The Blockbuster Chronicles - Chapter 11: No Training Video For This

On the morning of September 11, 2001, I woke up early to help my father take his car to a mechanic before school. I followed him to the shop in my pickup, waited while he handed over the keys, and drove him home. When he climbed into my truck, he mentioned that the mechanics had been watching television in the lobby. Something had happened at the World Trade Center. He thought there might have been an explosion. I remembered hearing about the bombing there in 1993. I had been eleven years old, and although it had been a major news story, it had barely penetrated my childhood. At seventeen, I still did not pay much attention to events that happened far beyond my immediate world. Something terrible happening in New York sounded frightening, but distant. My father and I talked briefly about it on the drive home. Then I went upstairs to finish getting ready for school. A few minutes later, I heard him call for me. He had turned on the television while preparing for work and realized this…