The Day I Survived On September 11th, 2001, in the quiet street of Fairfax,Virginia, Michael Woodsman woke up at 6:00 am as usual. He was 85. He liked to wear a cherry red business suit and he was always holding a cane. He had been working as a cryptologist in the Pentagon under the National Security Agency for 50 years. It was just another working day. After he woke up, he walked slowly to the bathroom to brush his teeth and change. Fifteen minutes later, he got to the living room, and found his wife, Amy, making breakfast. He asked his wife, “What are you making for breakfast, Amy?” Amy replied, “Just the usual, bacon and eggs, Michael.”
“I like bacon and eggs,” replied Michael.
Then, Michael sat on the sofa and switched on the television to watch the news. When he was watching the news, the phone rang. He picked up the phone and said, “Hello, who is it?” “ M i ch a e l , i t ' s R i ch a r d . ” R i ch a r d Greenwood was an old friend of Michael, and he was 62 years old. He liked to wear a lime green business suit.
“Oh, why did you call me so early Richard?” Michael replied.
“I just want to remind you that today, we are going to celebrate the 187th anniversary of the Battle of Plattsburgh!” Richard replied. “Yeah, I will bring some cake, ice cream, apples and some cookies to the tea party,” Michael replied. “OK, bye and see you.” Richard said. Breakfast was ready; Michael took a sip of his coffee and asked, “Where is Jake? He seems to be not awake yet.”
“I will go up and check.” Amy said.
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Jake Woodsman, who was 9, was staying with Michael, because Michael's son, John, who was now 38, was visiting the Latvian Army and Jake's mom was giving a lecture in Estonia. So John sent Jake to stay with Michael, so that the grandparents could take care of him. Amy went up to check on Jake. When Amy came back down, she said, “He is coming down to have breakfast.” Jake came down, he said, “Good morning Grandfather, Good morning Grandma.” “Good morning Jake.” Michael and Amy both said. “Where is the breakfast, Grandma? I am so hungry.” Jake sat in his seat and he waited for the breakfast to be served. After they ate the breakfast, Jake said, “I have to go back to my room to prepare for school.” he replied. “OK.” Michael and Amy both replied. Amy said, “Jake, I will bring you to school today.” “OK, Grandma.” Michael said, “I have to go to work, Amy.” “No problem.” Amy replied. Then Michael slowly walked back to his room and he got his briefcase and then he went down the stairs and kissed Amy and Jake goodbye. It was 7:15 am, and Michael drove his car to work. The road was very busy, and many people rushed to work. “What a beautiful day! How blue the sky is!” Michael thought. When he got to Arlington County, he met his friend Richard in the car-park. They talked about how they were going to celebrate the 187th anniversary of the Battle of Plattsburgh in the Pentagon. Along the way, they met their colleague, Dragan Vujanović. They walked together to the Pentagon, and Vujanović said with a Montenegrin accent, “I have brought plenty of food for the tea party.” The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's largest office building by floor area, with about 6,500,000 sq ft, of which 3,700,000 sq ft are 2
used as offices. Approximately 23,000 military and civilian employees and about 3,000 nondefense support personnel work in the Pentagon. The Pentagon has five sides, five floors above ground, and two basement levels. Michael was very proud of himself being one of the workers here. Michael's office was on the third floor. When they arrived at the Pentagon, it was already 7:55 am, so they had to quickly enter the offices, or else they would be late for work at 8 o'clock. Richard said, “We have to prepare for the party, or else we may not have that much time. The party will start at 8:30am.” Another colleague, Paul, joined them and said, “We are going to have the tea party in the common room.” The common room was very big, and inside, it had a phone, 3 sofas, 2 tables and a big television. But it had no windows. Then, they started to decorate the common room with banners and balloons. They pushed the 2 tables to the left of the common room, and they started to put all the food they brought on the table. It was 8:30 am, and the party started. Many people attended the party, such as Tiago Alençoão, Michael's colleague, General Robert George Patton etc. Nicolae Balcescu gave the speech, and he said, “Today, we are gathered here for this famous event on September 11, the Battle of Plattsburgh! Long live the soldiers that died in the Battle of Plattsburgh!” Suddenly, somebody popped his head in and cried, “THE NORTH TOWER OF THE WORLD TRADE TOWER WAS JUST HIT BY A PLANE!”
The clock in the room said 8:46am. Everybody was shocked.
