United We Stand (7 page)

I held up my hands, keeping both palms turned toward me so she wouldn’t be reminded of the stitches or cuts.

“Look, I was there,” I said. “You were here watching it all on TV. Who do you think had a better view of what happened?”

“You did, of course.”

“So, we’re fine. Let’s just leave it at that … We’re
fine
.”

“And I’m so grateful, so blessed. Just so you know, I’m here for you.”

“I know, and if I find a bullet wound you’ll be the first to know, I promise. Can we go inside now?”

“Of course.”

Quickly I got out of the car and headed for the side door, my mother trailing behind me. I didn’t want to give her any more chances to continue this conversation.

“Hello! We’re back!” I yelled out as we walked in the door.

“I’m in the living room!” my father called back. “We’re
all
in the living room!”

All? How many people were here? I figured he’d found some more people from his office. That was good.

“Will!” my father called out. “Come and say hello to our visitors!”

I wasn’t really in the mood to talk to anyone.

My mother and I walked in. My father was sitting in the one of the wing chairs, facing us, and there was a little man—a Chinese man—in the matching chair beside him. I didn’t recognize him, but then I didn’t know very many of the people who worked with my father. As we walked into room the man stood up, a big smile on his face. And then I noticed a second person sitting on the couch. She was Chinese too, and she had two little girls sitting one on each side of her. On her leg was a large white cast. She smiled at me.

“Ting?” I gasped.

Her smile got even bigger. “I am happy again to meet.”

“Ting insisted on coming over,” my father said. “And this is her husband, Thomas.”

The little man rushed over and took my hand and we shook. “I’m so pleased to meet you.” His English was perfect.

“Um … I’m pleased to meet you.”

“You’re almost as big as your father,” Thomas said. “Now I can see how you two were able to carry my wife down so many flights of stairs.”

“It wasn’t that hard,” I said.

“I don’t know how to thank you and your father for saving my wife’s life.”

“We didn’t really do—”

“Please,” he said. “We all know what you did.”

“We were just lucky we heard her calling for help.”

“
We’re
lucky,” Thomas said.

“It was unfortunate that nobody in her office realized she was there,” my father said.

“I guess I sort of understand,” Thomas said. “With all the confusion.”

“It was more than confusion,” I said. “The windows were blown out, furniture toppled, ceiling tiles and ducts down. It was like a war zone.”

“We think it was one of those falling ceiling ducts that hit Ting on the head,” my father added. “How are you feeling?” he asked Ting.

“Feeling?”

Thomas quickly spoke to her in Chinese, and she nodded. “Yes … better … head hurt and leg … hurt.” She pointed at the bright, white cast.

“My wife’s English is coming along,” Thomas said. “We met when I was working in my company’s Hong Kong office. Then I was offered a transfer back here— this is where my family is from—so we moved back a year ago. Ting started working at that office in the World Trade Center only two weeks ago.”

“That might explain why people weren’t looking for her when they left,” my father said.

“Maybe,” Thomas said. “The important thing is that you two did see her. Without you, I would have lost my … And my girls … they would have been without their … without their …”

“Your daughters are so beautiful!” My mother beamed.

Ting said something to the girls in Chinese and they stood up. “These are daughters,” Ting said. “Meizhen and Mingzhu.”

Both girls curtsied. They were dressed in identical flowery dresses and wore matching black shoes and identical hairbands. With their shining dark hair and big eyes they looked like two little dolls. I felt so big compared to them.

“How old are your twins?” my mother asked.

Both girls held up four fingers. I would have thought they were younger because they were so small.

“Are they always this quiet?” my mother asked.

“Not always,” Ting said. “Sometimes tell them to … sssshhhh!” she said, holding a finger in front of her mouth.

“Do you know what happened to the rest of the people in your office?” my father asked.

“We had a phone call from Ting’s supervisor. They’ve located many people, but some are still un - accounted for,” Thomas said.

“It could be days before you know for sure,” my father said. “We’re trying to locate people from my office.”

Almost as if on cue, Suzie walked into the room.

