Status: We Will Forever Remember You<3

Nine/Eleven/Eleven

Where Were You When The World Stopped Turning?

Cheyanne took a deep breath as she mounted the stage and began to walk toward the microphone; front and center.

Spread out in front of her, Central Park was completely packed with people standing and watching her, ready for what she had to say. Thousands of New Yorkers, survivors, or ones that lost a loved one at that terrible day, standing in the chill September air, holding lit candles, and American flags.

Cheyanne cleared her throat, begging God not to fail her now, and to give her strength for what she was about to do.

She took a step closer to the microphone, and the twenty-nine year old woman began to sing.

“Where were you when the word stopped turning, on that September day?”

“Do you have to go to work today?” Cheyanne whined to her boyfriend and love of her life, Justin.

“Yes,” Justin said, laughing. “How else do you expect me to pay for this place?”

“I could get a job!”

“No,” He replied back to her.

“But why not? Why won’t you ever let me get a job! I could help you pay for this place, Justin!”

“Because, you are in college right now. With the money I make, I can cover this place, you just need to worry about finishing college, I don’t want you to have to drop out and regret it years later.”

Cheyanne just sighed, realizing that this was a losing battle, and grabbed Justin in a hug.

“Please don’t go to work today.”

“I have to, honey.” He said to her, and she knew that she wouldn’t win this argument, so she sighed sadly. He lifted her face up to his, and gave her a sweet kiss on the lips. “I love you.” He said, “I’ll be back home later tonight, and we can get started on the plans.” He lifted her left hand and kissed the ring that sat on her ring finger as he referred to the wedding plans.

“I love you.” She said to him.

He smiled and kissed her on the forehead, and then the twenty four year old man walked out of the apartment he shared with his fiancé.


The flashback ended, what felt like hours but had just lasted seconds in Cheyanne’s mind as she went on to sing the next line of the song.

“Out in the yard, with your wife and children? Or working on some stage in LA?”

Later that day, Cheyanne groaned of boredom as she sat in her college class, struggling to stay awake.

Focus, she told herself. Focus.

She searched the room for something to focus on, to keep her attention going so that she wouldn’t fall asleep during the Professors lecture.

She settled for the date that was scribbled on the black board behind the Professor; September 11, 2001.


Cheyanne ignored the bittersweet memories, and continued to sing on.

“Did you stand there in shock at the sight of that black smoke, rising against that blue sky? Did you shout out in anger, and fear for your neighbor, or did you just sit down and cry?”

“Can anyone tell me why this may be?” The Professor asked to the class, and just as he picked on a student to answer the questions, a phone rang in the class.

“Alright guys, we’re in college now, you should know better than to have your phones--” But his sentence was cut off when two more phones began ringing, within minutes everyone in the class, including the Professor’s phone were ringing, students began to answer their phones, all sounding panicked.

Cheyanne was confused as to what was going on. Her phone was off in her purse, like everyone else’s was supposed to be.

Her thoughts were cut short, when a panicked yell sounded from one of the students in the class.

“Turn on the T.V! Turn on the T.V! To CNN!” The Professor, still on his phone, quickly sprinted over to the T.V that sat on a cart in the room, turning it on to CNN.

First all that you could see was the World Trade Center, but then there was the smoke. The dark, black, overwhelming smoke that was billowing out of the tower and into the blue sky.

Then, the News Woman’s voice.

There were voices in the background, and then the woman.

“Yeah,” she said as she spoke to someone in the studio. “This just in, you are looking at an obviously very disturbing liveshot there, that is the World Trade Center and we have unconfirmed reports this morning that a plane has crashed into one of the towers of the World Trade Center.”

Everyone in the class sat completely still, all crouched closer to the T.V to hear what was going on.

“The CNN center right now is just beginning to work on this story, obviously calling our sources and trying to figure out exactly what happened. But clearly something relatively devastating is happening this morning there on the south end of the island of Manhattan.”

The woman and a man news caster began to talk about the crash and showing more and more pictures of what was going on.

That’s when it hit Cheyanne.

“NO!” She cried out, ripping out of her chair and going to kneel directly in front of the T.V, holding onto it, as if doing so would tell her exactly what was going on.

And if Justin was okay.


Tears began to swell in Cheyanne’s eyes, the memory too painful to bare.

“Did you weep for the children who lost their dear loved ones, or pray for the ones who don’t know?”

Emily, Cheyanne’s bestfriend in the class sprinted over to her friend who was hunched in front of the television, knowing that Justin was working in one of the Twin Towers that day.

Emily tried to calm her friend, and then the news cast woman’s voice sounded once more.

“Right now we’ve got Sean he is a CNN producer on the phone right now, Sean what can you tell us about what you know?”

“This is Sean, I-I just witnessed a plane that appeared to be cruising at a slightly lower level of altitude over New York City and it appears to have crashed into uhh, I don’t know which tower it is but it hit directly in the middle of, a, on of the World Trade Center Towers.”

“Sean what kind of plane was it? A small plane? A jet?” the woman news caster asked him.

“Uh, it was a jet. Uh, looked like a two engine jet. Uhm, maybe a 737?”

“You’re talking about a large passenger commercial jet?”

“A large passenger commercial jet.”

