By Peter K. Lam
Foreword
The story you are about to read is based on the events of September 11, 2001. I wrote this for one of my college English courses. There will be many parallels between my story and the actual events of September 11. None of these parallels are done by accident. I hope that you enjoy my story and maybe it will inspire you as it has inspired me.
You know, I love going to school. School is so fun! I get to learn so much and play with other kids. I like playing tag and cops and robbers. But the best part about going to school is, both my mommy and daddy take me to school. We do the same thing almost everyday. Daddy wakes me up and gets me to brush my teeth and stuff. He usually brushes his teeth when I do too.
You know what’s funny about my dad, he always makes funny jokes. He’s such a big goof. Every morning puts on shaving cream and he shaves. I wonder when I’m going to shave. I want to be just like Daddy. I watch him shave and he’d catch me sometimes.
“What are you looking at kiddo?” he asks.
“Nuthin’,” I reply smiling.
Daddy grins at me and sometimes he take some shaving cream and smudges it on my nose. I laugh as Daddy chases me around the restroom with his can of shaving cream. That’s when Mommy comes in to scold us. She’s always like that but she’s really nice sometimes too.
“Stop playing,” Mommy said looking at me then to Daddy, “BOTH of you. You’re going to be late.”
“Aww man!” both Daddy and I sighed.
We eat the same breakfast everday. Daddy and Mommy eats bacon and scrambled eggs. I don’t like that so I eat cereal. Cereal’s good for you, at least that’s what Mommy says. We ate breakfast really fast because Daddy was going to be late for work. They usually drop me off at school first but today, we dropped Daddy at work first.
“Well, kiddo, I’ll be seeing you later tonight, okay?” Daddy asks.
“Okay Daddy!” I shout as Daddy turned to kiss Mommy.
“I love you, honey.”
“Pick you up at five?” asked Mommy
“Probably a little later. I have a deadline to make,” responds Daddy as he closed the car door.
He waved us good bye as Mommy got back onto the street. Daddy is so cool and the place he works at is so fun! The buildings he’s in is really tall too. Daddy says they’re called the World Trade Center or something like that. I like that place a lot. It reminds of the a king’s castle or something. It’s so high up and mighty that it’d never fall down. Mommy and Daddy say that the two tallest buildings are called the Twin Towers. Whenever I look all the up the building from the ground, I feel like an ant looking up at a giant.
So I head to school. My mom drove me to school and walked me to class. I was almost late but my teacher was really nice and said it was okay. After I hugged and kissed Mommy good-bye, I followed my teacher to the cubby where I put my backpack and lunch box. Everyone in the class got a little section with their name on it where they can put their stuff in. There’s this one lunch box that one of my friends have that I really want. It has this really cool fire truck on it and it’s moving fast like it’s going to save some people or something. I want to be a firefighter when I grow up. I want to help people and be brave. Daddy is really brave. Mommy and Daddy will be proud of me.
As class starts, my teacher had me do math problems which were all easy addition ones. Then, after math time, she decided that we should have recess. During recess, I like to play on the jungle gym and pretend to be a firefighter. My friends and I like being firefighters so we play games about saving people from fires. Every time we play, we make a new story about how we can save people.
Today, I went to the classroom toy chest to find some toy planes because my friends and I wanted to save people from a burning plane. So I grab two planes from the chest and they look really cool. I had to play paper-scissor-rock with my friends to figure out who was going to be the planes and who’d be the firefighters. I was lucky… I got to be one of the firefighters.
It’s a nice day out today, a perfect day to play outside. Sometimes it gets really cold and my teacher won’t let us out to play but today was okay. So my friends start the game.
“Watch out! I’m coming!” shouts Evan as he runs towards me holding the plane high with one arm, “Bombs away!”
He and Joey each control a plane. The two of them ran and leaped onto the jungle gym and made a crashing noise like they crashed or something. They started screaming for help.
“Please someone help us! Our plane has crashed!” cries Joey.
“Don’t worry! We’re here to save you,” I exclaimed, “We’re firefighters!”
