“Thank you,” she added, as they confirmed the booking once again.
My mother rushed into the car and we made our way to school. Later that afternoon I joined my friends in the common room. Anna, one of my friends, was scrimmaging frantically in her bag trying to look for her locker key. She wanted to take her blazer out of her locker and wear it, before she went to see the head of year.
“So you leaving tomorrow?” asked another girl who was sitting opposite me.
“Yes,” I replied, in a rather cheeky manner. I was trying to make her feel jealous.
“Oh, you are so lucky. I wish I could come,” said Anna, happy she found her key.
“Yeah, but I am only going for my cousin’s wedding,” I told them still trying to make them feel jealous. I knew I was succeeding and Anna replied,
“But at least you are going to America. Do you know you can buy so many clothes and do a lot of shopping?” Clothes- that was the first thing in my mind.
“You going just to New York?” asked Carina.
“I am not sure yet. We have not planned anything,” I replied. Anna’s stomach started to rumble loudly so she munched on her packet of Walkers crisps.
Behind us sat three Chinese boys. They were whispering about something that they obviously did not want anyone to know. I sat quietly trying to eavesdrop. However, I did not succeed. My ‘ears burning’ I managed to catch two words. ‘Terrorists’ and ‘America.’ However, I was too excited I did not try to figure out what their conversation was about.
At last, it was time to go home. I said my goodbyes and waited for my mother to collect me. I waited for her a very long time, leaning against the rusty gate. I started to bite my painful nail. A few people walked past. Paying more attention on my split nail, I did not realise how long I
had been standing there. After I sorted out my nail, I looked up to find the road infested with children wearing green. I guessed they all attended Roe Green School.
“At last!” I thought as I saw my mother’s car. Relieved, I escaped being trampled by the little rascals. My mother had arrived twenty minutes late. I was angry because I had to wait for her, therefore, I took my anger out on my little sister.
“ Why did you not hurry up? You take so long to come out of school,” I told her.
“ Priti leave her alone,” said my mother. “It’s not her fault,” she added. Sitting in the back for once, my sister giggled. I sat quietly all the way home. “What did you do at school today?” my mother asked.
“Nothing,” I replied too tired to talk.
We arrived home just in time to answer the telephone. I ran into the living room and switched on the television. “I want to watch CITV,” requested my little sister.
“Okay, fine,” I replied, just to keep her quiet. I flicked through all the channels to find that CITV was not coming on.
“See on teletext,” she nagged like a spoilt brat. I did as she said and found that the news was showing on all the channels. I accidentally pressed channel six and it started to crackle.
“Oops, channel six does not work.” I tried to lie and tell her that this was CITV and the television was not working.
“It is working! You are lying!” she screamed making it difficult for my mother to hear on the telephone.
“ Priti, stop messing about,” she called in an angry voice.
Each channel had headlines on America. Not bothering to watch it, I flicked to the channel that my finger was on. Channel four. I sat down on the sofa to see flames on the television. I recognized the buildings as I had visited them on my previous holiday to America. Trying to listen to the news, over my sister’s bawling, I saw an aeroplane heading for the towers. At first, it did not look as though it was heading for the towers but then it was. Some people yelled but the others were speechless. The plane soared through the air and slid into the first tower. It glided like a professional swimmer, gliding into a tremendous swim. Fire blazed after the plane like the ripples in the water formed by the swimmer. Smoke covered the area as people jumped out of the tower to survive. The tower slowly dropped. It seemed like someone had put it all on slow motion, descending until it reached its disastrous destination.
After thirty minutes on the telephone, my mother came into the living room. Her face was rather upset. “What’s wrong mummy,” asked my little sister, wiping her crocodile tears off her eyes with her sleeve.
“We can not go to America tomorrow,” she said. At first, I thought it was all a lie.
“Why?” asked my little sister. I sat quietly as I vaguely knew why. My mother did not answer my sister’s question, because she knew it would be hard to explain. In addition, she knew my sister would ask silly questions.
My mother and my sister left the living room, leaving me to watch a blank television screen. This was due to some technical hitch that the news reporters were having. As I sat there, it suddenly hit me that I could have been on that plane. Holding my breath, I tried to clear my mind. Confusion took over. Just then, my mother returned to the living room and sat beside me. I did not say a word. I could see in her eyes that she was thinking what I was thinking. If the plane had not been fully booked, we might have been on it.
After a few minutes, the news was back on. “A tragedy has occurred in America. Planes have flown into both the towers…” it continued. My mind went blank. All I could visualize was the plane, and the towers, all in flames. I felt numb inside. It felt as though someone was messing around with my mind. Pinching myself repeatedly, I wanted it to be a dream, which I could escape from. I strangely felt heat, as though it was from the television screen. Blazing brightly like a bonfire, I knew it would take ages for the bad news to settle into me.
That evening, hundreds of questions ran through my mind. “What if…?” was what most of the questions asked. I shut my eyes and tried not to think about it. However, every time I tried I saw the plane, and I remembered the telephone call. Although I was not on the plane, I kept having flashbacks of actually being on it. I lay down for a while because I felt pale. My skin was so pale and clammy. All I could hear was the aeroplanes flying low over my house.
