Reply #88: I woke up early

[Ediacara]

My boyfriend at the time had to be at class extremely early, so I kicked him out of bed, and then got up myself. I signed onto the internet and saw a curious photo of smoke and flames coming out of one of the WTC towers. It was so early I thought, "Oh it must be the anniversary of the truck bombs."

I didn't click the link, and proceeded to read my email. Then I put on a pot of coffee and took a shower. Only while I was in the shower did I think to myself, "Now I don't remember flames from the truck bhombs." I hurried out of the bathroom and then clicked the link. I read that both towers had been hit by planes. I ran into my living room and turned on CNN.

Then I called my mother. I was surprised she hadn't called me first. She's something of an insomniac, and is up extremely early with the TV on every day. She was up that morning, but had turned the TV off because she was trying to do some last minute cramming. You see, she and my dad, and about 20 of our family were taking a trip back to the "old country" leaving on 12 Sept 2001 and travelling from Venice to Naples. She was trying to learn some phrases from the phrasebook. My conversation is as follows:

Mom: Peter? What are you calling me so early for?

Me: Are you watching TV?

Mom: No, why?

Me: Turn it on!

Mom: Why?

Me: Someone flew planes into the World Trade Center, they're on fire.

Mom: What? You've got to be joking!

Me: Why would I make a joke about that?

At this point she turned on the TV and said, "Oh shit!" and then yelled across the house, "Bill, turn on the TV right now!" From across the house and over 700 miles I heard my dad say, "Oh fuck!" and nothing more.

I spent most of the day glued to the TV and trying to get ahold of two friends. One lived in NYC and worked around Times Square, which I know isn't terribly close, but you never know. The other was visiting family in Boston and was travelling from Boston to Seattle via LA and on American. Luckily I was off by a few days and he was already safely home.

There were lots of rumors. No one knew what was going on. There was a phantom fire or bomb at the State Dept. There were eight hijacked planes. Bush was nowhere to be seen. He was literally nowhere.

When the towers collapsed I had had too much. I collapsed on my living room floor and wept.