“This is my right- hand woman,” my father said. “Any more luck?”

“With tracking down people or locating an office?”

“Both.”

“I just talked to Phil.”

“That’s great!” my father exclaimed. “I was worried about him the most.” My father turned to my mother. “Phil had a big deal brewing, and I was terrified that he might have ducked into one of the floors, found a phone, and started working again.”

“And Phil was speaking to Spencer,” Suzie added.

“Fantastic. How many does that make?” my father asked.

“We know the whereabouts of sixty- seven people,” Suzie said.

“That leaves us with thirty- two unaccounted for.”

“I’ll keep tracking. And I need you to make a final decision regarding a potential office. I have three sites, but we have to act fast. There are other businesses scrambling to find office space. New Jersey is going to become a very popular place.”

“Never with me,” my father added. “I’ve never for given them for taking away our New York teams. Bad enough that my beloved Jets have to share a stadium with those stupid Giants, but why does it have to be in New Jersey? That’s like adding insult to injury.”

“I don’t think you can be mad at them for having the Meadowlands,” Suzie pointed out.

“I don’t have to be reasonable about this,” my
father said. “This is sports, and reasonableness has nothing to do with …” He let the sentence trail off and a small, sad smile slowly formed on his face. “I guess what’s happened really does make this sports stuff seem a little bit irrelevant, doesn’t it?”

“It’s always been irrelevant,” Suzie said. “Glad you finally figured that out. So, I need you to make the final decision.”

“We’re obviously interfering with what needs to be done,” Thomas said as he rose to his feet.

“No, no, that’s quite all right,” my mother said. “Please, sit down for at least a few minutes.”

“Yes, we’re so pleased that you came by. It was so nice of you,” my father added.

“Regardless, I should be getting Ting home soon. She needs to rest,” Thomas said. He went over and helped Ting to her feet. She almost toppled over, and he helped her to regain her balance.

“A broken leg and painkillers are a bad combination,” Thomas explained as he passed Ting her crutches, still holding on to her with one hand. The two little girls clung to her on each side. I wasn’t sure if that was helping to keep her on her feet or not.

“I was up all night checking on Ting because of her head injury,” Thomas said.

“Every two hours,” my mom said. “That’s how I spent the night too.”

“The night wasn’t as bad as the day,” Thomas said. “Waiting, not knowing my wife’s fate, was far worse.”

“I know how hard that was,” my mother agreed. “We are both just so fortunate, so lucky.”

“My luck was these two men of yours,” Thomas said.

I felt myself blushing.

“It was such a pleasure to meet you,” my mother said. “You have a lovely family.”

“Thanks to your family,” Thomas said. “Once all of this settles down, we’d like to take you all out to the best restaurant in the city.”

“That would be wonderful,” my father said. “But not necessary.”

“It’s just a small token, a nothing compared to what you’ve done for me, for us. Thank you.”

He shook my father’s hand and then mine. I offered Ting my hand. She took it and grabbed me, pulling me forward with such power that I almost toppled over. I couldn’t believe that somebody that small could be so strong. She wrapped her arms around me and gave me a big hug.

“Thank you, Will,” she whispered in my ear. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

She released me, and then she hugged my father and my mother.

“I’ll make sure we arrange to get together,” my mother said. “Calling my husband would be a waste of time. He has no idea what we’re doing or when we’re doing it, but I’ll arrange it.”

“Thank you.”

We walked them to the door, and once again they thanked us. It felt good but embarrassing. We stood at the doorway and watched as they got into their car, slowly backed out of the driveway, and started to drive away. Ting had her window rolled down and she waved, and we all waved back.

We closed the door and my father headed back into the den. My mother and I followed. Suzie was at my father’s desk, on the phone. It sounded like a business call—something about getting computers delivered, but she didn’t know the exact address right now. The man on the other end of the phone seemed to be giving her some trouble about that and she started talking about why they didn’t have an address and why they needed the computers, and I could tell that his tone changed immediately.

