The conversation was intense, low-pitched at the entrance to the elementary school in southern Manhattan. The son had been left at the entrance. The janitor was listening to the radio. A cloud of smoke rose from one of the twin towers - what had happened? And in the clear sky another plane was seen approaching the other tower.
The plane is flying straight in, the janitor almost whispered.
I looked at the second hand of my wristwatch and discovered that the glass was cracked. It was 9:03.
Fragment
A quarter of a century later, the memories are etched but fragmentary.
Sirens were blaring, otherwise there was an eerie silence. People were moving north on Manhattan's avenues. Emergency vehicles were driving south.
The column of smoke continued to fill the sky. The phones stopped working. My two children were safe. The second tower collapsed. The air filled with toxic, stinking fire smoke.
Was the drinking water poisoned? Radioactive atmosphere? Police shut down southern Manhattan.
I have a back way there, through a corridor and out by the deliveries - then we're past the barriers, said Frank DeMarco, bar owner of Puffy's Tavern.
Like inside hell: twisted steel skeletons, smoking ruins, visible death.
This cannot be saved, it is a new time, he said.
Unified Security Council
The same day. The UN Security Council was called to an emergency meeting at its headquarters on First Avenue. The council agreed on a resolution, 1368, which authorized war against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, which had sheltered the al-Qaeda terrorist network.
Russia and China rallied in solidarity behind the United States.
It was in record time - never happened before in such a big issue, noted the colleague from The Wall Street Journal.
Hardly after that either.
Forces entered Afghanistan, the Taliban's terror regime was overthrown and there was a scent of hope for the future. The US invaded Iraq, the dictator Saddam Hussein was overthrown and hanged.
Then civil war followed.
The last soldiers left Afghanistan on August 31, 2021. The Taliban regained their grip on terror.
A quarter of a century coloured by war. Civil war in Syria, ongoing in Myanmar, Sudan and Congo-Kinshasa. The Middle East is burning, the US is at war with the totalitarian regime in Iran, threats of civilizations being wiped out are repeated.
And Russia attacks Ukraine daily.
Burnt memories and images come to life from daily attacks in Kyiv and Kharkiv, Gaza City and Khan Yunis and Beirut, Khartoum and Goma, destruction and death.
Join us together
Something happened in New York after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The official death toll was almost 3,000. But the city was filled, amidst the grief, with kindness, community, and support for each other and for those who had lost loved ones in the attack.
It lasted a long time. About 18 months.
But it cost money.
Many were strengthened. Many could not bear it.
"We will never be the same, but we have to look forward," said DeMarco at Puffy's Tavern as we sat down and reminisced at his bar.
He had helped me many times. He is no longer alive.
My children are adults, live in the USA, they remember, but don't want to remember.
The second hand on my cracked wristwatch keeps ticking a quarter of a century later.
Footnote: The text is written by Grim Berglund, who was TT's correspondent in New York from 1997 to 2003.
