Living In Terror Part 2

Tuesday, September 25, 2001

Band practice. Grueling, hot, sunny. Ick, I thought, it's too sticky out here. My boyfriend, Tyler and my friends Eden, Lakesha, Heaven and Lara were getting ready to get into action. The war wasn't stopping us from having school or band practice, which was unfortunate to some people. "See that helicopter? What if it's a spy? What if it's gonna bomb us?" I asked my bf.

He laughed and so did his friends, PJ and Tony. "Girl, u so paranoid. That's just a MAFB helicopter!"

I blushed. "Oh. I knew that!"

Lakesha, Heaven, Lara, Eden, Tyler, PJ and Tony busted out laughing. Soon our band teacher, Mr. M said "Get into your sectionals NOW! Stop dawdling!"

Kesha, Eden and I walked over to the clarinet section where are section leaders Kristen, Ashli and Brittany were standing with the coordinates to the closure. Lara, PJ went to the trumpet section. Tyler and Heaven walked over to the saxophone esection and Tony went to the tubas.

At the end of practice we didn't do the HUSTLE drill as usual. Instead we just prayed and Mr. T told us to pray for the people that had died. I hugged Mr. T and Mr. M and hugged my bf and all my friends. We stood around talking for like 30 minutes until finally our moms got mad and said, "Let's go!"

That night my parents and I had a bad argument and it was so bad that I wanted to just leave. So I left. I walked out the door, slamming it, thinking why didn't I die instead of all those other people? Then I felt bad for saying it and started crying. I was so busy crying that I didn't notice I had walked totally out of my neighborhood until I heard a familiar voice say, "Need a lift somewhere, hon?"

I wiped my eyes and turned around to face Mr. M. "Um i don't think...wait..." I looked around and realized I had no clue where I was. "Um...I guess so."

I got into his truck. "So hows it going?" He asked.

"Um not good really. But I'm okaay." I tried to smile and hoped that my eyes weren't red.

"Where to? Home?" He looked at me for a long time before he said that. I shrugged.

I couldnt stop thinking about the people that had died on the plane and when I looked at his face i just started crying. "my...friend died in the plane that crashed into the World Trade Center " I said. "It was..." I couldn't finish. He parked in the space at the Dairy Queen and looked out the window. His blue eyes were sparkly like they had tears in them, but he wasn't crying. But I was. "Mr. M, i used to be scared of u and now all I can think about is what if u or Mr. T or someone else had died? And I had never gotten the chance to say anything to you? It would have been horrible? ANd i really would have missed u!"

We sat in a booth at Dairy Queen for almost two hours, just talking. It was like...we were on the same adult level. I told him about home and how it felt and how i felt when i heard about the planes. Afterwards, 10:30 he took me home. I said "Thanks, Mr. M. See ya tomorrow."

"Night, sweetie."

When I walked into the house, it was all quiet. The first thing I heard was mom crying. I walked into her room expecting my stepdad to yell at me. All he said was, "Your uncle was killed at the World Trade Center. He was on a plane!"