“ Hey James,” said someone from the office.

“Hey,” I said back.

It was a nice day. The sun was shinning through the windows. It was hot. As far as I knew today was going to be great. It was 7:30 am and I was supposed to stay late in the office that night. 8:00 am was my first meeting of the day.

8:30 am my wife called to see how my day was going because she knew maybe today she was going into labor and thought I had been gone for much longer than I actually had—her hormones were messing with her perception of time. After we got off the phone it was 8:35 am. I went on my work computer and began to work. At 9:00 I was in another meeting and then at 9:15 I started to hear screams and crying and people yelling, “Look out the window! A plane is heading right for the North Tower”

A gut-wrenching shake happened. The plane hit. I could see people in the window in the other building. I saw that the plane was on fire. Then I saw him . My best friend standing at the window and the window was smashed so he turned around and fell. I stared out the window in horror, a tear dripped down my cheek.

I called my wife and told her, “Honey, a plane has just hit the North Tower.” I was whimpering and my wife was crying and screaming. I turned to look out the window again because the screams grew louder now. I looked out the widow and I saw a plane headed right for our building. It was 9:30 now. In the noise and chaos, I could still see people jumping from the North Tower.

The plane hit and the whole building started to vibrate rapidly and people were screaming even louder than before. I knew I couldn’t go down the stairs because the plane had crashed under me but I knew what I had to do. I could see people already doing it. My floor was filling rapidly with a black, choking smoke. The sound of glass breaking was frightening. I picked up my desk chair and throw it at the window. It didn’t break at first so I picked it up again and rapidly hit the window over and over. Crack after crack after crack the window shattered. I saw one person run toward me and then he jumped arms out and eyes closed. I stepped to ledge of the widow and looked down. I instantly stepped back with fright and confusion. Then I went to the edge again and closed my eyes, turned around, and prayed. I tried to fight the thought of the pain it would bring my wife and baby—we hadn’t picked out a name yet. I knew once my feet left the ledge there was no turning back. I leaned back feeling my feet leave the edge. I closed my eyes and prayed again. I could hear the wind in my ears and everything went black.