I’ve already seen this posted a number of places today. I think it’s important enough, and pertinent enough, to post it here, too:
“There’s a Hole in the City” by Rick Bowes
Bowes is a horribly underappreciated writer. This story shows what I mean. He really captures how it felt seven years ago. I’ll let a little snippet speak for itself:
The plume of smoke downtown rolled in the twilight, buffeted about by shifting winds. The breeze brought with it for the first time the acrid smoke that would be with us for weeks afterward.
Officials said it was the stench of burning concrete. I believed, as did everyone else, that part of what we breathed was the ashes of the ones who had burned to death that Tuesday.