“The 1993 attack?” the second man responded. “That was weak, if any terrorists try coming in our direction, we’ll be ready.”
If only I had known at that time the great and inescapable irony of those words. I don’t quite remember where the unknown travellers’ conversation went from there onwards. I wasn’t really paying much attention.
It wasn’t long before the bus came to a halt outside the twin towers. And stepping out onto the grey dusty pavement, I turned my neck upwards like I do on numerous days surveying the two immense gargantuan forms of the World Trade Centre buildings which rose so majestically over the skyline of Manhattan.
Returning to reality now, I glanced down at my watch and noticed the time 8:25, before striding proudly and swiftly on towards the entrance of the huge beast like structure that was the south tower.
Walking through the foyer, past the usual bustle, “Oh yes, so not late,” I said to myself as I stepped into the elevator just in time.
“Good morning, Jack, how are you this morning?” said a familiar voice from beside me. It was Bill, one of my work partners who in my daydreaming I had failed to notice standing there in elevator among the dozens of other commuters.
“Not too bad, yourself?” I said inanely, trying to make conversation. “Your kids got off to school alright this morning?” As Bill in his early thirties was already married with children, unlike myself.
“Yeah, Annie’s just started in 3rd grade,” he said as the elevator doors pinged open and we walked out onto the 87th floor.
“That’s just great, Bill.” I said. “Hey, do you know if we’ve got the latest figures back from Syntec on the advances?” I asked, changing the subject.
Bill looked blank, as if thinking over the words I had just spoken to him. And then came the answer, “I’m gonna need to get back to you on that one, the boss hasn’t informed me of any changes in the current situation. I’ll let you get to work while I go make a phone call.” And then he walked off in the direction of his work station.
Sitting down at my desk as I normally do at the start of each day, I switched on my computer and began reading my emails and replying to various clients to keep them happy. After about twenty minutes, having just finished writing a report to the superiors, I looked up to see Bill coming back over to where I was sitting. I noticed however, a curious expression on his face; it was not of fear exactly but more of concern.
“Has there been any news?” I asked.
“The boss needs me over in the north tower right away to discuss some figures,” was the answer.
“Well you had better get off then, I’ll see you later,” I told him. The next thing I knew, he was off back down that elevator on his way to the 94th floor of the north tower.
I looked at my watch now, the time was 8:55. “I could do with some coffee,” I thought to myself. Walking over to drinks machine I started thinking about the man who looked like Jim Carrey again, “I wonder where he got to?” The machine buzzed mechanically, squirting the black liquid into the cup like some kind of black waterfall splashing down to the murky depths of the unknown. Picking up the cup and preparing to drink its contents I just happened to glance out of the window and looking over to the north tower, I caught sight of a plane which looked like a Boeing 767. I didn’t understand it at first. Where was it heading? Why is it flying so close to the ground? But then it became all too terrifyingly obvious.
The cup just seemed to slip out of my hand, falling inexorably and splattering onto the carpet, for what I had just realised at that moment, the shock was incomprehensible…
“No, no!” I started to shout, “This can’t be happening!”
But I was powerless to intervene, as I watched the kamikaze airliner go crashing headlong into north tower of the World Trade Centre. Suddenly I felt a massive shockwave ripping through the floor, out of the window all I could see was a fireball exploding outwards from where the plane had so unexpectedly plunged into the depths of the massive glass and steel structure.
“Oh my God…” I started saying. “All those people…” At that moment I just collapsed down onto the floor, and moments later the room was full of panic stricken people who were all shouting and screaming in disbelief at the holocaust that had just so tragically occurred.
“Bill, oh no…” I just realised where Bill was. “He must me trapped right near the top, if not dead already.” Suddenly I felt sick my head was spinning, I couldn’t think straight, I was just so paralysed with fear.
“Jack, Jack, get up!” someone was saying to me. “We’ve got to get out of here, they could be planning to strike us this time. We don’t want to be sitting about here if a second plane is on it’s way to plough into this building too. Come on! We’ve no time to waste.”
