FIVE YEARS LATER

I will never forget that morning. The woman who told me about the World Trade Center was a space cadet, so I didn't take her too seriously. What I understood was that a plane had hit one of the twin towers. I thought it was a little crop duster that had gone off course or something. I knew at least the pilot of that plane was dead so I said the traditional prayer for the dead, "eternal rest grant unto him, o Lord, and may the perpetual light shine upon him." We could see the smoke coming from the Pentagon for days and that was as far away as Silver Spring.

We didn't talk much about it in school tonight.