Where Were You That Day?
It is September 26th, 2001, now more than two weeks after the terrorist attacks that destroyed
the World Trade Center towers, part of the Pentigon, four commercial planes and ended
countless lives.
I still clearly remember that day. I wish to write about my experiences of the day so I never
forget, and as a far more trival matter perhaps help my writers block on "What Was Once
Mortal". Soul Essence is supposed to take place on other-worldly colonies after the "Old
Earth", this one, was destroyed in World War Three. In the real world today this may be the
begining of it.
On the morning of September 11th I was enjoying the middle of my first true vacation week
from work in over two years. It was a little after 10:00am Central Time and I had promised
Chris (the same one as on my quote pages - my fiance) that I would look on the World
Wrestling Federation (WWF) website to see what we had missed the night before (Chris,
Harry, "Big" Ben and I - the group tomboy - are all pro wrestling fans). Ironically right before
he left for work Chris asked the date - to see how close the pay-per-view was. Right as I was
about to go on the Internet my mother called and told me something about bombs hitting the
World Trade Center and the Pentigon. I was immediatly in shock and asked mom if she was
kidding- such a thing did not seem possible in here in the U.S. Weren't we some big
powerfull country? I forgot about the Internet and turned on theT.V.. On the screen was New
York, and a lot of black smoke. The first tower to be hit had just fallen less than an hour
before.
I tried to call Chris at work, but the line was busy. As I watched the T.V. I found out planes
had struck the Towers and the Pentigon. At the time, even though all planes had been called
to land, there were still some unaccounted for. Chris then called me about the news and he
told me that the Towers had been completely destroyed. We both wondered if one of the
planes still in the air would hit the Sears Tower, not so far away from us. (We live in the
suburbs of Chicago.)
Watching the T.V. (I stayed glued to it all morning and afternoon) I watched the reports
scrolling the bottom of the screen that many buildings downtown had been evacuated and
closed. All across the area malls and movie theaters closed early and both mom and Chris
called back to try and share news. Steve (yes the same one) called to say Dark Star had been
canceled for the day and did Chris and I want to get together later on?
We did eventually get together that night at the Riverwalk - a park on the DuPage River - to
discuss the events of the day and Soul Essence. Being so close to Chicago there are always
planes flying overhead to and from O'Hare and Midway airports. That night the sky was eerily
empty. I once pointed out the lights of a plane in the distance to the east, but it was figured
the plane must be a military one patrolling the skies of Chicago. Even going back home that
night at almost 11:00 cars were lined up at all the gas stations fearing a gas hike, and one
gas station Chris and I went to had no gas left!
There was something far different about the rest of my vacation.
Email: jenix_77@yahoo.com
