“I’m telling you, it was an inside job. Where are the planes? The crash site in Pennsylvania, and a small part of the Pentagon destroyed. Yet there are no turbine engines? No cockpit? Nope, absolutely nothing but bite sized pieces of assorted metals. Oh and the licenses of the hi-jackers, ironically. But you know what? A Boeing 757 wouldn’t evaporate that completely if it fell all the way from the moon. And the damage to the pentagon should of been much larger; the dimensions don’t match the wing span. What it actually looks like is a bomb explosion. Same with the trade centers. In the videos of the collapse, you can see small puffs of smoke on each floor as the building crumbles. It was a damn demolition! Which really doesn’t matter, if Osama or whoever planted bombs then it all makes sense, no big deal. But in the final investigation reports? Nothing. The buildings just fell. Who knows why? They didn’t even test for bomb residue or anything. The evidence is all there mom, it was an inside job. And that’s only the beginning of the whole conspiracy.”
My mother was crying, “That’s enough! I can’t stand to hear anymore. It doesn’t matter who did it because all I can think about is all those people dying… I can feel it…They had families… it’s just too much, okay? What if I had lost you or your father. What if one of you were in the trade centers. Can you imagine how the families must feel, it’s all just too much” She continued to wash the dishes. She wouldn’t look at me.
“But mom, It’s been ten years, and we live in Alabama. Dad and I have never even been to New York.” She stopped, the soaped bubbled and swirled. She unclogged the drain, it made a horrible sound almost like turbine engines.
“You don’t understand, it’s all just too much. It’s too sad. I don’t care if everything you said were true. That day will always be the worst day of my life. I could hear the plane engines before the impact. I could feel myself jumping…or burning…or trying to call home one last time, with no answer. I’m sorry, I just can’t.” Without looking back at me, she disappeared into her bedroom. The door shut. I could hear her sobbing, loudly now. I pressed my ear to the door, then knocked.
And in a moment, I felt that severe impact, and I was in fifth grade again. I was called to the front office during P.E., and my mom was there to check me out. Her jaw tight. And as soon as we drove out of the parking lot, she started wailing. I didn’t know why. Such a terrible sound that hardly resembled her voice at all. I cried with her until we got home. I still didn’t know why. I had never been so afraid. Even after I knew, I never really understood. And then jumped from the lofty heights of the past, back to now.
And I could hear that same lamenting. Years now, down the road.
I could hear all the voices coming from my mother. I could hear the pain. The terrifying last moments of everyone who died that day. Such a terrible weight with every sob. I understood now. Finally. The tears burned and seared my flesh.
I opened the door.
I held her in my arms, and cried. “I understand.” I tried calling out, one last time, but had no voice.