The Last Day | Teen Ink

The Last Day

May 22, 2017
By jenna.wells BRONZE, Crab Orchard, Kentucky
jenna.wells BRONZE, Crab Orchard, Kentucky
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

It was a beautiful morning,the bright brilliant blue sky and temperature was perfect. I was even having a good hair day, my curly blonde hair was just right. My Mom and Dad say it highlights my baby blue eyes perfectly. I put on my new dress along with heels, hoping I be taller than my Mom. I was taller than most kids at school but my Mom and Dad were still taller, which gave me an advantage since I played basketball.
“Raegan, are you ready to go dear?” my Mom said.
“Ready!”
I had been wanting to go to work with my Mom since I was eight. Finally four long years later I get to go. I also got lucky at school too, today I got off so I could go and make a report about my Mom’s job. In seventh grade, we researched jobs we wanted to do, but as an eighth grader we got to choose a day to miss school and go to work with one of our parents. We dropped off my little sister Callie at Learning Academy Elementary School. After we dropped her off we walked to my Mom’s office just a few blocks down. We usually rode the subway but I asked my Mom if we could just walk there and she didn’t mind. People were walking on the sidewalk in suits,dresses,running clothes,and people with bright construction vests. Taxis,busses,cars, and trucks sped by and car horns honked (as usual). The buildings reflected the sun and shaded the sidewalk.
My Mom worked in the North Tower of the World Trade Center. My Mom had to be at work at eight so we were doing pretty well considering it was 7:30am, she worked on the seventh floor as a lawyer. As we walked in there were many people in nice suits and dresses. People were talking and  carrying around large brief cases. The elevator was near the large doors on the right. We stepped into the elevator, which smelled like paper and cardboard to me.
“Thirty please” my Mom said.
A nice young lardy replied “sure”
There were eight people in the elevator, there was a man with a brown briefcase who must have been a lawyer or worked for one because in his left hand he he held a rather large book that on the cover said “LAW”. My Mom pointed out how many floors there were just looking at all the buttons in the elevator. When we got off the elevator, there was a nice painting of some red chrysanthemums. We walked down a long hallway and walked into the third door on the right. As we entered I saw the door with my Mom’s name on it “Heather Taylor”. My Mom’s office was huge, three ladies greeted us as we entered. My Mom’s desk was in a little room to the left. The ladies were organizing papers and taking phone calls. Behind my Mom's desk there was a large window almost a glass wall, you could see at least half of New York. There were plies and piles of paper stacked upon her desk. I hadn't realized how much work she did. Planes were pretty loud in this building compared to to shorter buildings, my Mom reassured me that it was just normal. She told me about how cases work and how she helps clients. I got to file a few folders and shelve thick and heavy law books. She explained to me how she researched and came up with plans and evidence to back up her arguments.
      My Mom was typing on her desktop computer while I was filling folders and papers. About five minutes later I hear a loud noise of a plane.
     “Is that loud or is it me?” I asked.
     “Probably just flying a little…”my Mom said.
      BOOM!! Everyone went silent. A plane had just hit the building, about sixty floors above us. My Mom grabbed her purse and we ran to the staircase. People were now screaming and floors above us were already in flame. Parts of the ceiling were falling and melting.
“Go to the stairway now” my Mom yelled.
It smelled like melted plastic, and smoke filled the stairway. Floors right above us were already in flame, parts of the ceiling were falling, melting too. You could hear people screaming and talking. As me and Mom were going down the crowded stairway I thought about my sister Callie, hoping she was ok. I was thinking, Why would a plane have hit the building? Did the pilot have a problem or something? There were large windows by some stairway levels and you could see people on the streets and sidewalks crying and injured. You could hear police and firetruck sirens in the distance. Many policemen and firefighters were already there trying to rescue and save people. Almost ten minutes later another loud “BOOM!”. Another plane had just hit the other twin tower right next to us, you could see it out the windows and unsteady cracked walls my Mom looked at me and said
“I think these planes have been hijacked, one might have been accidental but two has bound to have been planned.”
“Why would anyone do this? This has killed so many people already. What about us will we make it out?”  I asked.
“I’m don’t know, and we still have about ten floors to go.” She replied.
Larger and larger pieces of the building were falling, some even landing on people. The lights were flickering and sirens within the building were growing weak, we kept going stair by stair as the stairway felt like it was shaking. As we went down the stairway the stairs kept growing unstable.
As we reached the fifth floor, the building felt like it was completely shaking and unbalanced. Windows had shattered and the staircase was flaming behind us still and we came to the third floor and it was blocked with parts of the ceiling and walls. We crawled to the broken window just a little bit behind us. I could tell my Mom was really worried, I don’t think she had been that worried before.
“Let’s jump its really our only choice, people have already died and some have jumped out of higher floors.” she said.
I looked back at her really worried
“Ok, I Love you” I said.
I grabbed her hand as we stepped off, I closed my eyes and thought about Callie wondering if she was okay.


The author's comments:

I wrote this around September because I was thinking about what it must have been like to be in New York the day of 9/11.


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