Page 22 of Truly, Madly, Deeply
For now they had other things to think about.
Ashley hadn’t known how she would feel about being back here, seeing the spot where the Twin Towershad stood and visiting the museum with Landon. Reagan had said as much on their walk yesterday.
Reagan’s father had died here, before she had time to tell him goodbye.
Other than Tommy, they all had chapters in their stories that were marked by the events of 9/11. And being here was bound to take them all back one way or another.
After a thirty-minute wait, they entered through the double glass doors. The first wall held dramatic images of a passenger plane tearing through the North Tower. Ashley felt Landon’s arm come around her. They didn’t move, didn’t look away.
And Ashley was back there again, in Bloomington, working at Sunset Hills Adult Care Home in the blur of hours after the terrorist attacks. Her favorite residents, Irvil and Helen, were concerned because a scary movie was on television. Only it wasn’t a movie, it was real live footage of the most unimaginable horror anyone had ever seen.
Then Landon was at the front door of Sunset Hills and he was asking her to step outside. And he was telling her he had to go to Manhattan. Where he’d been hired months before. If it hadn’t been for his injury on the job in Bloomington, he would’ve been there in the same tower as his best friend, Jalen, when it collapsed. Instead Jalen was there and already Landon knew his buddy was missing. Landon had to go. Had to head for the remains of the buildings and work around the clock until he found his friend.
Like it was happening all over again, Ashley didn’t want Landon to go. And she remembered knowing something with a certainty that took her breath. Because on that awful Tuesday—for the first time—Ashley had known she wasn’t only Landon’s friend.
She was in love with him.
The memory broke.
Luke and his family moved up ahead, but Ashley and Landon remained, anchored in place. A somber quiet filled the museum. No matter how many people walked through the doors today, no matter how crowded the hallways, each person was alone with their memories. Alone with whatever the terrorists had stolen from them that September morning.
Landon leaned close and his voice fell to barely a whisper. “I was like a different person here. Looking for Jalen. Almost like a machine. Hungry… exhausted… it didn’t matter. I just kept looking.”
Ashley nodded. “I remember.” She felt the fear again, how she had worried Landon would never come back to Bloomington.
“So much loss.” Landon stared at the wall. “I miss Jalen. I miss him still.”
Ashley had never met Landon’s college buddy. The one who had convinced him to be a firefighter. When Landon’s pursuit of Ashley wasn’t working, Jalen had talked him into moving to New York City.Come to the action,he had told Landon.
And so Landon had put in his notice with theBloomington Fire Department and made plans to move to Manhattan. Only he got hurt in an Indiana house fire first. The one where he saved the life of a little boy. A few weeks later Landon was still nursing a broken leg when he should’ve been moving to New York City.
Otherwise…
Ashley couldn’t finish the thought.
But for the next hour, the story played out on the walls around them. Yes, in a different set of circumstances, Landon definitely would’ve been running into the Twin Towers right next to Jalen. The terrorist attacks would’ve trapped him beneath hundreds of tons of steel and cement and glass. Landon’s arm wouldn’t be around her now. Rather, his name would be engraved on the memorial wall.
One more person they would be remembering today at Ground Zero.
8
The visit to New York City and Lower Manhattan was turning out to be harder than Reagan had expected. After a day at the museum, she was more aware of the truth. Her father wasn’t here. Of course not. He had been a believer in Jesus, a man with a heart after God’s heart. He was in heaven, and maybe he had a window to this day.
So he could pray for Reagan and Luke and Tommy as they woke up today—on the anniversary of 9/11—and as they did what they had come to do. As they remembered and honored Reagan’s dad. The grandfather Tommy had never known.
Luke and Tommy were still getting ready, so Reagan took the elevator to the lobby. She found a quiet chair and phoned her mother. It was something she did often, but the call each year on September 11 was different.
“Hello, dear.” Her mom sounded tired. “How is it?”
“New. Nothing looks the same. Where the towers stood.”
“Hmm.” Her mother hesitated. “One of these years I’ll have to come with you.” She sounded doubtful. As ifthe memories were hard enough from far away. “What’s it like?”
Reagan thought about yesterday’s tour. “The time line at the museum doesn’t leave anything out. It was like… like watching it happen all over again.”
There were personal reasons why 9/11 was hard for Reagan. Her mother knew that, same as Luke knew. But Reagan and her mother didn’t talk about that now. Her mom took her time. “Reagan… I was going to call you. I… have new information. About your father.”
“New information?” What more could there possibly be to know? Her father had been working at the top of the World Trade Center when the plane tore through the building.
