maleficent

I was supposed to have been on United Airlines flight 93 on my way to Australia via San Fran, but due to a overly demanding customer, I was on that flight the previous day. (Corportate travel didn't realize I switched and had me dead)


I was in Australia at the time, working off jet lag unable to sleep, turned on the news and though I was watching some really bad disaster movie. Then I realized what was going on. I had a colleague who was supposed to have been on one of the flights leaving Boston, I couldn't get an international line, to call office to check in on everyone. Then people started popping up on IM.

Except the person I really wanted to hear from, who worked on the 82 floor of the World Trade Center, along with a plethora of former colleauges and people I considered friends. Never did hear from my best friend that day, his body was never found. But judging by the amount of flowers at his grave site this morning, he's not been forgotten by anyone.

In somewhat of a state of shock I arrived at the client's office the next day, on my way in to the office, i stopped for coffee, and the owner of the coffee shop heard my accent, and said, oooh you're American, I'm so sorry, I don't think i paid for coffee there the entire trip. When I arrived at the client, I went to my desk and flipped over to a news site for any kind of news, any hope that some people I knew and cared about might still be alive. Of the the senior VPs and another higher up, neither of whom met me, came over to my desk, and asked if there was anything I needed or wanted, and if I wanted to go home, they'd move heaven and earth to get me there. (As much as I wanted to go home, there was nothing I could do there, and I had a responsibility to fulfill)

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