Page 26 of Truly, Madly, Deeply
And then as if Javier had known Tommy all his life, he began to tell the story. By the time Javier and his buddies arrived on the scene, the entire World Trade Center block was madness. “The roar of the fire was like a living, breathing dragon high above us.” His voice cracked. It took a while before he spoke again. “People were running in every direction, screaming and tripping over each other. Terrified. Because men and women were burning alive up there.” A single tear slid down his cheek. “That’s when I saw people hitting the ground.”
Video accounts of 9/11 came up every now and then in documentaries or in YouTube clips. Tommy had heard about people falling from the highest floors. “They were pushed out… when the plane hit?”
“No.” Javier’s answer was quick. “Theylookedlike they were falling. But I stared up at the burning floors and I saw what was really happening…. A lot of them were jumping, Tommy. The inferno must’ve been more than they could bear. Because I watched them climb out onto the window ledges… and jump.” He looked up again. “One after another.”
This was something else Tommy hadn’t considered. Had his grandfather been one of those who jumped?Were his final moments surrounded by suffocating fire and indescribable terror? The possibility made Tommy sick.
His office would’ve been just below where the plane hit, a few floors beneath the all-consuming, towering flames.
“Chaos. That’s what it was. We thought it was the end of the world.” Javier looked toward the memorial pool again. “Hundreds more firefighters were dispatched while the Port Authority began evacuating the damaged North Tower. Instructions were to keep people in the South Tower in place. So they’d be safe.” He clenched his jaw. “No one knew another plane was headed straight for us.”
Javier talked in detail about running up five flights of stairs in the North Tower helping people get to the stairwells, administering first aid to men and women who had fallen. “The elevators weren’t working, of course.” He shook his head. “I came across an old guy collapsed near the stairwell. Chest pain. Short of breath.”
Tommy could only imagine the panic.
“Looked like a heart attack.” Javier shrugged. “My buddies were still running up the stairs. One flight after another. Fifty pounds of gear on their backs. But that guy… I had to help him. That’s why we were there.” His voice trailed off.
A breeze moved through the trees that lined the memorial. Leaves still summer green rustled overhead as Javier nodded. “I saved that guy. Threw him over myback and got him down to ground level. Took him to a waiting ambulance.”
By then the Port Authority was ordering a mandatory evacuation of both towers. “But it was too late.” Pain deepened the lines on Javier’s face. “A minute later another jet tore into the South Tower.”
Javier was still loading the heart attack victim into an ambulance when the second airliner hit. “Now we got two infernos, two buildings with more people jumping.” He shook his head. “I knew my buddies needed me. We had to get people out of there.”
Tommy didn’t move, didn’t speak. The man’s story breathed life into everything he’d seen at the memorial. Javier sucked in a quick breath. “I remember running back to the North Tower. Thousands of people were running from the buildings, pouring out onto the street. And I was thinking,Good… get out of here. Be safe!But me and my brothers, the FDNY and NYPD, we had just one place to go…. Straight up.”
Javier made it up twenty-one floors of the North Tower before coming across a woman bleeding from her head. “She had run down from the forty-fifth floor and somewhere along the way she’d fallen. Maybe she got knocked down. Whatever… she was bleeding out and she needed help.”
Like before, Javier heaved the victim over his shoulder and carried her down to ground level and yet another ambulance took her away. Javier began to tremble, the memory taking a physical toll on his body. “Itstarted with a rumble. A low growl.” Javier looked up to the empty sky. “Like a beast had been unleashed over Lower Manhattan.”
The sound became a roar, Javier said. “Like an EF5 tornado. Like the end of the world.” He looked at Tommy. “I was planning to run back into the North Tower when it happened. The ground shook and the other flaming building began to sway and then… the South Tower…”
He didn’t have to finish his sentence. Everyone alive knew what happened next, whether they talked about it in history class or not. The South Tower collapsed like a monstrous burning house of cards. “I was still assisting the woman, still helping the paramedic get her hooked up to an IV.”
The ambulance driver ordered Javier to get inside and shut the door and then he sped off. The guy raced as fast and far away from the explosion of debris as he could get. Not till they reached a hospital many blocks north did the driver stop.
“I was still in work mode, still helping the woman. Her pulse was weak. She needed blood.” He rubbed his hands together, his gaze distant. “She lived. The heart attack victim lived, too.”
Javier put his hand on the memorial plaque, the one with the names of every first responder. “I kept thinking my buddies were in the North Tower, and that building was still standing. But half an hour later…”
Tommy knew. The North Tower collapsed also. “Your friends?”
“Twelve of them died that day. Twelve firefighters. My best guys.” Again Javier’s eyes filled. “Sons and husbands. Fathers.” He swiped at a tear on his cheek. “I don’t think about it.” He shook his head. “Can’t think about it… except today. On the anniversary.”
Tommy let that sit for a full minute. “I’m sorry. I…” He looked at the ground and shook his head. “I’m sorry.”
“God saved me for a reason.” Javier sniffed. “I’m a captain now. I have a wife and kids.” He pointed to the other uniformed firefighters and police officers milling about. “We work together, the NYPD and Port Authority, the FBI and us. Making sure it doesn’t happen again.” He pointed at Tommy. “Keeping people like you safe.”
Tommy breathed deep, the cool air filling his lungs. “Thank you. For that.” He faced Javier. “I’ve been thinking about joining the military. But since I’ve been here… I wonder if I’m supposed to be a firefighter… or maybe a police officer.”
“Mmm.” Javier’s anguish gradually lifted. “I knew God brought me over to you for a reason.” He nodded to a distant bench. “I was sitting there reliving that day… smelling the smoke and hearing the screams and sirens, the roar of the flames. Feeling the ground shake beneath my feet again. And I sensed God was talking to me. He said,Go share with that young man.” Javier locked eyes with Tommy. “Now I know why.”
Chills ran down Tommy’s arms and legs. “You think because… because I’m supposed to do this kind of work?”
Javier raised one eyebrow. “That’s between you and Him.” He pointed up. “But I’ll tell you this, Tommy Baxter. Young people like you are often destined. Destined to serve.” He paused. “Today… if I had it to do over again, I’d be a police officer. So I could come against the bad guys. Every day of my life.” He shook his head. “There are more bad guys today, Tommy. And we need good cops, people like you.”
“Yes, sir.” Tommy hung on every word.
“We need people who rush toward a burning building. But we also need men and women who run into danger on a night of crime and killing… that type of person has a calling. Especially today.” He sighed and one final time his eyes found the spot where the Twin Towers once stood. “That’s my only regret… that in those final minutes before the towers fell I wasn’t there. I wasn’t running toward the fire.”
