In memory of September 11th, 2001, our Launguage class did a fictional story about a made up charater involed in the disaster. I have learned so much through the memorial we did at school and felt that this was important to share! My character is Margaret-- a firefighter. Enjoiy!
Carly Christensen
9-12-08 7th hour
“Margaret! We need you PRONTO!” Ryan, my melodramatic team leader, and boyfriend, yelled at me when he walked into the lounge.
“Can’t you see I’m eating, idiot? Get Tyler to do it. He loves all those urgent ones”, I hollered at him. Why did he look so distressed?
“No, you don’t understand. We’ve caught news that the North tower at the World Trade Center has just caught fire from an explosion!”
I could not believe what I was hearing. I remember taking fieldtrips to the World Trade Center in High School. Now I was determined to save it. I frantically put down my one dollar breakfast burrito from McDonald’s, and pulled up my suspenders. Before I could catch my breath, I was shoved in the truck, sitting on a bench, and listening to a radio show go on and on about the history of hijacked plane incidents. How scary would it be to know that there was a hijacked plane near you? That’s what I was thinking until I heard the dude verify that that’s what had happened. A plane. A plane had been hijacked. A plane had be hijacked, and flown into the world trade center. TWO? Two planes? Two planes had been hijacked? Two planes were hijacked. Oh. My. Oh….my…..gosh……
I had never been in a rescue so serious. I mean sure, twenty people in an apartment building, or a tupper-ware factory on fire, but never something this……HUGE. I mean in importance. Not size.
As soon as we had arrived at the twin towers, I jumped out and ran for the first floor daycare center. No child was going to die while I was on the job.
I was running when I heard Ryan yell, “Maggie! Maggie, come back!”,
“The daycare center!”, I screamed at him. Then I felt him grab my arm.
“Maggie, the fire it all the way up there” he said, pointing up to the massive ocean of smoke in the sky. Mesmerized, I walked back over to the group of yellow suits, keeping my eyes locked on the fire. He was right; they would be fine for twenty minuets while we put out the fire.
“Okay, now that we’ve got this crazy woman settled down,” Ryan said to all of the firefighters. I was the only woman on their team, and I was used to all the teasing. I stuck out my tongue anyway. “We need to send three of you up there to put out the fire. Another two will handle finding survivors, and four more will gradually lead an escape.” As the men were figuring out who will do what, I was watching people who were above the fire, jump out windows to their death, since there was no escape. I gasped as two hit the ground.
“You can go to the fourteenth floor and help survivors down the ladder, okay?” Ryan said to me.
“Ryan, I think we need to evacuate the children.” I said, half looking at Ryan’s face and half wondering why I felt like this was so urgent. A mother’s instinct? What was I thinking! I’m not a mother!
“We need to focus on the big problem right now, which is the fire. Come on; let’s go get the ladder set up. They are perfectly safe in there, and they don’t need to see what is going on out here. ”
But I wouldn’t listen. I burst through the doors of the daycare, and was just about to explain myself to the lady looking at me, when I heard outside,
“Oh, *****!! Its collapsing!” Apparently, the woman heard it too, and that was her explanation for a woman firefighter bursting through the doors of the peaceful daycare. We both looked at each other, for half of a second, scared to death, and started telling the children to go out the doors. I had my hand on the fifth child to head out and was pushing her trough the door when I saw the roof cave in. She had braces on her legs. She wasn’t going to make it out! I swooped her up into my arms and ducked through the falling roof, out the door. When I looked back, all that was left was a heap of dry wall. I grabbed the four children that had made it out, plus the little crippled girl still in my arms, and somehow found the door of the truck through the huge cloud of ash and smoke we were all trapped in. I shoved them all on the benches, and quieted them down. Then we sat there in silence for about a minute, and I was thinking about the other children and that woman that didn’t make it out in time, until Justin, another firefighter on my team, opened the door to the truck.
“Margaret? Oh, hey. Um, there are people all over the streets covered in ash and coughing and stuff, and um…”
“You want me to come help settle things down”, I finished his sentence.
“Yea, pretty much. Ryan says you’re good with all the drama after the disaster.”
I was about to jump out, when the little girl grabbed my arm. I leaned over, and she whispered in my ear, “Thank you for saving us. You’re pretty for a fireman.”
I smiled, and said, “You’re pretty too-- for such a little girl.”
I left the security of the peaceful truck full of kids, and walked into the gray world of a disaster aftermath. Little did I know, this day of disasters was only beginning.
