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1.
AOTW: Where were you on 9/11?
Jennifer Blake: I was at home, where I'd gotten up at 3 AM to work on Wade, a women's fiction story with an activist heroine trapped "behind the veil" in Taliban-held Afghanistan, a woman who is reluctant to be rescued by my hero, Wade Benedict. That morning I had completed Chapter 10. In this chapter, my couple escape to the United States, then realize that the woman's Islamic stepbrother, a militia officer with connections to Osama bin Laden and the al Qaeda, has preceded them in order to carry out a jihad of revenge against Wade and his family. I hit "Save" on my computer and went upstairs to have morning coffee while watching CNBC with my husband. I was just in time to catch the first report of a plane crashing into one of the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center. Standing in front of the TV, I put my finger on a bright, moving dot flying near the towers. "Look," I said. "Isn't that a helicopter or another plane? What do they think they're doing?" I was still touching that plane when it hit the second tower, indicating a terrorist attack.
Earl Merkel: You know how the newspapers said people flocked to churches when they heard the news? Well, I was already in one --- and I ran to find a television set.
September 11 is my mother's birthday, and ever since she died several years ago I've made it a practice to stop by a church for a few minutes on that day. This was a few minutes past eight, Central Time. There was a handful of people scattered around the church --- older folks, one or two people dressed for the commute downtown. The usual crowd, nothing special.
So I had just stood to leave when a priest burst through the doors and sprinted to the pulpit --- no exaggeration; I've never seen anyone that age move so quickly, certainly not in a church. He said, "Something terrible has happened in New York. I want to ask for your prayers for all the dead."
No additional details, no elaboration. I had no idea what the hell he was talking about.
It didn't appear likely I'd find out more. I wish I could say I stayed to pray, but after a minute or so I slipped out a side exit and ran to my car. While I was running, my wife called from her school --- something she never does. That's when I found out about the terrorist attacks.
Like everybody, I spent most of the day never out of sight of a TV screen. The whole ghastly day, flipping through all the channels and simply trying to absorb what these murderous bastards had done to the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Even at that, I don't think the full import hit me until about five that evening, when I stood outside. A clear, warm, brilliantly sunlit day --- a clear blue sky, no clouds --- and I suddenly realized there were no contrails from aircraft, either; that's unheard of when you're on the landing approach patterns for O'Hare airport. No jet-noise either. The only real sounds were the carloads of teenage boys --- all of 'em in a testosterone frenzy, driving like madmen in cars festooned with anything they could find that was red, white and blue.
I think that's when it fully struck me: so many had died, so much had changed --- all in an eye's blink.
Philip Jolowicz: I was in the UK round at my parent's house near to where I live. My wife rang me and told me to switch on the TV. I spent the rest of the day in the same spot numbly watching the screen.
Lori Woolridge: I was at home in New Jersey getting ready to come into the City when the first plane struck the World Trade Center. My husband, who used to work at Cantor Fitzgerald, was in New York at his office in Midtown. We stayed on the phone all morning in agonizing disbelief.
Bruce Feiler: I was at home that morning in lower Manhattan and watched the towers fall from the home of neighbors I hardly knew. It was the most beautiful, clear day any of us could remember. Like everyone else, I was mute for several weeks as slowly we began to hear the questions --- Who are they? Why do they hate us? Can the religions get along? For years we had been told that the big struggle the world would face in the new century would be the Islamic world versus the Judeo-Christian world. And suddenly that moment seemed to be at hand. Was this the start of the end of the world?
Jim Fusilli: Morocco. I watched the events unfold on BBC and, thanks to some very dear people in Paris, I was able to get to France early the following morning. I spent the next few days trying to get a flight back to New York.
William Carman: I was on my way to work when I first heard about it. I teach at Boise State University in Boise, Idaho. It was very difficult to deal with in class that morning.
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