My academic term started on September 10, 2001 and the next day was September 11, 2001, the date when the world changed. I did not have morning classes on that day so I stayed inside my room that morning when someone upstairs yelled at me about some planes rammed into World Trade Centre buildings and the Pentagon. Emi and Rage was in New York. What happened to them?
I had their
phone number in New York, but I knew that a phone number would have no
use in a war zone since all phone lines would be jammed with people finding
their loved ones, calling emergency personnel and the telecommunication
capacity was reduced due to damaged infrastructure.
¡¨This is going to be a long day.¡¨ I told myself.
As I went to the central building of Village 1 to have lunch, I saw the big TV in the common lounge area showing non-stop footage of combat zone New York in CNN live. Someone told me that World War III was not far from us, indeed.
I knew that Emi and Rage lived in outskirts of New York where their college located. It was nowhere near lower Manhattan, but it is human nature to be worried about them. That morning I received an e-mail form Emi. The time stamp of the e-mail was just before the World Trade Centre attacks. They said they were going to visit lower Manhattan soon, including the Central Park and such, including to the top of World Trade Centre. Of course, they could not go there after the attacks.
It did not take long for Emi and Rage to send me an e-mail saying they are okay. They told me that National Guard was patrolling the streets and the college was closed. ¡§I would write a letter to both George Bush Jr and Jean Chrétien saying that we don¡¦t want war.¡¨ their letter concluded ¡V no mention to DDR.
Someone wrote on the walkway between campus building in chalk that, ¡§Write to your MPs, Prime Minister, Premier in fax, e-mails, letters. Yesterday was a tragedy, but I do not want war tomorrow.¡¨ Sadly, war did happen, when the United States found evidences that Osama bin Laden who was under the protection of Afghanistan Taliban regime, was behind the attacks and launched Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan where the terrorist was believed to be hiding.
For Emi and Rage, classes resumed several days after, but they had to stay out of Manhattan since the area is under curfew. Also, they managed to find a DDR machine near where they live so that they can keep playing it.
