A Fallen Memory

By David Marcus Karp


            It was a beautiful day as I entered the second tower. Inside, around the lobby, flags from different countries waved over me as my father and I entered security. We went through a metal detector, and then, with some of the people who were on line both in front and behind us, we boarded the elevator under a sign that said “Top of the World Observation Deck”

            I was going to the top of the world today. I was so excited. I remember being very giddy when we stepped in the elevators. The doors closed and we were off. As we went higher and higher, a monitor tracked the flights we went up. My ears popped a little as the car went higher and higher into the sky.

            50.

            60.

            70.

            “That’s where my office used to be.” said my father.

            80.

            We kept getting closer and closer and the automated message started. “Ladies and Gentleman: welcome to…The Top…Of the World.”

            107.

            The metallic door opened and I ran over to the window to look out. I was flying! I was higher than all the Central Park pigeons and Jersey Shore seagulls! I felt like New York City was mine. The cars below looked like ants parading through concrete tunnels. The Hudson River was glowing in the rising sun. I could see birds. Clouds. Rooftops. Airplanes.

            My dad took me around the floor, pointing to where he thought our house was across the river in Jersey. He pointed to Times Square, where I was to see my first Broadway show that night, Les Miserables, and then to Central Park and the GWB. It felt like I was a superhero, looking over the world (inspired by the legend himself…Spiderman!) and I could just fly in and save anybody from this height whether they were Downtown, in Brooklyn, or in the South Bronx! The top of the world was everything my dad said and more.

         About a month later, there I was, standing on a field near my school, watching the smoke rise from the piece of the skyline that once held my key to the top of the world. Sirens echoed from a distance, lights flashed like firefly swarms, and every person I looked at that day seemed to have lost their sense of any hope that once kept them sane. I stood there, wondering: how did the top of the world turn into a world of disaster?