It was a crisp morning. Blue skies. Beautiful September morning.
I was in New Jersey headed for Brooklyn, New York. I had to deliver a load of clothing to a warehouse.
I had the radio on to Howard Stern (not sure why...don't really like the guy, but sometimes his conversations were interesting).
He was interviewing some gal in his studio. He was asking her all kinds of weird questions when all of a sudden he was interrupted.
I was now sitting in traffic waiting to go through one of the few toll booths to cross bridges that connected New Jersey to New York. This area always fascinated me because of the people in the cars. They drive like they are the only ones on the road while weaving in and out. It's amazing there weren't more accidents as they dart back and forth around me.
I am near the outside lane. The roads go from a 4-lane freeway to wide open spaces at the toll booths right back to a massive bottle neck just on the other side.
Howard Stern chimes back in as my thoughts are dashed by his ranting over the radio.
"What?" he yells as you hear paper rustling near his microphone.
"Look at the monitor" a female voice says in the background of the radio.
"What the.....we're being bombed!" Howard yells out.
I look at the radio thinking that he was just pulling some sick joke over the air waves. Bombed, yea right!
Just then, the lights at the toll booths all turned from green to red. Every one of them. Traffic was now stopped. People were getting out of their cars. Some crying, others with their hands over their heads in disbelief. One lady got out of the passenger side and fell to the ground to her knees. She was visibly crying uncontrollably. Many other people were wandering around like they were totally lost, leaving their vehicles behind. It was like a moment out of some horror movie unfolding in front of me.
I watched for a few minutes then had just about enough of Howard Stern and his audience calling in yelling stuff that I couldn't make out. I turned my radio to CNN news to see if I could make sense out of what was going on in front of me.
As the radio tunes in, a man is yelling, "I watched the tower just blow up! I don't know what happened...it just exploded! OH MY GOD" He yells again. My heart skips a beat as I take a deep breath trying to listen to the radio. "Here comes another one...." he yells. His phone goes silent. The news broadcaster comes back on the radio and in a voice clearly cracking from emotion mentions that the man we were listening to was in a building just across from the Twin Towers in New York City.
The story unfolded. A large passenger plane crashed in to one of the Towers. It was thought to be an accident. Then when the second plane crashed in to the second tower, it was now clear that it was terrorism unfolding on America.
Chaos continued in front of me as I tried to maneuver my truck through a slow moving traffic to a side road that could lead me back to the freeway. I needed to get out of the area and head to what I would hope to be a safer haven. I ended up in Edison, New Jersey for the night. Not a huge distance, but I was now out of traffic and parked where I could listen to the radio and also see the horizon to the east of me.
The story on the radio continued to unfold as the Pentagon was now hit and another plane went straight down to the ground in Pennsylvania. I looked out over the horizon to what was now a quiet and warm evening in Edison.
Smoke slowly drifted southward from New York City. The setting sun in the west glowed on the smoke to the east. I was outside of the truck now praying for the souls in the buildings and the planes. What could have happened? Why was this happening?
I walked slowly towards the truck when I heard a rustling in the trees across the parking lot. I was the only one there. Not another soul around. I watched trees to make out what the sound was. It was a Doe. Her tail twitched as she nibbled on a few leaves from the trees. Her head came up quickly at the sound of my radio in the truck.
There were screams now over the news. I could hear that the buildings were now collapsing in on themselves. The news was filled with chaos of confusing interviews and screams.
I looked back at the Doe as tears filled my eyes thinking of all the people that were instantly swept away from this world. The doe was oblivious to anything going on...totally unaware that just across the river was utter chaos and destruction. My heart sunk as I watched the doe slip in to the darkness of the trees never to be seen again.
I prayed again for all the souls. I cried softly for everyone. I prayed again. I will never forget September 11. It is a day that has forever changed life and America as we knew it. From that day forward, everything previous was merely memories in history. America was now going to go down a new path, redirected by the actions of others.