So Billy and I, the firefighters, raced over to the jungle gym to help save the people burning in the planes stuck on the jungle gym. Usually I have a lot of fun playing firefighters but I didn’t feel so happy today. What if this were real? It wouldn’t be nice to have people really be in a plane fire…
I got bored of playing really fast today. My friends stopped too and we decided to play tag instead. A bunch of other kids wanted to join us since we were having so much fun. We started to get a second game going when I noticed Ms. Steinbeck, one of the mean teachers, talking to my teacher. What are they talking about?
Ms. Steinbeck and my teacher talked for a short while. Ms. Steinbeck whispered something in my teacher’s ear. I couldn’t hear what they were saying from where I was standing but it was probably bad. Ms. Steinbeck probably tattled on someone because my teacher looked very sad. Ms. Steinbeck is such a meanie. Why can’t she just leave us alone and let us be happy? She always wants to make people sad and mean just like her.
I want to get back into the game but as I got ready to, my teacher called the end of recess. She stood very sternly and was really unhappy. See, I knew Ms. Steinbeck tattled! My teacher gathered all the kids and headed into the classroom.
“We shouldn’t be outside right now,” she said, “It’s not safe.”
I didn’t understand what she was talking about. What wasn’t safe? Anyway, I wanted to play some more but I didn’t want to break the rules. We went back to our seats and my teacher had us lay our heads on the table and be silent as she read to us. I knew something was wrong because we only put or heads on the table and be silent when we get in trouble. Did someone do something and get caught by Ms. Steinbeck?
My teacher started reading and I didn’t like the story at first. It sounded like some kind of fairy tale or something… I wasn’t really paying attention. But as my teacher read some more, I found out that she was reading The Lion King to us. That’s one of my most favorite stories! I like because Simba, the little lion cub, grows up to be the lion king after his daddy died. Simba had to fight his evil Uncle Scar to become king though. It’s sad that Simba lost his daddy. I hope I never lose my daddy.
My teacher continued reading and then some of my friends’ mommies showed up for pick up. I looked at the clock and it was 10 AM. I know that because I just learned to tell time a few weeks ago. Daddy taught me how so I’d be ahead of the class. He’d be so proud. I didn’t know today was a short day. The teachers must have forgotten to tell us about it. That’s okay though because I’ll get to surprise Daddy when I go with Mommy to pick him up.
Some of the kids in my class started to leave. Others have already gone. As I perked up my head from my desk to glance around, I saw Mommy come into the classroom. I was so happy to see her and I almost jumped out of my chair. I went to get my stuff and said bye to my teacher before I ran to Mommy. She gave me a big hug and tried to smile. I gave her a big hug too but Mommy seemed sad. I was going to let go so I can walk out with her but she held onto me tightly. She carried me instead.
“Mommy, I can walk by myself,” I reminded her as she carried me out of the classroom.
“That’s okay, honey. I want to hold you,” Mommy replied.
I didn’t say anything more. Walking down the hall of the school, I saw many kids going home with their mommy or daddy. Everyone should be happy but no one seemed to be. Everyone seemed really blue. I wanted to ask Mommy something but her phone rang. She fumbled through her purse and took out her phone to talk as we walked out of the school. The street was filled with people and no one was driving in the cars. This is really weird because I’ve never seen this many people outside at once before.
“Hello? Any news?” Mommy asked the person on the phone as she started to walk the opposite direction of everyone else, “Do you know where he is? Is Eddie okay?”
“Mommy, where are we going?” I asked as we pushed our way through the crowd.
Everyone walked the opposite direction from us. No one was smiling. Everyone was calm and sad. I don’t know how I know but I can see it in their faces. Some people were hurt and some looked white like ghosts. Mommy and Daddy always told me it’s impolite to stare so I looked away so I wouldn’t be rude. “Where are we going Mommy?”
“It hit both towers, Jenny! He’s still in there! What am I going to do?” Mommy said to the person in her phone.
I don’t understand what’s going on. Mommy started talking really fast and I her say Daddy’s name. She said something about explosions too. Why’s Mommy talking about Daddy like that? Why’s she sound so scared? Why does everyone look scared?
