Bonnie and her mother were away at a 9/11 memorial service, leaving the toys alone in her room. It had been 10 years to the day of the most tragic day in U.S. history. Bonnie's original toys had not yet been manufactured that day, so they weren't around to experience it. Until now, they had yet to ask Andy's former toys about their memories of the tragedy, but the appropriate time seemed to have come.
Dolly saw Woody looking outside on the windowsill. He and the rest of his group had been unusually quiet this day. Their minds were undoubtedly on the anniversary of the attacks. Dolly finally looked up at the cowboy and broke the silence.
"Can you tell us what happened that day?" she asked.
Woody slowly turned his head toward the voice.
"What do you mean?" he responded. "You know full well what happened."
"Yes, but only through images on TV," said Buttercup, who had joined up with Dolly. "You actually lived through it. What happened?"
"Oh please tell us!" shouted a frantic Trixie.
Woody let out a deep sigh.
"Okay," he said. "Everyone gather 'round!"
All the toys gathered in the middle of the room. An unusual tone of somberness and anticipation was filling. Woody, standing in front of everybody, invited the rest of Andy's old toys to chip in with their memories as well. With that, he began to tell what happened in the Davis household on September 11, 2001.
That fateful day began like any other in Andy's room. The toys' owner woke up, went downstairs to have breakfast, got changed, freshened up and left for school. As soon as he was gone, the toys came to life. It was as routine as it could get.
Andy had started to drift away from the toys at this point, but not by much. He still had his little adventures with them whenever he felt like it. However, since he was now closer to the end of elementary school than the beginning, those feelings were occurring less frequently. Some toys had taken notice.
"He's played with us only twice in the past two weeks!" complained Mr. Potato Head. "Why is nobody worried?"
"You have saved our lives. We are eternally grateful," the aliens told their annoyed father.
"I didn't say I wasn't," put in Hamm. "When was the last time I got to be Evil Dr. Porkchop?"
"Oh this is terrible!" panicked Rex. "What if it's coming to an end?"
"Guys, calm down!" shouted Woody.
That got the trio's attention.
"Andy's just started school again," Woody continued. "You should know by now he's not going to have as much time to play with us. Plus, he's going to have more homework this year than last. Don't worry though. We haven't even been thrown in the toy box yet."
"Easy for you to say!" shouted Mr. Shark as he opened the lid.
"Listen, everyone," said Buzz. "I don't want to spend all day getting into these silly discussions. Let's just watch some TV and forget any of those things you're talking about are happening."
They all agreed to that and turned on the TV on Andy's desk. They checked out the morning news shows first. Nothing interesting was going on in the world. The biggest story seemed to be that Michael Jordan was about to come back to basketball.
"What is he, nuts?" exclaimed Hamm. "Coming back after he had the perfect sendoff to his career…and with a different team no less?"
"Who is he anyway?" asked Jessie. "Being in storage all those years made me miss a lot of stuff."
"Seriously?" asked Hamm. "Surely you can't be serious."
"I AM serious," said Jessie. "And don't call me Shirley!"
Woody slapped his head in frustration.
"Okay, that's what we're doing today," he said. "You're going to hear all about Michael Jordan and his career compliments of Hamm and myself. Then you can see why it's a bad idea for him to come back to basketball now."
Before he could say anything else, a "Breaking News" title flashed on the TV screen.
"We have some breaking news out of New York," said the newscaster. "A plane has crashed into one of the towers of the World Trade Center. Not much else is known at this time, but we will bring these developments as they come in. We take you now to a live image of downtown Manhattan."
All the toys stared in disbelief as they saw thick black smoke pouring out of one of the big buildings that were being shown.
"How did this happen?" asked Slinky.
"Who cares how it happened?" replied Wheezy. "People are probably dead!"
The squeaking penguin did have a point. There could easily have been hundreds or even thousands of people just killed. Nobody said anything for a good period. But just then, a plane zoomed into the picture from the right side of the screen.
"What was that?" asked Woody.
That was followed by the image of an explosion and a collective gasp from everyone in the room.
"What's happening?" asked a terrified Rex.
"I can't put my finger on it, but that came from either another part of the building or the building next to it," said Buzz.
The reporter on TV quickly said that the plane Woody had just seen had crashed into the other tower, which sent a wave of commotion running through the room.
"Oh this is horrible!" exclaimed Mrs. Potato Head. "What devastation!"
"No, no, no!" shouted Jessie. "This is all too much!"
"I need a straight answer as to what's going on!" said Bo Peep as she did her best to keep her sheep in order.
It wasn't long before a term toys and humans alike never want to hear was recited on TV: terrorist attack. Nobody knew what to do except comfort each other. Bo ran to Woody, Jessie to Buzz and Mrs. Potato Head to her husband. A truly frightening experience if there ever was one.
Things only got worse over the next 90 minutes. Another plane hit the Pentagon and it seemed like no place in America was safe. One Twin Tower collapsed followed by the other one. In between the two collapses, a fourth plane crashed into a field in Pennsylvania.
In the immediate aftermath, Woody could well remember the day JFK was assassinated, back when he belonged to Andy's father. That was a day he had hoped never to relive again, but this was an event far worse than that. At that point, he knew it was time to fulfill his duty as a toy. He had been there in 1963 for his owner and he had to be there for Andy now, so he called everyone together.
"Okay, listen up," he began. "Andy is obviously going to be shaken, probably upset, when he, Mom and Molly get home. We all know our job is to be there for him, but he needs us now more than ever. It's going to be the same for every child across the country. We're needed just as much as the military in this country is going to be needed to get back at those responsible for this. Understand?"
All the toys nodded in agreement. Their job now was to help their owner forget about all the chaos going on. They were proud to do it, even if only for a few minutes. They had become comfort items as much as toys.
When Andy finally came home later that day, he ran up to his room and immediately gathered Woody and Buzz in his arms. After a momentary thought, he gathered Jessie and Rex as well. Then, he went downstairs to check out what was on TV.
He had chosen Woody and Buzz obviously because they were his two favorites. Jessie was a tough cowgirl and Rex was the meanest dinosaur of them all. They were the most appropriate ones for him to choose during this difficult time. Of course, when he finally came back up to his room later, he looked to many of his other toys to provide comfort, so nobody felt jilted by their owner.
That night, Andy took Woody and Buzz to bed with him, something he hadn't done for awhile. That was what his toys were there for however. He might have been getting older, but for one night, he needed protection and that's what a cowboy and space ranger were meant to do. As Andy slept, Woody and Buzz looked to each other and nodded, agreeing that no matter how long it would take for Andy to get through this, they would not fail in what they were made for: being loved by a child.
"So that's how it happened," finished Woody. "Anyone have any questions?"
Trixie raised her hand and Woody pointed to her.
"Do you think we'll ever have to protect Bonnie from something so terrible?"
"Let's hope not," said Woody. "But if something like that ever does happen, I can guarantee we'll be there for her."
With that, all the toys took a look at the American flag Bonnie's mom had hung over her bed and gave a salute, never forgetting the day that changed the nation forever.