September 12, 2001 - The Day After

The sound of sirens awakened me at 6:50 in the morning. Was it just ordinary police or fire sirens, or -

"Have they attacked Richmond?" I wondered. Ridiculous thought! Or was it? I lay there for a few moments wondering. Was it even plausible? Yes, it was. After all the unbelievable things that had happened yesterday, anything was possible today. There had been all kinds of speculation yesterday about Richmond as a target, because of the Federal Reserve Bank here.

This was the first morning I could ever remember in my whole life when I had absolutely no idea what the day might hold. I could form no expectation at all of what today would be like.

Somebody began banging on my front door. I glanced at the clock. Still not even 7:00. Now I knew something was the matter. Maybe we were being told to evacuate or something.

Grabbing my robe, I flew down the stairs, tying it around me, and threw open the front door - to find three men who had come to install new carpeting!

I had forgotten all about it and somehow, it seemed totally bizarre that such an ordinary, mundane thing as that should happen on the Day After, that life should go on.

Later, I settled down in front of the television to await news of all those survivors, hundreds of survivors, they were surely going to find in that burning rubble.