Carly Christensen
9-12-08 7th hour
“Margaret! We need you PRONTO!” Ryan, my melodramatic team leader, and boyfriend, yelled at me when he walked into the lounge.
“Can’t you see I’m eating, idiot? Get Tyler to do it. He loves all those urgent ones”, I hollered at him. Why did he look so distressed?
“No, you don’t understand. We’ve caught news that the North tower at the World Trade Center has just caught fire from an explosion!”
I could not believe what I was hearing. I remember taking fieldtrips to the World Trade Center in High School. Now I was determined to save it. I frantically put down my one dollar breakfast burrito from McDonald’s, and pulled up my suspenders. Before I could catch my breath, I was shoved in the truck, sitting on a bench, and listening to a radio show go on and on about the history of hijacked plane incidents. How scary would it be to know that there was a hijacked plane near you? That’s what I was thinking until I heard the dude verify that that’s what had happened. A plane. A plane had been hijacked. A plane had be hijacked, and flown into the world trade center. TWO? Two planes? Two planes had been hijacked? Two planes were hijacked. Oh. My. Oh….my…..gosh……
I had never been in a rescue so serious. I mean sure, twenty people in an apartment building, or a tupper-ware factory on fire, but never something this……HUGE. I mean in importance. Not size.
As soon as we had arrived at the twin towers, I jumped out and ran for the first floor daycare center. No child was going to die while I was on the job.
I was running when I heard Ryan yell, “Maggie! Maggie, come back!”,
“The daycare center!”, I screamed at him. Then I felt him grab my arm.
“Maggie, the fire it all the way up there” he said, pointing up to the massive ocean of smoke in the sky. Mesmerized, I walked back over to the group of yellow suits, keeping my eyes locked on the fire. He was right; they would be fine for twenty minuets while we put out the fire.
“Okay, now that we’ve got this crazy woman settled down,” Ryan said to all of the firefighters. I was the only woman on their team, and I was used to all the teasing. I stuck out my tongue anyway. “We need to send three of you up there to put out the fire. Another two will handle finding survivors, and four more will gradually lead an escape.” As the men were figuring out who will do what, I was watching people who were above the fire, jump out windows to their death, since there was no escape. I gasped as two hit the ground.
“You can go to the fourteenth floor and help survivors down the ladder, okay?” Ryan said to me.
“Ryan, I think we need to evacuate the children.” I said, half looking at Ryan’s face and half wondering why I felt like this was so urgent. A mother’s instinct? What was I thinking! I’m not a mother!
“We need to focus on the big problem right now, which is the fire. Come on; let’s go get the ladder set up. They are perfectly safe in there, and they don’t need to see what is going on out here. ”
But I wouldn’t listen. I burst through the doors of the daycare, and was just about to explain myself to the lady looking at me, when I heard outside,
“Oh, *****!! Its collapsing!” Apparently, the woman heard it too, and that was her explanation for a woman firefighter bursting through the doors of the peaceful daycare. We both looked at each other, for half of a second, scared to death, and started telling the children to go out the doors. I had my hand on the fifth child to head out and was pushing her trough the door when I saw the roof cave in. She had braces on her legs. She wasn’t going to make it out! I swooped her up into my arms and ducked through the falling roof, out the door. When I looked back, all that was left was a heap of dry wall. I grabbed the four children that had made it out, plus the little crippled girl still in my arms, and somehow found the door of the truck through the huge cloud of ash and smoke we were all trapped in. I shoved them all on the benches, and quieted them down. Then we sat there in silence for about a minute, and I was thinking about the other children and that woman that didn’t make it out in time, until Justin, another firefighter on my team, opened the door to the truck.
“Margaret? Oh, hey. Um, there are people all over the streets covered in ash and coughing and stuff, and um…”
“You want me to come help settle things down”, I finished his sentence.
“Yea, pretty much. Ryan says you’re good with all the drama after the disaster.”
I was about to jump out, when the little girl grabbed my arm. I leaned over, and she whispered in my ear, “Thank you for saving us. You’re pretty for a fireman.”
I smiled, and said, “You’re pretty too-- for such a little girl.”
I left the security of the peaceful truck full of kids, and walked into the gray world of a disaster aftermath. Little did I know, this day of disasters was only beginning.
Also, look at this cool pic I found of a sand model of the towers some girls did! Pretty cool!
Thanks for reading! My longest post eva!
1 comment:
That was incredible! I loved it!!!!
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