Thursday, September 10, 2009

8 Years Later...

From For Ellipsis


"Liars share with those they deceive the desire not to be deceived."

-Sissela Bok



:(

It doesn't seem possible that 8 years has already gone by. I will never forget how I felt when Alan called me to tell me what had happened. His phone call woke me from the first good nights sleeps I had had in months. I was staring down depression back then, and along with the sadness came an extreme form of insomnia. But the night before I watched a show with Alan, had a few laughs with him, and then went to bed... and slept. I don't know, maybe it was being able to find some humor or maybe it was because Elvis had cuddled into me so lovingly, I don't know what it was, all I knew is that the phone ringing that September 11th morning didn't disturb me, because for once I felt rested and in good spirits. Then Alan told me what had happened.

He was wondering if I was ok, because he thought I would call him as soon as I heard the news. "Yes, I am fine, but what do you mean the World Trade Center is gone?" I asked. "Where did it go?" Even now his words seem more absurd then reasonable. I couldn't wrap my mind around the perfectly correct English words being spoken to me. Alan, in his frustration, told me to "go turn on the TV, but sit down first." I hung up the phone, walked into the living room, and noticed that there was a little red dot lit on the cable box. "What does that mean?" I thought to myself. I Turned on the TV to see already recorded images of the second plane hitting the WTC and the towers eventual collapse. Most all the events that happened that morning, took place in my sleep. And as I sat watching the inexplicable happen over and over again, all I heard outside was a funny kind of quiet... not even a bird. A little later in the day, the silence was broken by the Ethereal Musician playing America on his sax. It was all so surreal, and yet very, very REAL.

Everything changed that day. America changed. But it didn't have to. :( I wish we could go back to the America of September 10th 2001.

-Carly

1 comment:

Dave said...

You're right Carly. We didn't have to let it change as much as we did by giving into the fear. Thanks for the post.