Day 288 10 Years

Mrs. B is one of my favorite teachers even though I only have her for homeroom. She has a big smile and I sit in the back row of the classroom, right next to her desk when it happens. Our principal, a man who regularly features in our morning announcements in the form of gator-puppets, comes on the air then,

"Teachers please turn on your TVs...the Twin Towers..."

My first thought is, 'What are the twin towers?'

Then the TV goes on and I see this image of burning buildings. I'm not horrified. Just sad, very, very sad at this horrible accident.

...And as the hour of coverage follows, we come to understand that it's not an accident, none of the events of that day were accidents and I'm just shocked beyond shocked that there could be something out in the world that could plan this expanse of soot and fire and death and homeroom is even over, I'm beyond horrified. 


I'm crying when I walk into my Earth, Space and Science class with Mr. D. I take my seat next at the back, black table with Shay, Mila, and Kali, an old friend that would move to Texas that summer after 8th grade and we'd never really hear from thereafter. And I can't seem to stop crying, bordering on the hysterical, asserting that the repercussions of this day would last for years. Shay laughs off the idea... that following year, our English teacher will talk about the possibility of Army drafts and she'll remember this moment too. I don't remember if we actually had class that day, I don't remember much else during that day, and I'm not sure it matters.

All I knew then and there before noon was that something awful, terrifying had happened and I was just honestly... devastated.

In the weeks that passed, we'd go over the theories of Nostradamus and speculate on war and so on and so forth and, really, none of it mattered because the towers fell and people died and a country mourned and raged and cars started flying the flag left and right and we started a war that never ended...


The TV doesn't stop reminding me about that day now, every other commercial acting as an ad for a movie about 9/11 or telling me to thank a Firefighter/Emt/Police Officer for putting their life on the line every day. Like my aunt's funeral, I don't think it's something I could really forget...