“Mommy, what’s going on? Why are all these people on the streets? What’s wrong? Mommy…” I asked but Mommy didn’t hear me. She was on the phone.
Once she hung up, she turned to look at me. Mommy was sniffling like she was about to cry. I know because I do that when I want to cry. Her eyes were a little wet like she had cried already. Something was wrong. I knew it. I started to sniffling too and my eyes started to tear.
“It’s going to be okay. We’re going to go find Daddy.”
“What’s wrong Mommy? Why are you crying? Where’s Daddy? Where did Daddy go?”
Afterword
In the post September 11th world, many people cannot go place without fear of being a victim of terrorism. Because terrorism is now a major problem and concern for contemporary society, I thought it would be best to for my story to be based around that.
First of all, after having read my story, you may have noticed that a few names have been thrown out into story at random. These names do not in any way help to mold the characters in my story. The names are very ordinary as well. This is because I wanted them to be ordinary. Anyone can be named Jenny, Evan or Joey. This way, any ordinary person can easily relate.
Another thing you may have noticed is that the mother, father, and son are all unnamed. I choose to keep them anonymous because the events that they experienced are unique to them. Giving them a name could make their character more accessible to the average person and these characters are not average people. They are one of the few people with the direct experience of the events of September 11 and it would be an insult to their memory to try to pretend that I know remotely how they feel or what they went through because I do not.
I know that these are all just fictional characters but I attempted to portray what it must have been like to be a victim of the terrorist attacks on September 11th. This is a tribute to those people and I hope that they can find peace after the scars of this unforgettable day. The documentary I watched is 9/11: The Filmmaker’s Commemorative DVD Edition. It is a film by Jules and Gedeon Naudet along with James Hanlon. This film shows the events of September 11th from the firefighers’ perspective. It is inspirational and heartfelt film that truly brings the proper respect and reflection to the events of September 11th.
9/11
By Peter K. Lam
Foreword
The story you are about to read is based on the events of September 11, 2001. I wrote this for one of my college English courses. There will be many parallels between my story and the actual events of September 11. None of these parallels are done by accident. I hope that you enjoy my story and maybe it will inspire you as it has inspired me.
You know, I love going to school. School is so fun! I get to learn so much and play with other kids. I like playing tag and cops and robbers. But the best part about going to school is, both my mommy and daddy take me to school. We do the same thing almost everyday. Daddy wakes me up and gets me to brush my teeth and stuff. He usually brushes his teeth when I do too.
You know what’s funny about my dad, he always makes funny jokes. He’s such a big goof. Every morning puts on shaving cream and he shaves. I wonder when I’m going to shave. I want to be just like Daddy. I watch him shave and he’d catch me sometimes.
“What are you looking at kiddo?” he asks.
“Nuthin’,” I reply smiling.
Daddy grins at me and sometimes he take some shaving cream and smudges it on my nose. I laugh as Daddy chases me around the restroom with his can of shaving cream. That’s when Mommy comes in to scold us. She’s always like that but she’s really nice sometimes too.
“Stop playing,” Mommy said looking at me then to Daddy, “BOTH of you. You’re going to be late.”
“Aww man!” both Daddy and I sighed.
We eat the same breakfast everday. Daddy and Mommy eats bacon and scrambled eggs. I don’t like that so I eat cereal. Cereal’s good for you, at least that’s what Mommy says. We ate breakfast really fast because Daddy was going to be late for work. They usually drop me off at school first but today, we dropped Daddy at work first.
“Well, kiddo, I’ll be seeing you later tonight, okay?” Daddy asks.
“Okay Daddy!” I shout as Daddy turned to kiss Mommy.
“I love you, honey.”
“Pick you up at five?” asked Mommy
“Probably a little later. I have a deadline to make,” responds Daddy as he closed the car door.
He waved us good bye as Mommy got back onto the street. Daddy is so cool and the place he works at is so fun! The buildings he’s in is really tall too. Daddy says they’re called the World Trade Center or something like that. I like that place a lot. It reminds of the a king’s castle or something. It’s so high up and mighty that it’d never fall down. Mommy and Daddy say that the two tallest buildings are called the Twin Towers. Whenever I look all the up the building from the ground, I feel like an ant looking up at a giant.
