September 11, 2001

The phone rang. I watched my mother talking and prepared myself to hear that someone had died. Who could have imagined? We didn't have a TV where we were so we didn't get the barrage of instant images. All we could do is listen to the phoned reports and wonder. What stuck me about that day was the change. The sky was crystal blue, the Adirondack water still sparkled with the sun, the mountains still held in the lake on all sides. What had changed was me. I felt that someone had knocked a hole in my body or head. That there was a gap between the me of a few minutes before and the me now. I looked at the others and they seemed to have the same problem putting themselves into this new existence. I've used simple images to portray that turning point where the innocent happiness changed on a moment in time. I've left a suggestion that this will continue to evolve. All grief becomes tempered over time but how long before the memory of that moment is softened?

Mary Beth Goodman