worried Landon would never come back to Bloomington.
“So much loss.” Landon stared at the wall. “I miss Jalen. I miss him still.”
Ashley had never met Landon’s college buddy. The one who had convinced him to be a firefighter. When Landon’s pursuit of Ashley wasn’t working, Jalen had talked him into moving to New York City. Come to the action, he had told Landon.
And so Landon had put in his notice with the Bloomington Fire Department and made plans to move to Manhattan. Only he got hurt in an Indiana house fire first. The one where he saved the life of a little boy. A few weeks later Landon was still nursing a broken leg when he should’ve been moving to New York City.
Otherwise…
Ashley couldn’t finish the thought.
But for the next hour, the story played out on the walls around them. Yes, in a different set of circumstances, Landon definitely would’ve been running into the Twin Towers right next to Jalen. The terrorist attacks would’ve trapped him beneath hundreds of tons of steel and cement and glass. Landon’s arm wouldn’t be around her now. Rather, his name would be engraved on the memorial wall.
One more person they would be remembering today at Ground Zero.
8
The visit to New York City and Lower Manhattan was turning out to be harder than Reagan had expected. After a day at the museum, she was more aware of the truth. Her father wasn’t here. Of course not. He had been a believer in Jesus, a man with a heart after God’s heart. He was in heaven, and maybe he had a window to this day.
So he could pray for Reagan and Luke and Tommy as they woke up today—on the anniversary of 9/11—and as they did what they had come to do. As they remembered and honored Reagan’s dad. The grandfather Tommy had never known.
Luke and Tommy were still getting ready, so Reagan took the elevator to the lobby. She found a quiet chair and phoned her mother. It was something she did often, but the call each year on September 11 was different.
“Hello, dear.” Her mom sounded tired. “How is it?”
“New. Nothing looks the same. Where the towers stood.”
“Hmm.” Her mother hesitated. “One of these years I’ll have to come with you.” She sounded doubtful. As if the memories were hard enough from far away. “What’s it like?”
Reagan thought about yesterday’s tour. “The time line at the museum doesn’t leave anything out. It was like… like watching it happen all over again.”
There were personal reasons why 9/11 was hard for Reagan. Her mother knew that, same as Luke knew. But Reagan and her mother didn’t talk about that now. Her mom took her time. “Reagan… I was going to call you. I… have new information. About your father.”
“New information?” What more could there possibly be to know? Her father had been working at the top of the World Trade Center when the plane tore through the building.
And he’d never been heard from again.
What could her mother mean? Reagan pinched the bridge of her nose. “Mom… new information?”
“Yes.” She took a deep breath. “I heard from the widow of one of your father’s coworkers. She’s looked for me since the attacks that day.”
Reagan stood and walked to the front door of the hotel. She needed air. “Why? What for?”
“Because…” Her mother hesitated. “This woman’s husband called her before the North Tower collapsed. They stayed on the phone together.”
And then Reagan’s mother told her the story of how her father had spent his final minutes. It was a story they hadn’t known before this, and it made Reagan both sick and beyond proud.
As the story came to an end, Luke and Tommy stepped off the elevator.
“I have to go, Mom.” Reagan didn’t cry. The news her mother had just shared was too profound, too unbelievable. “I’ll call you later.”
The conversation ended and Reagan met up with her husband and son. She didn’t say a word about what she had just learned. She could barely get her mind around it herself. She would tell Luke and Tommy later. For now they needed to connect with Ashley and Landon at the memorial.
Traffic was terrible around Ground Zero so they walked the last few blocks. Today there were twice as many people wandering the parklike area as yesterday. They met up with Ashley and Landon and all five of them headed to the four-sided waterfall, rimmed by a memorial pool.
Ashley and Landon split off to find Jalen’s name on the