by Bee Rock

Created on: July 08, 2008

It was September 11th 2001. I was asleep at about 10 am and awakened 5 minutes later by a pounding on the door of my bedroom. It was my roommate, Ryan. "The world is coming to end!" He cried excitedly, almost in a good mood. I rubbed my eyes and my roommates and I fixed ourselves upon the television to watch history unfold. We saw the plane hit the second tower in New York. I was shocked, but in my little safe haven of Grand Rapids Michigan, it didn't impact me extremely hard. Not yet, anyway.

My grandmother was in the air flying on September 11th. My mom kept trying to locate her, fearing for the worst. She finally was located that afternoon, safe and sound in South Carolina with a diverted flight. I could breathe easily again. Temporarily.
At around 6pm my mom called me on the phone. My family was going to a prayer vigil. In Grand Rapids people were lining up at the gas pumps, freaking out and thinking the world was coming to an end. "Midwest country bumpkins" I thought to myself. I decided to decline the prayer vigil. My 19 year old 8 month pregnant sister, Lindsay, my two brothers and my parents were going anyway. I cautioned my mom "just stay inside and don't go anywhere. People are going crazy out here. It's not safe"
"It will be fine," she reassured me. They had a mission, to pray for the families of the victims of 9/11. I sat back down melted to my couch. I had a bad feeling about this for some reason. As President Bush made his famous speech at 8pm and quoted the Bible "Yea though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I will fear no evil; for Thou O Lord art with me" the phone rang, shrilly and startled me out of my trance. It was my mother again.
"Steve, you need to come down to Alpine Avenue." She said in a funny voice I wasn't used to hearing. Maybe I was just stoned and imagining it. Maybe not.
"Why?" I asked. It was late; I had already told her I didn't want to come down there because people were going crazy. Why must she incessantly call me on September 11th?
"Lindsay has been in an accident." She said in that funny voice. Now, Lindsay was 8 and a half months pregnant and looking forward to being a mother. She was married for a few months, and was only 19 but had a good head on her shoulders.
Instantly I thought "Oh no...She's gonna lose the baby. She'll be devastated!"
"Is everything all right?" I asked with a lump in my throat.
My mother's voice grew tighter on the phone. "No," was all she said. "Just get here," and with that she

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