911: 12/31/01 Syracuse, NY

[Note again that this is not me writing now how I recall the events of 911 but is all basically verbatim from my journal in which I am typically furiously trying to get the facts down on paper so I don’t forget later.]

We meet up and after the touching reunion between the Kruels, we get to Alexis’ friend’s place, which is in one of the millions of 4-6 story buildings that dominate the city. For a while, we’re hypnotized by the TV. We haven’t seen the unbelievable footage that the entire world was witnessing. Absolutely unbelievable.

Then we went up to the rooftop of the place and had our first all-encompassing view of the calamity. The apartment building stretched out as a plain before us studded with antennas, water towers, and vents, and roof gardens. Like foothills before a mountain range, the buildings in the distance grew higher and higher before becoming the gleaming towers of downtown Manhattan. Like a massive, ugly inky blot, the center of the otherwise beautiful morning scene was absolutely dominated by the hulking column of black smoke and brown dust which was a part of us as well in the form of a scratchy throat and a charred, acrid stench in our mouth and noses.

Then we began the long walk back to Brooklyn. In a spurious moment of “Who’s going to care with all this going on” I picked up a tallboy of Budweiser. I managed to get in touch with Matt on my cell at this point and described the weird scene: streaming masses, confused faces, the ever present cops (a comforting thing with the chaotic situation). I can’t remember exactly why we went across the Manhattan Bridge (I think that’s the name… whichever one is directly north of the Brooklyn Bridge). Maybe the Brooklyn Bridge was too crazy or maybe the Manhattan Bridge was just closer from Devora’s place… but I’m glad we did because the view of the Brooklyn Bridge covered with refugees with an American flag on one of the supports all backdropped with the terrible cloud was unforgettable. It was very strange and surreal…. Again like a movie… with hundreds of people walking across the bridge with a horrible catastrophe behind them… like “Godzilla” or “War of the Worlds”. I took some pictures from the bridge but again felt funny and somehow ashamed to.

You’d figure everyone would be somewhat united by this experience but I think there was an irritability in the air. Once, while Kruel was taking a picture he bumped into a guy… he was pissed and words were exchanged… Kruel was apologetic for the bumping but wouldn’t back down to the guy’s increasing threats. At one point, the guy made a comment like “There’s no cops here, buddy”. Maybe I’m wrong or putting more into his words than there was but it just seemed to be a black versus white thing with that statement and the way he said it.

The situation diffused on it’s own and we continued our exodus from the battleground… well, not much of a battle… the scene of the attack… Ground Zero as it’s called now.