By: CNJ
PG-13
Epilogue
Last chapter of "When New York City's Tears Dry!" Hope all of you enjoyed this story!
Seven years later:
Mona:
All of us...Kristy, Mary
Anne, Greta, Wyser, Ran, and I along with the rest of the BSC stood at
the edge of the sidewalk along with millions of others and watched as the
flag unfurled over the new World Exchange Building, or the WEB for short.
It was a beautiful sight. It was a brick skyscraper, a single tower just
as tall as the twin towers of the old World Trade Center had been. Several
New York officials gave speeches including Hillary Clinton. It was neat
seeing her even at a distance. At the end of her speech, Mary Anne burst
into tears and a lot of us whooped as the ribbon was cut. I looked around
at my friends. So hard to believe we were all starting on our careers and
two of us, Kristy and Claudia had gotten married last year. In November,
I'd be twenty-five just like the rest of the original BSC. Mary Anne would
be twenty-five in just two days. Claudia had started an advertising
and studio firm, Kisyam Advertising and Studio and it was getting off the
ground, having been running for almost three years and she'd married a
Tom Lisner and was pregnant with her first kid. One of the first things
it advertised was Kristy's business, Kat furniture and appliances, which
specialized in products for left-handers. From that, Kristy's business
was now growing too and she was looking into opening another store in Minnesota
and making it into a chain business. Too bad Shane wasn't the one
she married; he'd gotten a job offer overseas teaching at a college in
Ireland and had gone there right after he and Kristy had graduated from
Fellowdean U. They'd tried staying close, but it was hard and they eased
apart. Then two years ago, Kristy met Carl Bineware while they both were
working as photocopier technicians for the Empire State Building. Kristy,
meanwhile was starting her business with the cash she earned from her "cheese
job" as she called it. And they started dating, fell in love and all that
kit and caboodle and last year, got married. Right now, they live in an
apartment in Flushing, a suburb of New York City. It had been quite some
college years, I reflected as we listened to a few more speeches, watched
a couple of documentaries, and all. Mary Anne, Stacey, and I had graduate
degrees now and Stacey was a starting engineer while working on her doctorate
at Aberdine U. Seven years since westarted adulthood. Seven years since
the WTC disaster. Bit by bit, we'd won this war and freed Afghanistan,
so now it was a democracy. Even Iraq was safe to travel too now since its
dictatorship fell last year and it was free. Last April, several of us...Claudia,
her roommate, Aya, Kristy, Stacey, and Mary Anne took a trip to Iraq and
had a blast. So some good did come out of that tragedy, I thought. I thought
of how far I'd come...I was working as a vet now and loved the work while
Mary Anne was now teaching English at a middle school and we each now had
our own apartments. Greta and Wyser moved into their apartment as well
and are officially a couple now. Mary Anne and I had shared a house with
them and split the rent for the last year of undergrad school and all three
years of grad school and it was a good experience and we're now experienced
athaving our own home. Home...New York City felt like home more than ever
as I watched the lights light up the new tower in the twilight. I whooped
along with all our fellow New Yorkers, feeling so proud of our city and
how we'd pulled back up from tragedy and moved on with our lives.
"That was wonderful," Mary
Anne wiped her eyes as we walked down the street and to the subway. Since
it was Saturday, we decided to go out to eat to celebrate. We ended up
in Times Square eating at the Madley House. As we ate, I peered in the
direction of the New York harbor.
"I think Liberty's heart's
healed," Kristy told me as she followed my gaze. Of course we couldn't
see the Statue of Liberty from here, but I smiled softly and had the feeling
that yes, Ms. Liberty's heart had mended and she was able to smile her
first genuine smile in a long time.
"Let's all have a toast,"
Ran announced. "To all New York City and our fellow New Yorkers..." We
all clinked glasses.
"And to the new WEB!" Kristy
added. WEB seemed to represent our info age in its new acronym.
"WE LOVE NEW YORK EVEN MORE!"
All of us chimed in at the same time, then whooped.
~~~2002 Storyline Copyright by CNJ~~~