Where I Was

I remember it like it was yesterday. I was getting ready for work when my phone rang. It was my mother, asking if I had the TV on. I told her no. She told me to turn it on, and I saw what was happening. By this time both towers had been hit.

Reluctantly, I left for work, got to the store and made preparations to open up. My coworker, a native New Yorker, was very distressed. We had no TV or radio in the store, so we logged onto the internet (dial up connection) and hit the CNN website. We opened up the store and, of course, we had very little business. My coworker went down to Sears to watch the news on their TVs. She came back and started crying, and I calmed her as best I could. A security guard was walking by and at that moment her walkie-talkie crackled out, "one of the towers has collapsed." My colleague and I looked at each other, and she asked the question that was on my mind, "did I hear what I thought I heard?" I answered, "I hope not..."

Shortly afterward, the mall officially closed and I went home and watched the news all day and into the evening, horrified at the sight of hopeless victims trapped above the fire floors jump to their deaths rather than face being burned alive.