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I wake up to both my parents watching the TV, which is odd because I usually got up before my mom and we didn't watch TV in the morning. They seem upset about something, and I could see there is a sky scraper on the TV that is on fire. I don't have any context for whether that was something that happened often. My mom has siblings that live in New York and she tells me one of her sisters called her and she's worried for a cousin.
Almost as soon as I take this in the tone shifts. Whatever is going on in New York is no longer sad, it's scary. I know this because my parents are scared and not because I have any idea of what is going on. I wake my siblings up and help them eat breakfast. My parents tell me they won't take me to school today. My mom tries to call her family back east and she can't get through to a single person for hours.
My father tells me we'll be going to war. The TV is filled with News and before now News had always been boring adult stuff. I don't understand what they are talking about, what a terrorist is, what a hijacking is, what the tower is or how many people may have been inside it or why it mattered. It seems like anything could happen or might have already happened. Anyone could die, any landmark I had ever seen on TV could be destroyed. My father tells me that evil people far away are celebrating and good people far away are pledging support.
With the TV occupied by my parents and school cancelled, I spend the day playing with my toys and trying to figure out how Batman would have saved everyone. I can't figure it out and it bothers me because I've never encountered a situation like this before. I bring in my Aladdin doll but even with this back-up the problem seems too much. They can't get everyone out before the towers collapse on them as well.
The next day at school all the girls talked about their daddies maybe going to war, maybe there would be a draft, maybe we would be next because we had an Air Force Base nearby. All the boys wanted to fight, (fortunately the worst of the fighting would be over before they turned 18.)
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