9/11 B-Side

No one will ever forget where they were eleven years ago and for that reason, I'm not going to do the typical 9/11 post. It's not my intention to make light of it or to disregard the loss of life, but there's nothing I can say that will live up to your own memory of it. And even if I could, it's not my place to transplant your memory of it with some darker more sullen account. So instead I'm providing my B-Side memory. At the very least, you'll get yet another example of why my family and friends are "different."

I turned on the news in my dorm and it took me a minute to process what was going on. Then I read the crawl at the bottom of the screen: "BOMBS FOUND IN FEDERAL BUILDINGS. EXPLOSIONS REPORTED IN DC BUILDINGS." Half of the people in DC work for the government and my family was no exception. I grabbed the phone and my calling card and called my grandmother. No answer. Then I called my mother. No answer. Aunts. Nope. The phone either rang endlessly or went to voicemail.

I started chatting with the people on my AOL Buddy List (remember those?) and apparently I was the only person who could get through to DC at all. Everyone else got the "all circuits busy" message. After five minutes I finally got an answer from my grandmother.

Her: Hello?
Me: ARE YALL ALIVE? IS EVERYTHING OKAY? I SAW THE NEWS!
Her: Yeah, I just came from round the corner to the store. I had to pick up some cigarettes.
Me: Oookay. Is everything okay? Have you heard from my mother and Aunt ____?
Her: Oh well they let all of them out of work early.<My mother> just came by here not too long ago with <my stepfather> on those bicycles of theirs. They said they were going down to Anacostia Park. They'll take any excuse to get outta work. They talking about cooking out later.
Me: ...
Her: I wish I would go all the way down there on some bicycle. Shit.
Me: Well what about <my 9 year old sister>? Is she okay?
Her: I reckon. She still at school.
Me: Are y'all going to get her!?
Her: What for? They said to just leave them in school because they don't want people crowding up the streets.
Me: But the school is right across the street.
Her: Child, she'll be fine until 3 o'clock. If they call me and tell me to get her early, I will. Otherwise I'm leaving her right there.
Me: ...
Her: Call me back later, this old phone is beeping. I think somebody's on the other line.
Me: Wait, I'm trying to get a bus so that I can come home.
Her: Why?
Me: In case something else happens. I'd rather be home.
Her: I don't know what the hell for. If they blow something up, it'll be up here. Ain't nobody thinking about North Carolina.
Me: But all of y'all are up there.
Her: You better keep your behind down there. Them people aint gonna do nothing, but even if they do you'll be the only living person left from our family. You better keep your ass down there so you can get that insurance money (laughs).
Me: ...
Her: Anyway, somebody on the other line. Call me back.

So after that, I went back to instant messenger to announce that my family was alive and completely apathetic. People started asking me to call their parents since I seemed to have the lucky calling card. I called five people before my card ran out of money. Not one person seemed to care.

The general consensus was that whoever did it was doing it to scare "them White people" and that they "know better than to bring that shit over to Southeast." I still went home the next day. I caught a Greyhound from Durham to DC and everyone sat silently as we passed the Pentagon. The streets were deserted and paper was everywhere from people just abandoning their stuff and evacuating downtown.

What did my family do the next morning? We had a cookout for my sister's 10th birthday. An independent news crew came by and asked to interview us. The lady said that she was filming for a French news station. They wanted to get local residents' reactions. She asked if we were having a party as an act of defiance to the terrorists. So badly I wanted to say, "No, they're just being true niggas right now."

Instead I said, "Yes, ma'am. We will not let them win the emotional battle over us."