With that he just pulled me to my feet and we ran as quickly as we could down the fire escape, telling everyone else to do the same. The elevators didn’t seem like such a good idea, seeing as the cables were liable to snap if a plane were to smash into the building.
“Boom, boom, boom!” my heart was pounding. I was thinking about Bill’s kids and how they were likely to be left without a father. “God damn these terrorists!” I said out loud rather abruptly not really thinking about it. The other people agreed with me as we ran quickly down the stairs.
By now we had got to the 10th floor, out of the window we could see massive crowds of people streaming out of the doors at the bottom of the tower as great clouds of dust and debris came raining down, engulfing the whole are in an envelope of despair. But than catastrophically, without warning a great jolt came ripping through the floor, I went flying and smashed my head on a wall, it was at that point we realised that other plane had collided.
“Come on!” shouted one of the guys. “We need to get out of here stat!”
I felt the top of my head and realised it was bleeding, so I painfully followed on down the flights of stairs. “9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2… almost there,” I thought. Pieces of debris were falling down all around as we rushed out of the door for the last time before a massive heap of steel and destroyed building fell down in what used to be the foyer of the south Tower of The World Trade Centre.
It was like a war zone. I looked up and saw the burning flames emanating from inside the north tower which obviously did not have long to go. People all around were rushing about and screaming; in a single day Manhattan had become hell on earth…
To interrupt this surrealism I heard by cell phone ringing abruptly. Quickly, I grabbed it from inside my suit pocket and held it to my ear.
“Hello?” I said, wondering who could possibly be phoning me at a time such as this.
“Hello… Jack,” said a faint but distinctive voice.
“Bill!” I exclaimed with great excitement in my voice. “You’re alive! Where are you?!”
As the crowds all around me were fleeing as fast as they could away from the structures as they slowly but surely crumbled and fell to the ground, I just stood there, mesmerized.
“Not for long,” he said a frightened and agonizing voice “They’re dead, Jack, all of them… I’m the only one left, and now it’s only a matter of time. It’s been nice knowing you Jack…” a deathly silence followed.
“Bill, Bill, BILL!!!!” I hollered, but to no avail.
And looking up, as if in slow motion I could see his body come hurtling down, to meet his wretched end in a freefall. My face turned white as a sheet as his body hit the floor with a sickening thud right before my own eyes… About twenty paramedics came running towards him… but I knew it was too late…
“Bill, I’m so sorry it had to end like this…” I said crouching down beside him and holding onto his blood soaked hand. And looking down I saw that both his legs were broken in several places, I could tell he wouldn’t make it.
“Ja…(cough)..ck” Bill managed to say, coughing up blood and barely getting the words out. “Tell… my.. (cough, cough) family… I love them…” he breathed his last breath and then he was no more.
“NOOOOOO!!” I cried, the tears pouring from my eyes. My friend was dead and now his children would be without a father
And now, even more seriously, the towers really were collapsing, filthy great clouds of debris were coming down and showering the whole city. I didn’t think twice, not even looking back, I sprinted as fast as I possibly could from what once was the site of the World Trade Centre.
And now in the days that follow, Manhattan will never looks the same again. The skyline has been scarred irrevocably, no one will ever forget the day that the twin towers fell… And now over and over I can hear them singing, voices whispering in my head:
That fateful day on the eleventh of September,
Is one that I think everyone will remember.
No one could have imagined
Or been able to say,
What terrible things would happen that day.
Look up in the sky
See the planes fly by
And in a split second
The streets were all deafened…
A thunderous noise an’
Fear that struck like a poison
Watching in awe,
As we saw the towers fall,
Crumbling to the floor,
The trade centre was gone…
With the hundreds,
And thousands,
Of people all dead…
It seems we’ve been beaten,
Our hearts feel like lead…
In this turmoil and suffering,
What must we do?
If we all work together,
Then we can get through…
