THE DAY THAT NEVER WAS- AN 11/09 HISTORY

Oneshot

Hi!!! Just passing to tell that this is my first story, and English is not my mother language, so please ignore if it has some errors. I don't know if this story is good but I tried my best.

You're free to play the song if you want, it's in my native language (Portuguese).
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I was sleeping at my apartment at 6:30 am and didn't even imagine what was gonna happen,the entire world would be in inmense fear of being attacked by terrorists and people afraid of getting into airplanes.
 
I woke up at 7 o'clock and started preparing to go to my regular cafeteria on 90 West St in Manhattan, i brushed my teeth, took a shower and changed my sleeping clothes, putting on a plain dark red shirt,black pants, army boots and a gray sweatshirt. After that, I went to the lobby and greeted Melissa, the 50 year old concierge:

- Hey Melissa, how you doing? Everything's great?

- Hi dear, going to the cafeteria I see, well, answering your question,I don't feel so great, I just woke up with a bad feeling today, I think it would be better if you stayed home, I'm afraid something bad is gonna happen.

- Don't worry Mel, I'm sure this feeling is gonna pass soon, what could be so bad? Dunkin's just a few blocks away and the day is so beautiful, you're worrying too much.

- Well, I can't stop you, but be careful okay?

- Alright, I'll be careful, don't worry.

What I didn't know,was that Melissa was right, something bad did happen,but it wasn't with me.

As I entered the coffee shop I went to the balcony and encountered Amelia, she was a 28 year old waitress that became my friend since I started frequently coming to the shop.

-Hi Jamal, how are you doing? Let me guess,you want the usual, a medium latte with a chocolate donut.- she said smirking jokingly.

- You know me so well Lia, things are going great, I'm succeeding at the firefighters academy and just bought a new car.

- That's amazing! Can't wait to see you coming here dressed in a firefighter uniform, make sure to bring some of your hot coworkers, if you understand what I mean.- Amelia told me winking her eye and smiling.

  I finished talking with Lia and sat down on a table by the window, calmly drinking and eating, I looked at the clock and noticed it was 8:35 am, meaning I still had time to finish and go back home to pick my car and go to the academy. A few minutes later, I hear the loudest sound I've ever heard in my life and a lot of screams after it, me,  obviously, being an ex-military paramedic, ran straight in the direction of it, and what I saw was terrifying, a plane had crashed at one of the towers of the World Trade Center, and immediately caught fire, killing a lot of people just from the impact. The people on the lower floors started coming out of the building, the majority of them heavily injured because of the wreckage, I begin to help as many people as I could, until the police and the firefighters arrived, one of the firefighters saw me helping an old lady and came to me:

- You can leave the rest to me sir, please go to the nearest ambulance to check if you're fine.
I read the tag with his name and say:

- Firefighter Lopez, I'm a retired military paramedic, I can help the other paramedics making a triage.

- Come with me, we will talk to the captains.

After me and Mateo, which I discovered to be the first name of the firefighter, talked with the captains and got theirs permission, I started treating the injured people while the firefighters tried to put out the fire and entered the building to save those who were stuck under debri. We didn't even had time to blink,because at 9:03 am, just seventeen minutes later, another plane hit the second tower and chaos started all again,people screaming of pain, begging for their lives, many died on the spot, whatever training me and the firefighters received couldn't have prepared us for this. At the moment I think we all tought "Nothing could be worse than this", but the buildings collapsed, and fell, starting all the chaos and terror once again, we were already having problems to treat the persons and now we had more injured, including firefighters who were hit or crushed for the falling pieces of the twin towers.

After hours and hours helping, Mateo came to me exhausted and said:

- My cap is telling you to take a break, I didn't see you stop once since we got here, if you wanna save more people you need to take care of yourself first.

- Everything's fine Mateo, I can still help, I'm not even that tired.

- You're going to take a rest right now, I can see by the way you're moving that you are just as exhausted as I am.- He said, pushing me to a tent that had food,water and chairs, so those who weren't harmed could rest a little.

We both sat down in a table near the opening of the tent and begin to eat. While eating, we talked about our lives before today and how we tought things would be after. I found out Mateo and I had a lot in common, both of us liked motorcycles, loved kids and have problems with the family.

Just one hour later I was back to work, after all there were still people needing help with their injuries, it was already past midnight and I didn't even notice when the sun had set. It wouldn't be much later when Mateos captain said I should go home, and I did.

Entering my building, all dirty with blood and sweat, I saw there at the reception Melissa, who didn't went home, even when the attack happened just three blocks away of the edifice, she looked up and saw me, immediately pulling a chair and getting me water:

-Oh my God! Dear what happened to you?! Are you felling okay?! Should I take you to a hospital?! Call 911?!

- I'm okay Mel, the blood is not mine, there's no need to worry about me.

- Are you sure?

- Yes, I'm sure.

- Do you want something? I did a pie this morning, I can heat it for you.

- I would appreciate that very much, thanks Mel, you're the greatest.

- You are practically a grandchild to me, what kind of grandma would I be if I didn't take care of my grandson.

I ate the pie and went up to my apartment, took a shower, brushed my teeth and tried to sleep, but I couldn't stop seeing the injured people, and the towers falling, eventually I fell asleep, having nightmares about this devastating day.

Months after the terrorist attack, I met up Mateo on a market, we changed numbers and talked about how our lives changed in this short period of time. We spent weeks talking to each other on the phone, and eventually we confessed our feelings to one another, arranged a date, and after a couple of them we finally started dating. Fun fact, I finished the firefighter academy and got to be in the same firehouse as Mateo, so now we work together, we did say to our friends of the firehouse we dated, they gave us a hug and congratulated our relationship, technically we wouldn't be able to work together because we are a couple, but cap said that as long as we don't let it interrupt the job we were fine.