So I head to school. My mom drove me to school and walked me to class. I was almost late but my teacher was really nice and said it was okay. After I hugged and kissed Mommy good-bye, I followed my teacher to the cubby where I put my backpack and lunch box. Everyone in the class got a little section with their name on it where they can put their stuff in. There’s this one lunch box that one of my friends have that I really want. It has this really cool fire truck on it and it’s moving fast like it’s going to save some people or something. I want to be a firefighter when I grow up. I want to help people and be brave. Daddy is really brave. Mommy and Daddy will be proud of me.
As class starts, my teacher had me do math problems which were all easy addition ones. Then, after math time, she decided that we should have recess. During recess, I like to play on the jungle gym and pretend to be a firefighter. My friends and I like being firefighters so we play games about saving people from fires. Every time we play, we make a new story about how we can save people.
Today, I went to the classroom toy chest to find some toy planes because my friends and I wanted to save people from a burning plane. So I grab two planes from the chest and they look really cool. I had to play paper-scissor-rock with my friends to figure out who was going to be the planes and who’d be the firefighters. I was lucky… I got to be one of the firefighters.
It’s a nice day out today, a perfect day to play outside. Sometimes it gets really cold and my teacher won’t let us out to play but today was okay. So my friends start the game.
“Watch out! I’m coming!” shouts Evan as he runs towards me holding the plane high with one arm, “Bombs away!”
He and Joey each control a plane. The two of them ran and leaped onto the jungle gym and made a crashing noise like they crashed or something. They started screaming for help.
“Please someone help us! Our plane has crashed!” cries Joey.
“Don’t worry! We’re here to save you,” I exclaimed, “We’re firefighters!”
So Billy and I, the firefighters, raced over to the jungle gym to help save the people burning in the planes stuck on the jungle gym. Usually I have a lot of fun playing firefighters but I didn’t feel so happy today. What if this were real? It wouldn’t be nice to have people really be in a plane fire…
I got bored of playing really fast today. My friends stopped too and we decided to play tag instead. A bunch of other kids wanted to join us since we were having so much fun. We started to get a second game going when I noticed Ms. Steinbeck, one of the mean teachers, talking to my teacher. What are they talking about?
Ms. Steinbeck and my teacher talked for a short while. Ms. Steinbeck whispered something in my teacher’s ear. I couldn’t hear what they were saying from where I was standing but it was probably bad. Ms. Steinbeck probably tattled on someone because my teacher looked very sad. Ms. Steinbeck is such a meanie. Why can’t she just leave us alone and let us be happy? She always wants to make people sad and mean just like her.
I want to get back into the game but as I got ready to, my teacher called the end of recess. She stood very sternly and was really unhappy. See, I knew Ms. Steinbeck tattled! My teacher gathered all the kids and headed into the classroom.
“We shouldn’t be outside right now,” she said, “It’s not safe.”
I didn’t understand what she was talking about. What wasn’t safe? Anyway, I wanted to play some more but I didn’t want to break the rules. We went back to our seats and my teacher had us lay our heads on the table and be silent as she read to us. I knew something was wrong because we only put or heads on the table and be silent when we get in trouble. Did someone do something and get caught by Ms. Steinbeck?
My teacher started reading and I didn’t like the story at first. It sounded like some kind of fairy tale or something… I wasn’t really paying attention. But as my teacher read some more, I found out that she was reading The Lion King to us. That’s one of my most favorite stories! I like because Simba, the little lion cub, grows up to be the lion king after his daddy died. Simba had to fight his evil Uncle Scar to become king though. It’s sad that Simba lost his daddy. I hope I never lose my daddy.
My teacher continued reading and then some of my friends’ mommies showed up for pick up. I looked at the clock and it was 10 AM. I know that because I just learned to tell time a few weeks ago. Daddy taught me how so I’d be ahead of the class. He’d be so proud. I didn’t know today was a short day. The teachers must have forgotten to tell us about it. That’s okay though because I’ll get to surprise Daddy when I go with Mommy to pick him up.
