Remembering

Where was I?

I was on my way to school.
Elementary School.
I was in 6th grade and 11 years old

We were walking along the street on the side walk with a vertical red wood fence circling a corner house.
About a block away from the school.
And somebody mentioned that there had been an attack.
I don't exactly remember where, if it was on the way to school, or when we were picking up people to go to school. But somebody mentioned that a building had been attacked in New York.
The World Trade Center.
And I had no idea what that was.
So I dismissed it.
School....I think there was an undercurrent of fear....but it went pretty normally.
I think I saw an image on the tv in the corner of the room near the ceiling, but when class started the tv was turned off. But I think rumors abounded.
Then when I got home.
My family gathered in the 'reading room'
It has been my brother's and my sister's room throughout the years as well as a computer/reading room.
Basically it was the room upstairs where we had the tv.
I remember sitting behind the wooden rocking chair.
Glancing at the images on the screen.
Knowing that people were dying/ had died. But not wanting to be involved in it.
I watched the images and listened with my family to the news for hours it seems like.
Sticking pretty close together.
Watching over and over those towers falling. Hearing voices commenting on it.
I think I was playing with my stuffed animals.
And at some point probably thought to myself "I don't think I should be watching this"
Which is why I was behind the rocker.
Hiding myself.
Perhaps being fearful.

I don't remember.

I've been pretty distant from the 9/11 attack.
I wasn't affected...personally....as in I didn't know any friends or family that had died there.
I knew that a site in New York had been destroyed.
I've seen a couple of shows about it.
But for some reason this year.
Its struck me harder.
Until this year, I'd focused more on the planes that hit the towers.
For that was more real to me.
I'd flown on planes before.
And to know that they could be used as a weapon...
was frightening.
I knew people had died in those planes.
But it never really sunk in.
Just like I knew they were finding pieces of bodies at Ground Zero.
It didn't sink in that they were pieces of actual people.

It was more like a movie to me.
Where I'd seen the images.
But its hard to believe that those people at the end of the day,
Didn't just get up and walk away, and headed home.
That they weren't actors. They were regular people.

Today and Yesterday.
It became more real to me.
Because I heard the stories, saw the images,
and I think the part that was most poignant to me.
Was to actually have specific names and stories mentioned on those shows.
Have images showing where those people were in the tower, their last words, memories of their families and friends who talked to them before the towers collapsed.
Hearing/seeing those names.
Made the whole 9/11 tragedy
Much more real to me.

May we never forget the events of 9/11
The lives saved, the lives lost.
The heroes both living and dead.
To those in the four airplanes.
The two towers.
the Pentagon
Who lost their lives.
May your deaths have meaning.
That we will never forget.
May we keep together
Stay strong.
And remember.

Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

The Dream

I had placed Kikay's fish in a shallow bowl. because I didn't like the fishbowl they were in.
But I wondered if the edges were too shallow, not steep enough, so the frog could climb out.
And low and behold...the frog did hope out.
And I ended up chasing the frog all over my backyard and my neighbors backyards
I almost caught it once. But then there were like two other frogs...more creepy looking. one was black with a bulbous green back.
Anyway I finally caught up with the frog.
And I was about to grab it.
When a chinchilla type of creature, but more creepy....
snatched up the frog and disappeared into a mouse type hole.
I think with the intention to eat the frog.
And I was devastated because I couldnt' get the frog, and the people who own the frog were going to be devastated....:(
But then I had a friend volunteer to help.
and suddenly it was a couple of hours later and he came up to me and gave me back the frog.
I asked him what deal he had made.
And he showed me a piece of paper with writing on it.
I got a glimpse of Friday and a bunch of numbers -dollar amounts with the total circled.
Basically it seemed like he'd sacrificed Friday nights...to do a dinner night for the creature.
He brushed it off like it was nothing, but I knew it was a sacrifice.

Then the unholy tones of daylight pulled me away....
and I became myself again.

-S.N.D