Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
I thought back to the park in Pittsburgh, to Gus, who had said, “Never give up, Leon.
Sometimes in life, no matter what happens, we have to just keep going.”
I waited for Taso to get off work, and then we went to his apartment in Midtown Man-
hattan. His wife was out of town on business, and after clearing it with her, he gave me
a few minutes to relax before we headed out to what he called my “Farewell to America”
dinner.
As we sat at a Greek restaurant, we started talking about New York. Taso grew up in
Massachusetts but had moved to the city in 2001.
“Wow, that was a tough year to come to New York,” I told him. “Were you here for
9/11?”
“I was,” he hesitantly replied, his eyes growing darker. “I had just moved here a month
before. It was my first year of law school. I was standing literally two blocks away and saw
both planes hit.”
He stopped, sucking in his breath, trying to find the words to continue.
“You saw both planes hit the towers?” I asked, shuddering at the thought.
“I did,” his voice grew quieter as he looked out onto the street. “I was standing so close
that when plane two hit, when the fireball came out, it actually burned the hairs on our
arms—that's how close we were.”
I wasn't sure how to reply. Of course, I knew all the horrible details, had watched
enough hours of CNN in the aftermath and every anniversary since to hear what people
directly affected by the tragedy had experienced, but I had never actually met one of them.
Watching the drama unfold on CNN is far removed from having your own skin singed by
the blast of a terrorist's plane slamming into nearly a mile of steel. And yet like all humans,
I could still feel that fear in my bones, that knowledge that in one instant, the world as we
know it can be forever altered with little warning and no explanation.
“How did that affect you?” I asked. “How did it change you?”
Taso looked back at me, holding my gaze, “It changed everything because it was the
first time you saw a city like this actually injured.”
He thought about it before continuing, his eyes brightening at another memory, perhaps
just as painful, but also filled with hope. “But what you also saw was a kindness that you
never saw before. I walked all the way from the World Trade Center to Queens that day
and was given water and food the whole way. The city really came together, and that was a
pretty awesome thing.”