Some of the kids in my class started to leave. Others have already gone. As I perked up my head from my desk to glance around, I saw Mommy come into the classroom. I was so happy to see her and I almost jumped out of my chair. I went to get my stuff and said bye to my teacher before I ran to Mommy. She gave me a big hug and tried to smile. I gave her a big hug too but Mommy seemed sad. I was going to let go so I can walk out with her but she held onto me tightly. She carried me instead.
“Mommy, I can walk by myself,” I reminded her as she carried me out of the classroom.
“That’s okay, honey. I want to hold you,” Mommy replied.
I didn’t say anything more. Walking down the hall of the school, I saw many kids going home with their mommy or daddy. Everyone should be happy but no one seemed to be. Everyone seemed really blue. I wanted to ask Mommy something but her phone rang. She fumbled through her purse and took out her phone to talk as we walked out of the school. The street was filled with people and no one was driving in the cars. This is really weird because I’ve never seen this many people outside at once before.
“Hello? Any news?” Mommy asked the person on the phone as she started to walk the opposite direction of everyone else, “Do you know where he is? Is Eddie okay?”
“Mommy, where are we going?” I asked as we pushed our way through the crowd.
Everyone walked the opposite direction from us. No one was smiling. Everyone was calm and sad. I don’t know how I know but I can see it in their faces. Some people were hurt and some looked white like ghosts. Mommy and Daddy always told me it’s impolite to stare so I looked away so I wouldn’t be rude. “Where are we going Mommy?”
“It hit both towers, Jenny! He’s still in there! What am I going to do?” Mommy said to the person in her phone.
I don’t understand what’s going on. Mommy started talking really fast and I her say Daddy’s name. She said something about explosions too. Why’s Mommy talking about Daddy like that? Why’s she sound so scared? Why does everyone look scared?
“Mommy, what’s going on? Why are all these people on the streets? What’s wrong? Mommy…” I asked but Mommy didn’t hear me. She was on the phone.
Once she hung up, she turned to look at me. Mommy was sniffling like she was about to cry. I know because I do that when I want to cry. Her eyes were a little wet like she had cried already. Something was wrong. I knew it. I started to sniffling too and my eyes started to tear.
“It’s going to be okay. We’re going to go find Daddy.”
“What’s wrong Mommy? Why are you crying? Where’s Daddy? Where did Daddy go?”
Afterword
In the post September 11th world, many people cannot go place without fear of being a victim of terrorism. Because terrorism is now a major problem and concern for contemporary society, I thought it would be best to for my story to be based around that.
First of all, after having read my story, you may have noticed that a few names have been thrown out into story at random. These names do not in any way help to mold the characters in my story. The names are very ordinary as well. This is because I wanted them to be ordinary. Anyone can be named Jenny, Evan or Joey. This way, any ordinary person can easily relate.
Another thing you may have noticed is that the mother, father, and son are all unnamed. I choose to keep them anonymous because the events that they experienced are unique to them. Giving them a name could make their character more accessible to the average person and these characters are not average people. They are one of the few people with the direct experience of the events of September 11 and it would be an insult to their memory to try to pretend that I know remotely how they feel or what they went through because I do not.
I know that these are all just fictional characters but I attempted to portray what it must have been like to be a victim of the terrorist attacks on September 11th. This is a tribute to those people and I hope that they can find peace after the scars of this unforgettable day. The documentary I watched is 9/11: The Filmmaker’s Commemorative DVD Edition. It is a film by Jules and Gedeon Naudet along with James Hanlon. This film shows the events of September 11th from the firefighers’ perspective. It is inspirational and heartfelt film that truly brings the proper respect and reflection to the events of September 11th.
About Peter K. Lam
Peter is a creative writer and an internet marketing specialist that has launched and managed many websites. He writes many fan fiction and original stories in addition to blogging and creating websites. Peter constantly researching the latest trends in internet marketing (i.e. SEO, SEM, email marketing, etc.) Currently Peter works for BowTie, Inc., the publisher of pet and hobbyist magazines such as DOG FANCY, CAT FANCY, Hobby Farms and more. Today Peter continues to write a variety of different works ranging from fiction to blogging in addition to creating and maintain new websites.