Remember

Today, 12 years ago, I was getting ready for college classes, and as normal turned on the news. There was a special report on showing a airplane flying to the first of the Twin Towers in New York. No one new what was happening. I remember true shock and astonishment watching the first plane crash into the tower. The tones of the news reporters change as they tried to hold their composure.

Still no one knew what was happening, but I knew something was terribly wrong and i couldn't be alone. I went into Hubby's (my boyfriend at the time) room and told him to wake up. He grumpped and grumbled, but I didn't relent and dragged him into my room to watch the t.v. We stood together, astonished to watch the second plane crash into the second tower.

Still we didn't know what was happening. I tried to explain to him about the first tower and then the news reported a terrorist attack. Transfixed in horror we stared at the t.v. watching the fires and then the one of the towers go down. All the phone lines were busy and as the news tried to keep up with the unfolding horror they reported which schools would be closed and which remained opened.

I am still disgustedly ashamed that my college remained open. I didn't go in that day. Hubby was the General Manager of a United Artist Theater and he had to go in a couple of hours later (normally the theater opened around 1 p.m.) to see what corporate said.

We sat around the concession counter, he and I and 2 other employees, listening to a radio. A phone call came in, which Hubby answered, and the theater was ordered not to open it's doors that day. We locked up and drove around town, just to see which businesses were open. It was a ghost town. The only place that seemed open was a Regal Cinimas, offering free movies, popcorn, and drinks in an attempt to help people focus on something other that the  terror, destruction, death, and violation of the day.

We took up that offer, and even though I have no memory of what we watched. I remember standing in my bedroom, staring at a small colour t.v. trying to understand what was happening. I remember watching, helplessly, as people ran from the dust cloud, as the towers collapsed, as people jumped out of the towers to their deaths, ad it all unfolded. I pray to every God and Goddess out there that it never happens again, that the people directly affected can find a sort of peace, that those who were murdered may rest, and those indirectly affected learn, accept, and make peace in their souls.

I know that the Two Towers were not the only places attacked, there there were more planes and places and souls murdered, but I watched the Towers, that's what I remember that day. I have never been so profoundly grateful that my Hubby was next to me that day and that I listened to my instinct.