Escaping+the+Flames+Memoir+Essay+CLM

Cameron Maselli Earth 6/10/09  **__  Escaping the Flames  __** // “Just behind me you can see the North Tower starting to burn. It is up in flames and…oh no!! Another plane has just crashed! Everyone is trying to escape the South Tower now but it looks like it is going to go down before the North…” // Today’s date is September 11, 2009. But is feels just like yesterday when I was in first grade….. “Ok everyone, go to your cubby and go get your snack,” Mrs. Silva told us. As I’m getting out my pink Barbie lunch box to start eating my name is called over the intercom. “Excuse me, can you send Cameron down to the office with all of her things.” I gather my things and go into the office to see my mom there crying and panicking like she never has before. Her face looks like it has just seen a horror film when in fact it has. Before I can even get through the door she is pushing me out and saying thank you to the secretary. Not knowing what is going on I think this is cool. Getting out of school early! As I get into the car I see my sister already there. “Hey Taylor, isn’t this cool, were getting out of school before we even had lunch,” I say excitedly. “Ssshhh,” she enforces me. As I whisper to myself, “No need to be so rude,” my mom gets into the car. She starts to speed onto the highway and the whole way to my Aunt’s house. No one talks all the way there, but what is going through my mind is…. “What is going on!?” I was so young and naive. On our way there many worse and more gruesome things are happening. Now at my Aunts in Fairfield, I get raced into the house. Through the front door I     Maselli - 2 see my whole family there. Aunts, uncles, cousins, know I am really wondering what is going on. And still no one has told me a thing. When I go to try and kiss everyone, as I normally do, I notice that they all have the same panicked look on their faces just has my mom had. All of them did not even look up when I came by. I realized that everyone was looking at the television and my Auntie Danielle was attempting to get a hold of someone on the phone. I assume that it is my Uncle Dennis, her husband, because he was the only one that wasn’t there. But then again he works in New York so he probably couldn’t make it. So I look at the TV like the others and start to listen to the reporters. //“With more know on the Twin Towers in Manhattan, New York. We have just got news that the South Tower has collapsed. It looks as though the North one is about to also. People are now jumping out of the buildings to try and save themselves but that is only leaving to more destruction. Others are stuck in the elevators in the building trying to get out…”// As time goes on nothing is happening. We are all just standing there wondering. What is happening? , Are they alright? And the grown ups are contemplating, is he going to survive? No one knows what to do or how to act. All that goes by is time. Time that is precious and can take someone’s life away. The seconds turn into minutes. The minutes into hours. With a puzzled look on my face, I am speculating all that could be happening when….. “Oh thank god!! You are alright!” Everyone starts to hug my uncle who has just walked in the door. I’m questioning why they are doing this when it hits me. That must have been where he worked. I remember the reporter announcing that it was in New York. The whole family starts to cry even me. He begins to tell us all about it. “When the Maselli - 3 first plane crashed, I new he had to get out. There was bound to be another strike. That’s when the second plane hit. So I got a jump start and ran down the stairs. This is when I had spotted an elderly woman and helped her along to get out safely. Without a second thought I took the lady to a safer spot once out of the building. Then I rushed home just to see all of you here waiting for me.” // “The destruction is done. Both buildings have fallen. Estimates of around 3,000 people have died. 600 of them died instantly. It is said that 83,000 people will have lost their jobs. It is a day that no one will ever forget, a day we will know call **9/11**.” //