Heads or Tails: The day the music stopped

Kurt woke me up. By the urgency in his voice it seemed important, but when I sat in front of the TV to see smoke pouring from one of the twin towers I was confused. It looked like a Saturday Night Live skit. I couldn’t figure out why Kurt woke me up. Both of us sat and watched quietly. He was shocked and I was still sleepy at that point.

I worked the swing shift (3pm to 11pm) as a security guard. It was the only job I could think of that would allow me to do homework while working. I was going to start my second year of college that fall.

As I started to wake up to the fact that this was in fact live and real TV it was time for Kurt to leave for work. I stared at the TV and figured it must be a horrible mechanical error. Maybe something happened to the pilot as in a heart attack or something. The idea that some group would attack the US never occurred to me.

Kurt gave me a kiss and left for work. I don’t remember discussing what we were watching on TV at all that morning. Normally we would be tossing ideas around and possible scenarios, but this was too big. It was too shocking.

I watched Kurt leave from where I was sitting on the couch. We were living in a rental house that we fondly refer to as the house of mold. I could see him through the picture window as he left the driveway and went down the street out of view.

My attention went back to the TV. I watched in silence as the second plane hit. Clearly, this was no accident. Some very well organized group or country was making a strong declaration. I knew immediately that my phone would be ringing soon and I would be called into work. Within minutes I received a call from the day shift supervisor. “Are you watching the news?”

“Yes”

“Can you uumm come in?”

In a daze, “Yes” I told the day shift supervisor. He explained that the powers that be wanted to beef up security at the site we worked. Considering the industry of that site, it was highly understandable. I didn’t want to miss a moment of what was happening on the TV screen, but I went anyway. I kept the TV on as I got ready to leave for work again and left just after seeing footage of specs that were clearly people jumping to their death.

I arrived at work to find the day shift supervisor hunched over listening intently to an old one-speaker clock radio the sight of which would have been hysterical if it weren’t for the situation. About fifteen minutes after I arrived at work we heard news that the South tower collapsed. We listened to the radio all day and during our rounds would stop and chat with the workers. I arrived back to the security center after my first set of rounds to hear on the radio that the second tower was collapsing. Everyone that had any kind of radio was listening to it and had at least two or three others listening with them. I don’t think a single bit of work was done that day. At the security center, people would stop by and chat with us, and we would compare the news of other airplanes being involved from one station verses the news from another. The whole day felt like the most realistic nightmare I had ever had. I was in an odd sort of trance that kept me very alert in regards to my job.

In the weeks to follow, it was simply amazing to see what seemed like the whole world rally around the US. It felt like we had finally come to the realization that the world is a tiny close-knit community and the differences between us were temporarily removed. It’s terrible that a tragedy is required to make us aware that we’re all the same. The bumbling idiot president rose to the occasion and did well until loose connections to Iraq were made and split us in half again.

For more 9/11/01 go over to Skittle’s Place where Heads or Tails Tuesdays were invented.