Glaring absence.
(PHOTO: WTC via suneoke)
When we arrived in Rome, there were was no television, no telephones, no newspapers. We’d left New York early on September 11, 2001, landed half-asleep in Zurich, connected via Air Italia. The keys were waiting outside our new 500-year old Trasteverini apartment. Being teenagers, we ate pasta, made love in the kitchen for 4 days straight, and then decided to connect with home.
“Hi, Dad. I just wanted to let you know that everything’s fantastic in Rome.”
“Oh, good. I guess you heard about New York?”
“No, what’s new there?”
“There was a terrorist attack. They hit the World Trade Center. We’re staying in a hotel near Philadelphia until they re-open the bridges.”
“What? You’re joking, haha!”
“I wish I were. The World Trade Center does not exist anymore. Buy a newspaper!”
