My 911

 

     I was running late for work as usual. Seeing as I worked 15 minutes from the Galleria, I could take my time. It was close to 9am and I was about to turn off Good Morning America when they announced a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. Just as I was about to turn the tv off to head for work, I saw the 2nd plane coming in the background of the smoking towers and slam into the 2nd tower. As that happened, a synchronized gasp between myself and the hosts of the show was what I remembered. I stood there in disbelief. "What is going on?" I remembered thinking. I finally composed myself enough to go to work. At that time, I was working in an International Building. People from all walks of life. and that Tuesday, we were scheduled to have a fire drill. well, we didn't have the drill that day. Thank God! With all the commotion of the day, everybody just figured that it was postponed. Come the next morning. Another beautiful day. I went to work but I couldn't concentrate. I hadn't heard from friends in New York and I wanted to hear from everybody I knew. I kept calling friends and getting calls asking if they had heard from so and so. Everyone was accounted for but one. All at once, the fire alarm goes off! All you see is lawyers and secretaries running down the stairs in frantic! I saw one lady who kept on typing in her chair like nothing was happening, and me thinking how crazy the woman was. Once we got down to the outside of the building with everybody else, we're all standing around wondering what was going on. I took it upon myself to ask the building people, and that's when he shouted for all to hear that it was a false alarm! They had gotten the date of the fire drill wrong and forgot to turn it off! Needless to say, everyone was on pins and needles at work. Nobody wanted to be there. But we knew we had to keep things going. At night time, it was like living in a Terminator movie with the black hawk helicopters hovering over the city. Nobody could sleep. we watched the news all night. Oh yeah, That one unaccounted friend who nobody had heard from was one of the many who walked across the Brooklyn Bridge to stay at a coworkers apartment because she couldn't get to her home.  We found out a few days after. And today, Sept. 9th, well, today is her birthday.
     This was my 911. What's your story?