The Meat of the Matter

Where I Was

On that day, I was lucky enough to be a consultant who was getting paid to sit at home and do nothing. Naturally I was asleep when the phone rang at about 7:00 AM. It was my mother, who would never call at that hour unless something was wrong. "Jimmy, you better turn on the TV, it looks like we're under terrorist attack." I turned on the TV. The first tower had already fallen. The second was a conflagration. The news repeated over and over the footage of the second plane hitting the second tower. They also showed the Pentagon damage. Was I dreaming? The scrolling text at the bottom of the screen read, "Authorities believe on of the hijacked planes headed for L.A." This caused me horrible alarm, as I misinterpretted it to mean that another plane would soon crash into one of the LA buildings. I called my girlfriend and woke her up with the terrible news. My sister called me to make sure I wasn't on a plane (as I frequently was in those days.) While she and I were on the phone, the second tower fell. And after that, nothing was ever the same.