I had just taken my son to school around the block..on the way back I stopped to talk with my neighbor. It was a beautiful warm, clear September day. Inside the tv was on and I could see the that first tower had been hit. I called my neighbor. Her husband worked in the Trade Center. "I'm okay...Tom works in the other tower"...Tom had been in the tower when they were attacked back in 93 too. I called my husband, told him to get a tv into the office..something hit the Trade Center. Then the second plane hit. I went next door. My neighbor was frantically calling her husband..the phones were down..she was calling anyone who could get in touch with him. She wanted to get her kids out of school..she didn't want them to hear about this in school. I was going to get her kids when ..by the grace of God, the phone rang, and it was Tom. He was alive. He had an appt. uptown, and didn't go straight downtown that day. Only...his colleagues were calling him, they told him that they were told not to evacuate at first. They told him that people were jumping from the first tower. Horrified..we thought surely, he must be mistaken. He wasn't. I went back home, and called my parents to see if they had heard. They were watching. We have family who are FDNY. She was calling my Aunt. The first tower collapsed, my phone rang, my husband said he heard the Pentagon had been hit...and there's another plane out there. "Get the kids....we're under attack, stay in the house". Under attack? Under attack..NEW YORK is under attack? How can AMERICA be under attack it's AMERICA..it's FREAKIN' NY. Called my older son who was at work..he was on his way home. Went to the high school for my daugher. Those faces. Young, sweet innocent faces. They didn't look like wise *** high school kids that day. A group of them were sitting and standing silently in the office where they anxiously waited for a parent to come or call. The girls held back tears, and the boys had their heads hung low doing the same. Waiting they were, for parents who might not come..and for some they didn't. You wanted to say it would be alright..but you knew, and they knew..it wouldn't. I got my fourth grade son. What do you tell a fourth grader when he asks you "Why are all the parents coming to school taking the kids home". "Why" does dad want us to stay inside.."Will they attack us too...did we do something to them?"
Our skies normally heavy with air traffic, were screaming with quiet. By 3:00, my husband was home. My son was playing out on the driveway with my neighbors son when my husband pulled up. I went out to meet him. When he got out of the car..I realized how lucky I was he was home. How many won't be coming home tonight. God, let me just be in his arms and we'll be fine. Then we heard the loudest ROAR I've ever heard in my life. There was something in the sky lounder than the Concorde..and it was coming fast. I screamed for the boys to get in the house..."RUN, RUN, ...NOW! My husband grabbed me..."No, no...it's okay..it's okay!" Pointing up and showing the boys he said.. "They're ours...They're for us!" We're fine..cool huh guys?"..trying to reassure them after I scared them to death.
They were military jets patroling the skies. I knew I should have felt relieved..but I wasn't. My heart beat loud in my chest at the sound and then sight of those planes. It was real..this had really happened. A while later out on the deck, my son asked us what that smell was? Fire. The wind had shifted and we could smell the city burning. We didn't know it then..but in that smoke were the souls of 3000 people, who wouldn't go home that night.
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