“And where were you when you saw this?”

“I am on the twenty first floor of Five Pen Plaza.”

“Did it appear that the plane was having any difficulty flying?”

“Uh, yes it did, it was teetering uh back and forth, wingtip to wingtip, and it looks like it has crashed into probably twenty stories from the top of the World Trade Center, maybe the eightieth to eighty fifth floor.”

More and more smoke began to pour out of the tower much worse than before.

Everyone in the class continued to watch, but Cheyanne just put her head in her hands, praying to God to please keep Justin safe.

Ten minutes later Cheyanne finally decided to pay attention again, and listen to the news.

“I’ll talk to my producer,” the man news anchor said, “do we maybe have a witness that has a better view of this than we do? Okay we actually have an eye witness news reporter who is down town at the time and he is with us Dr. J what can you tell us?”

“I can see the World Trade Center from about half the building and about five minutes ago as I was watching the smoke a small plane, it looked like a propeller plane, came in from the west and uhm, uh, about twenty or twenty five stories below the top of the Center it disappeared for a moment and then exploded uhm uh behind a water tower so I couldn’t tell if it hit the building or not.”

“Okay, Dr. J, we are going to take a look at a video take just moments ago of the second plane hitting the World Trade Center, I don’t know if you could see it, but that too was a passenger plane. If perhaps some kind of navigating system or some type of electronics would have put two planes into the World Trade Center within eighteen minutes of each other.”

Cheyanne couldn’t breath. She wasn’t sure which of the towers Justin was in, but it didn’t seem to matter now that two planes had crashed into both of the towers.


At this point, Cheyanne just expected the flashbacks, and ignored them.

“Did you rejoice for the people who walked from the rubble, and sob for the ones left below?”

Cheyanne couldn’t just sit in that classroom all day and not be there, not know what was fully going on, so Emily took her to the scene of the two Twin Towers as they fell apart.

They stood there, being pushed back by the policemen and firemen, the ropes holding them back, as the first tower, the second to be hit, fell. As it hit the ground, the smoke blew past the two women cowering into each other, and seemed to fill the air all around them. Others ran past them, but Emily and Cheyanne stayed, just outside of the heavy smoke, shielded by another building, looking up and praying Justin would make it.

That was at ten o’clock in the morning.

Ten twenty six A.M, nearly an hour and a half after the first plane crashed into the first tower, is when Cheyanne’s life ended. It was when the second, and last, tower fell into nothing, and she knew that there was no way Justin had made it.

And she wept.


“Did you burst out in pride for the red, white, and blue, and the hero’s who died just doing what they do? Did you look up to Heaven for some kind of answer and look at yourself, and what really matters?

“I’m just a singer of simple songs, I’m not a real political man.” She sang, not bothering to change the lyrics of the song by Alan Jackson. “I watch CNN but I’m not sure I could tell you difference in Iraq and Iran. But I know Jesus and I talk to God, and I remember this from when I was young. Faith, hope, and love are some good things He gave us, and the greatest is love.

“Where were you when the world stopped turning, on that September day? Teaching a class full of innocent children, or driving down some cold interstate? Did you feel guilty, because you’re a survivor, in a crowded room did you feel alone? Did you call up your mother, and tell her you love her, did you dust off that Bible at home?

“Did you open your eyes, hope it never happened or close your eyes and not go to sleep? Did you notice the sunset for the first time in ages, or speak to some stranger on the street? Did you lay down at night and think of tomorrow, go out and buy you a gun? Did you turn off that violent old movie you’re watching, and turn on I Love Lucy reruns?

“Did you go to the church and hold hands with some stranger, stand in line and give your own blood? Did you just stay home and cling tight to your family, thank God you had somebody to love?

“I’m just a singer of simple songs, I’m not a real political man.” She sang, not bothering to change the lyrics of the song by Alan Jackson. “I watch CNN but I’m not sure I could tell you difference in Iraq and Iran. But I know Jesus and I talk to God, and I remember this from when I was young. Faith, hope, and love are some good things He gave us, and the greatest is love.

“I’m just a singer of simple songs; I’m not a real political man.” She sang, not bothering to change the lyrics of the song by Alan Jackson. “I watch CNN but I’m not sure I could tell you difference in Iraq and Iran. But I know Jesus and I talk to God, and I remember this from when I was young. Faith, hope, and love are some good things He gave us, and the greatest is love.

“Where were you when the world stopped turning, on that September day?”

She ended the songs with tears pouring down her cheeks and an ache in her heart.

The crowd erupted in applause, as they all held onto one another, thanking God they were alive ten years after the tragedy occurred.

Cheyanne just smiled and continued to cry there, standing on stage, bringing her left hand to her mouth, she kissed the ring on her left hand ring finger, and then raked her thumb across it.

Justin would have been thirty four, Cheyanne twenty nine. They would have been married, and had kids by now. They would have started their life together, and be sending their kids off to school. They would have grown old together, and lived a happy, fulfilled life, with their unconditional love for one another.

If Justin just hadn’t gone to work that day.

Nine. Eleven. Eleven.
♠ ♠ ♠
Tribute to those who died and those who lost their loved ones. This story is not a true story, but I'm sure it happened to many people.

We Will Never Forget You.

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