The Watchman of Ephraim (Book Club Edition) (2 page)

The smell of the subway and over-cooked pretzels will always remind me of Manhattan.

He hadn’t been to the Trade Center in awhile but De Niro could see some things hadn’t changed - his call wasn’t going through - so he disconnected it and tried again. Being there brought back so many memories of when he first met his wife, Lisa. At the time, she worked for Cantor Fitzgerald, the world-famous bond house. Lisa landed her job with Cantor right out of college and worked her way up the ladder, eventually becoming the firm’s chief market analyst. Lisa and Cris both knew God had a hand in their meeting despite the fact they didn’t get off to the best start.

De Niro blushed with embarrassment whenever he thought about how they met. It was at a cocktail hour that kicked off an investment conference in San Francisco, where they both were scheduled to speak. He arrived late and had just walked into the reception area. Lisa greeted him and introduced herself in her usual, confident manner. He offered his hand to her and began to introduce himself, when she interrupted him with just a touch of sarcasm.

“
I know who you are.”

Winking, she glanced over his head and walked away. De Niro was perplexed until he noticed that he was standing directly under a ten-foot billboard poster of himself, complete with his name in bold, printed under his picture. Apparently, someone working for the event’s promotion department thought it was a brilliant idea to plaster the behemoth posters all over the conference center.

After catching up to Lisa, De Niro asked her to dinner. He remembered it like it was yesterday. Before that, he was used to taking women out who were either interested in talking about themselves the whole night or turning the date into a Fortune magazine interview about his net worth. Lisa, on the other hand, captivated him from the start. She was a total knockout but didn’t seem preoccupied with her looks; he liked that in a woman. Unlike the vain model-types that ordered a salad and picked the croutons out for fear of gaining an ounce, Lisa had a hearty appetite.

Not only did she polish off what was on her plate; she asked me if I was gonna finish what was on mine!

When he told her to have at it, she casually reached across with her fork, as if they knew each other forever. Savoring the fish from his dish made her flash that beautiful smile of hers. It beamed as much from her golden eyes as from her mouth and was accented with a dimple she said she inherited from her granddad. She proceeded to talk about everything except the two of them, from sports - they both loved the Yankees; he was an avid Oakland Raiders fan, she hated them, to politics - they were both conservative; she was outspoken and active, he mostly kept his views to himself, to how many kids she pictured having when she married - incredibly, they both wanted four.

De Niro recalled how the entire evening passed and she never uttered a word about what she did for a living. When he asked her why, she simply said, “That’s what I do … it’s not who I am.” De Niro was well aware though, from listening to her speak at the conference, that she knew her stuff. In fact, he teased her that if things didn’t work out between them romantically, he was interested in hiring her as a consultant. Without missing a beat, Lisa gibed back that, either way, she didn’t come cheap.

As he made his way through the bustling, morning crowd, more memories came back to him and brought a smile to his face. He remembered how when they returned to New York, they began dating, but not for long. Exactly one month after meeting Lisa, De Niro proposed to her. He had taken her to her favorite restaurant downtown on West Broadway, “Barolo,” where they had a romantic dinner and polished off the best bottle of their favorite Barolo wine.

Landing back at her apartment, he asked her, hypothetically, what she would say if he asked her to marry him. With her dry wit unaffected by the wine she drank, she replied that she’d ask for a “pre-nup” in case he was only interested in her money. With that, De Niro got on one knee and presented a box to her with the name “De Beers” written inside it. It contained the most beautiful engagement ring she ever saw – a flawless, round, 9-carat white diamond mounted in platinum. He joked to their friends later that that was the only time he ever saw Lisa speechless. They were married in the Bahamas three months later … almost five years ago.

De Niro was well on his way to becoming one of the youngest billionaire hedge fund managers even before he met his wife. So when they finally decided to have children, the couple traded in their apartment in the city for a magnificent, sprawling estate in Colts Neck, New Jersey. Lisa left Cantor when she was seven months pregnant with Richard, their firstborn, but she continued to maintain her friendships with her colleagues there.

The De Niro’s started a tradition of inviting Lisa’s Cantor cronies to lavish barbeques at their Colts Neck home. They just had their Labor Day barbecue the weekend before, with dozens of friends from her old firm showing up for it, along with their spouses and kids. It was an extra special occasion because many of them found out for the first time, at the barbecue, that Lisa was pregnant with their third child, another son.

Making it even more special, Lisa’s closest girlfriend Stacey, also pregnant, came to the barbecue. The two women started at Cantor around the same time and they quickly became best friends. Stacey was about to go on maternity leave herself. She invited Lisa to meet her at Cantor the following week, on September 11, which was to be her last day. Stacey was having her second baby and the girls were planning to meet up on the 104
^th
floor to say hi to everyone and then go to breakfast.

The idea to buy Lisa roses occurred to De Niro during the limo ride to his mid-town financial firm. It all stemmed from his wife’s desire to see him take a more active role in the lives of their two young sons, Richard and Louis. Lisa made him feel terribly about missing so many of the boys’ important “firsts,” like their first words spoken and their first steps taken. De Niro hated spending so much time away from them, working and traveling, but he reasoned to her that he was sacrificing time with the boys now, so that he could ensure their futures.

Lisa never agreed with his way of thinking though, arguing that the things he was missing couldn’t be purchased for any amount of money. Finally, that morning, she put her foot down and insisted that he take their oldest son to his first day of pre-school.

