It's that day again.
Mom and Dad have a somber looks on their faces, they don't talk very much around the breakfast table. The atmosphere is heavy around me, I don't really understand what's going on, but I feel almost afraid to ask question, the tension is clear.
"Umm, Mommy, Daddy what's wrong?"
Both of them look at me a bit surprised, but then their eyes settle into soft gazes at me, I don't understand why.
"It's a sad day honey. Bad things have happened, now we are respecting them in silence." Mommy's voice is strained, it looks like she is trying not to cry. Does she think I am too young to understand, does she think I can't handle it, what's going on?
I look over to Daddy, he still hasn't said anything yet. I want to know what's going on, I don't like this feeling of not knowing.
I look down at my food, then at the calendar. It says 9/11, but that has no meaning to me, it wasn't like Christmas or Halloween, I knew those dates, this one is foreign to my mind.
I feel like I should know what's going on, that everyone around me is extremely affected by this date but me.
What is 9/11, why should I care, who did what and where?
I am young, I haven't started school yet, no one can tell me but my parents, but they aren't telling me what's happening. How can I know to be sad for something when I know nothing about it, please don't hide it from me Mom and Dad I want to feel the same as you too.
I look at Mommy, "Please turn the tv on?"
She looks at me for a moment, thoughtful, but she does.
The news is one, the people on the news also look somber, one was choking back tears. Suddenly it flashes away from the news people and onto two burning towers, my mouth drops open.
I look at Mommy then Daddy, "They're burning! What's going on! What's going on! The firefighters need to get there, stop it quickly! There must be lots of people in the-"
I stopped mid sentence one of the two buildings starts falling down, it's horrifyingly real. I don't think I'm crying but it's scary, I see the other building and I know that one is coming down too.
I turn back to Mommy and Daddy, both of them look the same, as if they already knew that it would happen. I'm confused now, but I'm shaking, scared from the sight of those towers, I don't know what their names were, collapsing.
"What's going on? What just happened, were there people inside of those buildings, what's going to happen next?"
I probably would have asked more questions but Mom pulled me into a hug. She was also shaking, she squeezed me hard. "Don't worry honey, this happened a long time ago, before you were born."
My name is Marisa, it's September 11, 2011. I was born June 6th 2003, I am a post 9/11 child. I don't think I can ever feel as deeply about this date as you, but you can bet that I will try.
edit//: Changed age of main character- Marisa.