“That was so sweet,” my mother said. “Seeing Ting makes it all seem more real to me.”

My father laughed. “Funny, it makes it seem more real to me to see it on TV,” he said pointing at the set.

I looked at the scene on the screen. It was footage from yesterday. It showed both towers engulfed in fire, orange flames shooting out, thick black smoke rising up, staining the sky.

My father turned to me. “Does it seem possible that we were part of any of that?”

I shook my head. “I can believe we were there. I can’t believe that any of it ever happened or that … Oh … my God.”

Before my eyes the South Tower began to fall. It collapsed into itself and was swallowed up by the gray cloud that it produced. That cloud rose up as the tower disappeared completely from view.

“Wow,” my father said, under his breath. “I’ve seen it a dozen times but it still seems unreal.”

“This is the first time I’ve seen it,” I said. I felt myself shaking. I hoped nobody noticed. I really hoped my mother didn’t notice.

“That’s the first time?” my father asked.

I nodded. And right then, even seeing it just once seemed like more than enough.

We watched as the cloud started to dissipate and the shadowy outline of the debris became visible. The smoky gray cloud obliterated the skyline … the whole sky.

“It collapsed straight down, but then fell to the front,” my father said. “We went out the side. If it had gone the other way …”

He didn’t need to finish the sentence. If it had gone the other way we would have been buried beneath it. We would have been dead.

I looked over at my mother. She was staring at the T V. She looked as though she was on the verge of tears.

The doorbell rang. “I’ll get it,” I said.

“I can,” my mother said.

“No, you stay here,” I said, as I went for the door. I was just grateful to get away from another bout of tears. My legs felt shaky as I walked.

The doorbell rang again. Whoever it was, they weren’t very patient. Probably somebody trying to sell us something. Or worse, somebody wanting to talk about what had happened to us. I’d have preferred a salesperson or a Jehovah’s Witness, or pretty much anything else. I opened the door.

“James!” I exclaimed. “What are you doing here?”

He shrugged. “I just needed to get away from my place.”

“I understand.” After all, I’d just escaped my own living room. “Come on in.”

“Are your parents home?”

“Yeah. Them and my father’s assistant, Suzie.”

He shook his head. “No, I don’t want to come in. If I come in they’ll want to talk to me. I don’t want to talk to anybody.” He paused. “Why don’t you come out?”

“Sure, of course.”

I went out and closed the door behind me. James sat down on the steps, and I sat down beside him. We sat there silently. James was a good enough friend that we could just sit together without talking. Well, usually. Right now, though, it felt kind of awkward. I had to say something, anything … preferably something ordinary, unimportant.

“Did your mother drive you over?”

“No. I’m not sure she even knows I left.”

“You didn’t tell her?”

“I went out through the back door. I just didn’t want to be around all of those people.”

“But what if she needs to get hold of you?” I asked. “You know, if they have to tell you something, or there’s news …”

“I have my cellphone. I’ll call her in a while. I needed to get away. I left just after you left and started walking, and then I realized I was right here.”

“I’m glad you came over. Do you want something to drink, or are you hungry or … ?”

“I don’t want anything. I just want to sit here for a while.”

“Do you want me to shut up?”

“It’s okay. I just don’t want to bother you.” He stood up. “Maybe I should go.”

I got up too. “Are you going home?”

“That’s the last place I want to go. I just want to walk.”

“I could walk with you. That is, if you want me to.”

“Yeah, that would be okay … that would be good,” he said.

“Let me just grab my jacket.”

“I’ll wait out here.”

I ran inside and grabbed my jacket from the hook. Then I thought maybe I should take along a couple of other things. I went to the kitchen to get my wallet and my phone. My mother was sitting at the table.

“I’m going out for a while,” I said.

She looked worried.

“That was James at the door,” I explained. “He’s waiting out front.”

“Why didn’t you invite him in?”

“I did. He didn’t want to come in. He just wants to walk, and I said I’d keep him company.”

“That’s nice of you. Where are you two going to go?”

“I don’t know … No place, really … just walking.”