Where Were You?

I woke about 5:30 a.m. and immediately it was clear...I was sick. I reached for the phone, called work, and left a message telling my boss I wouldn't make it in that day. Then I fell back into a fevered sleep.

I woke again at 6:50 a.m. when the alarm I failed to turn off earlier jerked me into consciousness. As I slapped it silent I heard something that didn't make sense. A plane had crashed into the World Trade Center; I fell back into fevered and delirious dreams thinking a small plane had accidentally crashed.

I woke again about 10:15 a.m. and turned on the radio, the local DJ was saying a tower had collapsed. I could barely remember hearing that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center and now he was babbling about a tower collapsing. "What tower?" I thought to myself. I turned the radio off and picked my way to the kitchen for a drink of water, turning on the TV as I walked passed. When I returned to bed I was jarred by the image of the 2nd tower collapsing, people running for safety, a blonde reporter with glasses (I can't remember her name) trying to report the facts and reach safety.

I, like so many others, spent the day glued to the news; watching the horrific events play out on television; watching the terrible video over and over of the towers on fire, a plane crashing into it, and wondering if other planes would be crashing into other buildings.