“What an accident! The pilot must be crazy!” “The weather is good outside!” “Maybe the pilot had a stroke!” “Did anyone die in the plane?” 3
All the people in the room gasped. The party was over. Then, Michael said, “Let's turn on the television and watch the news.” “Breaking news!” the caption showed on the television screen. The television anchors and the reporters all looked anxiously at the scene, though they tried to calm down. Nobody knew what happened. 17 minutes later, they saw another plane crash into Tower II. They stared at the the television and they saw the two Twin Towers on fire. They saw smoke and dust everywhere and heard the people at the scene screaming. “What happened?” “Oh my gosh! This is horrible!” “I can't believe it! This is a disaster!” “Oh my god! My friends work in the World Trade Center!” “I have been to the World Trade Center two months ago!” “What a tragedy!” “Is it a movie?” “Who would do such a thing?” Richard asked Michael, “Is it a terrorist attack?” Michael looked at Richard, “I believe......” “BBBOOOMMM”, “BBBAAANNNGGG,” A big explosion happened! Michael could not finish his answer. Booming, clattering and shouting were all heard in the Pentagon. “Rrr…iii…nnn…ggg…Rrr…iii…nnn…ggg.” A long loud siren sound blared. Then a person ran into the common room and cried, “A plane has crashed into the Pentagon! You must evacuate!” Michael took a quick glimpse at his watch; it was 9:37 am. Suddenly, the ceiling of the common room fell to the ground. Everybody in the common room yelled, “Help!” Richard said, “Michael, let's run!” Richard held tight of Michael's arm and tried to leave. Everybody rushed to the door to escape. Suddenly, the room blackout. “ BOOOOMMMMM!” Another piece of debris fell down. 4
Richard tried to push the door, but it wouldn't budge. “There must be a big piece of debris blocking the door outside! We are trapped!” Michael suggested, “Let's try the emergency exit!” “It’s very dark in here! We can't see the way! The exit is on the opposite side!” M i ch a e l a n d R i ch a r d m o ve d through the room slowly. Suddenly, Michael tripped over somebody on the floor. Michael asked, “Are you okay?” No answer. Richard urged him. “Come on! It is dangerous here!!!” Michael said, “Wait up, I am 85.” Screaming, yelling and crying were heard outside of the room. Nobody seemed to know that Richard and Michael were trapped in the common room. “Let's call!” Michael seemed very calm. “Oh! Yeah!” Richard took out his mobile from his pocket immediately and dialed. “It is not working! The line is dead!” Michael said, “Mine too!” They tried to move again, and Michael bumped into the wall. Michael felt very sick, he told Richard, “Just leave me here. You run for life!” Richard said, “No. Let's send SMS! This is our last chance.” Michael took out his phone again and typed, “Amy, Richard and I are trapped in the common room of the Pentagon! I love you and Jake.” He pressed the “send” button and fainted. Richard cried, “Michael! Michael!” Many hours later, Michael woke up and found himself lying outside the Pentagon. A policeman asked him, “Are you alright? We found you in a room.” Michael asked, “What time is it?” The policeman said, “It is 11:00 am.” “Oh! Then, where is my friend Richard?” 5
Richard appeared in front of Michael and Michael asked Richard what happened. Richard said, “Our country was attacked by terrorists. The planes that crashed into the 2 Twin Towers were hijacked by terrorists. You know the South Tower fell down at 9:59. and the North Tower fell down at 10:28. Another plane crashed into a field near Shanksville at around 10:00am. It was said to hit the White House.” “Oh, my god! How many people died ?” exclaimed Michael. “So far, more than one thousand people were killed. Your wife got the SMS that you sent to her.” Michael said, “Really?” Richard said, “Yeah.” Michael asked him again, “What happened in the Pentagon?” Richard said, “We were celebrating when a plane crashed into the Pentagon and the room went dark. The firemen later found us from the common room and brought us here.” Then, Amy and Jake arrived at the Pentagon. Amy and Jake ran to Michael and she said, “I received the SMS that you sent me. After I picked up Jake from school, I immediately came here.” Michael said, “I thought I was going to die.” Amy kissed Michael. Richard said, “I found out that 3 of our colleagues died, and they were Peter, Donald and Julian.” Michael looked around and saw many ambulances, police cars and fire trucks. Doctors, nurses, paramedics, firemen and reporters were very busy. One of the paramedics ran to Michael and said, “Sir, do you need to go to the hospital?” Michael said, “I'm fine. You don't have to take me to the hospital.” Richard said, “We are the lucky ones.” “Yes, we are. But I'll never forget today in my life. It is not a usual day.”
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Michael survived, and he wrote a book called “The Day I Survived.” His wife, Amy helped him to publish it, and it was sold in every country in the world. It was translated into Romanian, Estonian, German etc. Many people around the world read his book and wrote messages to him. At the end, he died at the ripe old age of 138 years old and was buried in Vaduz, Liechtenstein.
----The End---
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