Z is for Zero Hour, Ground Zero
Rating: K+
Disclaimer: Claudia Gomez is not mine, I did create her family.
Author's Warning: Angst, 9/11
That day, Claudia Gomez broke the rule about turning her cell phone off when she made her rounds.
She wasn't the only person clinging to her cell like a lifeline on that day when all the world was American and all Americans were New Yorkers.
During one of her breaks, she called her parents.
Her mother answered the phone with a piteous "Emilio?"
"No, Mama, it's me," Claudia said.
"We'll call," her mother promised.
They hung up. There was no more to say and both wanted to keep their lines clear.
After her shift, Claudia went to the hospital's chapel, still ignoring the 'no cell phones' rule.
Just outside the chapel, somebody had set up a portable television, breaking more rules. Claudia shivered, but did not complain. She couldn't bring herself to look at the TV, either.
The next morning, she checked her phones and steeled herself. "No news is good news," she hoped when there were no messages.
She went to chapel instead of having breakfast.
Her supervisor was coming out. "Claudia, are you all right?" she asked.
"My brother, he's an EMT," Claudia replied. The portable TV that still sat outside the chapel was off now, but the image still burned on the screen, behind their eyes.
After she came out of chapel, Claudia looked at her cell phone again. One text message: "Im OK E".
Claudia finally allowed her self to break down and cry.
The next few days and weeks blurred into a nightmarish mash. Getting time off was easy. Getting a flight, however, was impossible. Claudia drove to Texas.
Her brother somehow beat her home, wheelchair and all.
"I see your definition of 'OK' has changed," Claudia said, looking at his bandaged stump. When she was fifteen, she had struggled to staunch a bleeding bullet wound on that leg. Now the scar was gone, destroyed by the even greater injury.
"The world has changed," Emilio replied.
The Gomez family watched television together. Even now, it was the main news item. Yet not all the answers were to be had.
"Those poor people," Sarita said. "Their poor families."
"It would be awful not to know what happened," Cesar said.
They heard how the forensics experts were trying to identify the victims. They learned that even the smallest remains could yield clues that could be followed back. So that families who lost loved ones would not have to spend the rest of their lives wondering.
"What do we do now?" Sarita asked.
"We pray," Cesar replied.
"I am going to go back to school," Emilio decided. "A doctor doesn't need two legs."
"Perhaps you and Claudia will wind up working in the same hospital," Cesar said.
"I won't be in a hospital," Claudia said. "I am going to study forensics."
Her parents exchanged glances.
"Are you sure?" Sarita asked.
Claudia thought back to how she felt when she didn't know what happened to her brother. "There are a lot of people who've spent years, even their entire lives not knowing what happened to their loved ones."
She paused, the television broadcast replayed in her mind. "I can't go to the rescue," she said. "But I can find answers." She looked at her parents. "I need to find answers as much as those poor people need to have answers."
Cesar and Sarita exchanged another look.
Sarita nodded.
Cesar said, "Then you have our blessing, mi hija."