Excerpt from The Memories Between Us, the Chapter entitled "Open Wounds." Protagonist Joshua witnesses the fall of the Twin Towers:
September 11, 2001
He reached for a container of orange juice, drank straight from it, then picked up the remote and clicked on the news.
"...an unidentified plane has hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center... Hundreds of people are on the street staring up at the Tower and we, like many, are trying to learn what happened."
When the anchor repeated himself, Joshua flipped stations. The breaking news dominated the broadcasts. Speculation. Circumstances unconfirmed. He dashed to his room, grabbed clothing, and dressed in front of the screen. Over the scene, the newscaster shouted, "Another plane has flown into the South Tower." 9:03 a.m.
When he was little and his anxiety would draw in Jane, his mother would say to them, "The Earth won't spin off its axis." He clicked to British news. Same coverage. The massive screen in Times Square displayed the smoking Towers, and again, thousands stood riveted. Today, terror knocked the Earth off its axis. And the entire world watched.
"You seeing this?" he asked Jane into the phone.
"Yeah. People are frantic. What's going on?"
"I don't know, an attack, terrorists, I think, but give Mom and Dad a call and tell them we're both okay. I'm going to try to get a better view."
"Okay. Be careful. Call me back when you know something."
He tied his running shoes, grabbed his keys, and sprinted up three flights of stairs to the rooftop.
Neighbors were already there, and one woman narrated the unnatural scene in strained sadness while she aimed a camcorder at the sight. The destruction he witnessed didn't compare to the tiny twin images on his TV. His stomach clenched. Black smoke poured into the sky from enormous twin chimneys, copious, sinister. The glow in the belly of the buildings seemed nuclear, like two thousand degrees of raw heat.
Others were on the roof now. Shocked exclamations made warped prayers of everyday words. An unnatural rumble began, as though a gigantean beast heaved off the unbearable temperature. The ground beneath them trembled. Joshua stood immobile, transfixed. The South Tower folded in upon itself in unstoppable ruin.
A woman behind him raised a hand to her mouth and stared silently. Incredulity took the form of stilled shock in his body. He had no model to comprehend what had happened, no experience that could shed light on what he witnessed…
He stood, unsure how many minutes more, and watched an enormous cloud of gray dust spread upward and outward.
Ten seconds. In ten seconds, you could uncap a beer and fill a glass, careful not to let the foam spill over the top. In ten seconds, you could unroll and put on a pair of socks or unbutton a long overcoat. In ten seconds, the whole thing came down.
Another shudder vibrated beneath him. Someone yelled, "The second Tower!" His phone beeped. Jane had sent a voicemail twenty minutes earlier. She and Isaac were working their way uptown away from NYU…
Through the day, they gaped at the unrelenting news coverage and called everyone they knew when they could get through. "Are you all right?" "Did you know anybody?" and "I love you, too" were said again and again.
"The Memories Between Us" is available on Amazon and will soon be available worldwide.