is a shot of the same scene from a different angle, another plane crashes into the other tower. It is 9:03 a.m. And everything begins to unfold in slow motion. Two monoliths tumbling down. Choking fog chasing people running into every available doorway and other safe havens. EMS vehicles and fire trucks running every which way. And an eerie ringing sound persists in my ears. How clearly I remember, to this day. What were you doing on that fateful day, 13 years ago? :( .
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 13:53:32 +0000