At the time, he wasn’t too happy about it, but seeing Richard walk into the classroom and introduce himself to the other boys and girls was priceless to him now. The experience really had a profound effect on him, enough that by the time he left the school, he was committed to spending more time with his boys. He was also definitely going to be there for all of the firsts of their new baby. The flowers were to thank Lisa for making him go and he thought he’d join his wife and Stacey for breakfast, so he could tell both of them all about it.

First, he had to move an important breakfast meeting he had scheduled with an overseas client. De Niro couldn’t wait to see Lisa’s face when he handed her the flowers in front of all of her friends up on the 104
^th
floor.

As he entered the north tower from the mall, De Niro was having difficulty calling Maria, his executive assistant. He always seemed to have bad cell service whenever he was in the Trade Center, so he headed out of the front entrance. The further he walked from the building, the more bars he started to see until finally, the call went through when he was standing at the curb. It was a beautiful morning outside.

“
Good morning, Mr. De Niro’s office, Maria speaking, may I help you?”

“
Maria, its Cris.”

“
Good morning Mr. De Niro.” Maria Fernandez had been De Niro’s executive assistant for the last six years, but no matter how often he asked her to, she didn’t feel comfortable calling him by his first name.

“
Hey, do me a favor; I’m down at the Trade Center and I want to take my wife to breakfast. Call David Nicholls and ask him if we can meet for lunch instead, today.”

“
Yes sir. What would you like me to tell Mr. Nicholls if he isn’t available for lunch?”

“
Well, he’s returning to London tonight,” De Niro thought out loud, “tell him that we can video conference tomorrow and that I’ll buy him a pint next month, after I speak at the British conference.”

“
Very well, may I ask the occasion?”

De Niro smiled, “Lisa twisted my arm and made me take Richard to his first day of school this morning. It was so much fun!”

“
How nice …!” De Niro could hear the sincere excitement in Maria’s voice. “How was it?! Was Richard nervous?”

“
Maria, he was amazing! He walked into the classroom and started introducing himself,
‘Hello, my name is Richard De Niro. What’s your name?'”

De Niro laughed, “He’s not even three years old yet and already he sounded like he was running for President! He reminds me so much of his mother.”

De Niro heard Maria laughing on the other end.

“
It was really great. I was more nervous than he was. My wife is right, I’m missing too much. I cut my limo loose and bought Lisa flowers to thank her. I’ll cab it up to the firm after breakfast.”

“
That was so thoughtful! Okay, I’ll take care of Mr. Nicholls, have a nice breakfast with Mrs. De Niro and tell her I said hello!”

“
Will do …”

De Niro closed his phone and looked up to the top of the tower as he started walking back to it.

I hate tall buildings
,
I’m glad Lisa doesn’t work up there anymore.

Chapter 2

One World Trade Center

New York, New York

8:46a.m., Tuesday, September 11, 2001

Making sure not to crush the long box of flowers he was carrying, De Niro entered through the revolving door of One World Trade Center. Starting down the lengthy corridor leading to the elevators, he heard the sound of a large jet. It was loud … really loud, as if it were flying very low.

That’s strange; you never hear planes overhead in Manhattan!

…
And then all hell broke loose!

The tall building reeled then shook violently while somewhere high above, a thunderous rumbling caused the people in the lobby to cower. Confused, everyone remained still as the bedlam was followed by a brief, eerie moment of silence. No one had any idea what was happening. Then the rumbling started again, this time rapidly growing louder. A sense that something was fast approaching the lobby filled the air with apprehension.

Standing only a few feet ahead of him, a small oriental woman turned and looked at De Niro with an utter look of terror on her face. Just as she did, from behind her, it seemed like the devil himself spewed hellfire from his mouth! Blinding heat came belching out of the elevators and blasted down the corridor incinerating everything and everyone in its path. No one had time to react. The people closest to the elevators were vaporized while others farther away were set ablaze and literally bulldozed over by the tremendous ball of flame.

The fireball enveloped De Niro, lifting him off of his feet and propelling him backwards with such force that he smashed right through one of the large plate glass windows in the front of the building. When the blistering wind finally released him, the back of his head slammed against the pavement as his body came to rest, and then all he felt was pain.

Trying to remain conscious, De Niro smelled the sickly-sweet odor of burning clothes and flesh, he was on fire! He started rolling on the ground trying to put the blaze out on his arms and legs. Tearing his suit jacket off and throwing the burning garment, he used his hands to snuff out the flames on his trousers.

When he finally extinguished himself, De Niro was lying in the street surrounded by chards of glass and debris that had already begun falling from the top of the tower. An ice-cold sensation started spreading over the burned parts of his face and body when he heard shrieking.

The small oriental lady was rolling around on the floor about ten feet away from him. In agony, De Niro got to his feet and stumbled over to her. The back of her dress was still on fire, so he grabbed hold of it and tore it off of her, scorching his already burned hands in the process. He carried the dazed and badly injured lady over to the curb and sat her down as gently as he could. Both of them were shivering. No words were exchanged by either of them, but De Niro could see the look of gratitude in the pained woman’s eyes.

De Niro stood there for a moment, trying to regain his senses and catch his breath when he heard the sound of his cell phone ringing from somewhere behind him. As quickly as he could, he made his way to his smoldering suit jacket and ripped the vibrating device out of the inside pocket. It was hot to the touch and looked partially melted and warped, but remarkably, it was still working. Unable to flip the phone open, he used both hands to pry it open. He saw that it was Lisa calling him. De Niro’s heart started racing from a combination of anxious joy and relief as he put the phone to his ear.