It was about 10PM on a quiet Tuesday evening. Minami Iwasaki, a young girl, lies in her bed, half-asleep. Tomorrow is her 11th birthday, and she is excited to see what joys the day will bring. So she lies comfortably in wait.

Until she hears something. Something concerning that jolts her wide awake. It sounded like her mother. She seemed to be in pain or shock, but Minami didn't catch what exactly was said. Was her mother calling for her? She thought it best to go downstairs and see what the noise was about.

She left her room and stepped softly down the hall and to the stairs. For a house in urban Tokyo, it was rather spacious and comfortable, reminiscent of a typical house in Europe, or the United States, where her friend and neighbour Miyuki would go sometimes. Mother had always noted their family's western influences, right down to the family name being written in Roman script instead of kanji.

She headed downstairs, perhaps expecting her mother at the foot of the staircase to explain what she wanted of her daughter or what had caused her exclamation. But there was no-one there. Instead, she heard the voices of a man and a women on the television. She wasn't quite sure what they were saying, but there was something about smoke. She stepped into the living room to find her mother Honoka intently watching the screen. Pressed up against one ear was her mobile phone. On the screen was a tower, smoking, with another behind it. She recognised the building somehow.

Then she pieced it together. The lady on the news said it was recognisable to tourists. This was the World Trade Centre in New York City. The north tower was burning, darkening smoke billowing out. Panic washed over the young girl. Her father worked for one of Japan's leading financial institutions, and several of them had offices at the World Trade Centre. Was he alright? What had happened? Was he in there? She had more questions than she could even consciously articulate.

But before she got a chance to ask her mother anything, she saw the silhouette of a passenger jet fly on-screen for a second, swinging behind the towers, and then...

Flames spewed out from behind the smoking tower. The second tower, obscured by the shot, had just been hit at high speed by a big passenger jet. Her mother cried out in shock. But Minami reacted more strongly. "OTŌSAN!" - "DADDY!" she cried, her voice quivering, as tears welled up in her eyes. She had never felt more afraid in her life. She had just witnessed something very unusual and very scary. She had seen movies and cartoons where planes and buildings exploded, even footage of old buildings being demolished. But this was very different. There were people in those towers. Her father might have been there.

Honoka dropped her phone in shock. She hadn't heard her daughter come down the stairs, too focused on her husband's voice and the events unfolding before her. She quickly ran over to her sobbing daughter and picked her up in a firm embrace, carrying her onto the sofa before picking up the phone.

"Very sorry, Minami must've heard something and come down," she said before passing her daughter the phone. The girl looked up hopefully at her mother before taking the device in her hand and putting it to her left ear.

"Father? Can you hear me?"

The greatest feeling of relief came for a brief moment as her father responded. "I'm okay. Don't worry," came the reply in a weary tone. But he didn't sound okay, far from it. She asked, "are you hurt"? He said no, or at least that's what it sounded like he was saying. But he chose a strange and round-about way of saying it. Then he told her, "I need to speak more with your mother. We'll talk later."

Minami was sad, and still worried her father might be hurt. But she handed the phone back to her mother as asked, and for the time being took solace in the knowledge that her father had made it out of danger. She spent the night lying on the sofa, head on her mother's lap, with a blanket over her body, watching the chaos unfolding on the other side of the world.