Characters:

Ellena: A Latina 17 year old, shoulder length hair, dark brown hair, brown eyes, medium height


Sarah: Elena’s mother, late 40’s, shorter than Elena, dyed straight blonde hair, piercing eyes


Ernesto: Elena’s father, late 40’s, tall, well built, mustache, dark brown hair with a little bald spot at the back of the head.

Reporter: will be inside a box television set giving out important information regarding what is going with the attacks.

Setting:

Elena and her mother are in their apartment overlooking New York Citythe city and are cleaning. Even though the apartment is nearly spotless, Elena’s mother wants her to do busy work since she will soon go back to school and there won’t be an extra pair of hands to help with the chores. Elena is in the living room with the TV on and is watching the news while she dusts the furniture. A breaking report interrupts the broadcast and it says that there has been some sort of accident; a small plane has struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Ellena’s father, Ernesto, is at work, he works for the Morgan Stanley Firm located in the South tower.

[Rumbling sound and an explosion is heard off into the distance. Someone walks by with a sign telling the time: 8:46 am]

Elena: Mom! Come here quick!

Sarah: What’s wrong?

Elena: A plane just crashed into the North Tower! Look. See? It hit near the top of the building. We can see it from the window too.

[They look out the window and in the background; they hear a reporter talking in the background about what happened.]

Sarah: Oh my gosh, there must’ve been something wrong with the pilot or the plane must have been out of control.

Elena: I don’t know, I mean look at the replay, it looks like it was heading toward the tower….but then again why would someone do that?

Sarah: We should try to call your father and see if he’s okay.

[Heads over to the phone and dials her husband.]

Sarah: Hello? Honey, is everything okay?

*Pause

Sarah: Oh okay, but are you guys evacuating too? I mean couldn’t the building fall over or debris go through the windows?

*Pause

Sarah: Okay then well just be careful. See you later for dinner. Bye.

[Hangs up]

Elena: Mom…is everything okay? What did he say?

Sarah: Well he says that everything’s fine but that they aren’t evacuating since it was about 30 floors above him.

Elena: But, couldn’t debris fly downward and hit the windows?

Sarah: He said there wasn’t any but he will be away from the window.

Elena: Well that’s good. But, those poor people, I wonder what happened. The people working on those floors might be trapped!. This is a tragedy…I hope firefighters and police officers are on their way already, there is no time to lose! It must be absolute PANIC in the plaza.

Sarah: Yea, it’s a tragedy. Imagine what those families must be going through.

[She shakes her head and goes back to the window. She looks off into the distance where she sees smoke coming out of one of the towers.]

Sarah: Keep the volume up so I can hear it from the other room.

[She exits with the broom in hand and Elena resumes dusting the bookshelf. Someone passes by with a sign saying 9:03 am]

Ellena: Mom? Do you hear that?

[A loud rumble sounds as if its passing overhead]

Sarah: What was that?

[She rushes back to the window and looks toward the towers.]

*An exploding sound is heard in the background

Ellena and Sarah (simultaneously) : AHHHHHH OH MY GOD!

[The South tower has just been hit by a second airplane]

Ellena: Mom!! It hit the tower Dad’s in!! (in a panicked voice)

Sarah: It’s much lower than the first one…

[They both turn back to the TV and sit on the couch to learn more about what happened. They are both scared and there are tears in their eyes.]

Reporter: There seems to be a second plane that crashed into the South Tower. The plane is estimated to have hit the floors 75-85 of the building. Tenants, who were originally told to stay inside the building, were told to evacuate minutes before the second plane hit.

Elena: Maybe dad got a chance to get out! Call him! Call him!

[Sarah gets up quickly and tries to get a hold of her husband, after 3 tries, she hangs up. She turns to Elena, there are tears streaming down her cheeks.]

Sarah: He’s not answering…

Elena: Was it ringing?

Sarah: No, it sent me straight to voicemail.

[She sits back down on the couch and begins to cry quietly. Seeing her mother cry, Elena realized that anything is possible at this stage and she hugs her mother and tears start to flow down her cheeks.]

Reporter: Police officers have told us that they are using every available line in the area to reach rescue teams and the White House. At 9:08, the FAA grounded all airplanes that were heading to NYC or through airspace. There has been a report at 9:24 that Flight 77 was suspected of being hijacked after the police received phone calls from passengers on the plane. The two planes that have crashed into the Trade Center were Flight 11 followed by Flight 175.

Elena: It was a commercial plane!! Those things are huge! Oh My God…who would do such a thing? I’m going to keep trying to call dad, maybe I’ll get through eventually.

[Grabs the phone and takes near the couch where she frantically calls her dad.]

[After several attempts she throws the phone on the couch]

Elena: Ahhh! Stupid phone!

Reporter: Speaking from Florida, the President has just called the events in New York City an “apparent terrorist attack on the U.S.”

Sarah: If this is a terrorist attack, there might be more--

Elena: Don’t say that! Many people have already died. If they wanted to scare us, well then I think they have proven their point. I’m pretty scared and I’m sure the rest of the country is freaking out right now.

Reporter in the background: There have been reports now of a THIRD plane crashed into the western façade of the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. at 9:37am. According to officials, it was the suspected Flight 77 that crashed into the Pentagon. The President at 9:40 gave the order that the FAA ground all flights in the U.S. until further notice.

Elena: (Mostly to herself) This is serious…the Pentagon is the military base of the U.S. What if they try and target the White House or the Capitol Building next?!

Sarah: Don’t think like that, we are going to be okay you hear me? Nothing else will happen. Just-just don’t panic.

Elena: Even if I am calm on the outside, my mind is reeling right now. I don’t know what’s going to happen next.

Reporter: ….are evacuating the White House and the U.S. Capitol building as well as other high-profile buildings, landmarks and public spaces as a precaution of escalating rumors…

Sarah: I guess you aren’t the only one who thought that…

Elena: This is like something out of an end of the world, apocalyptic type movie…

Sarah: Don't worry, I bet those in Washington have a plan, they must have thought of this before, they may have taken precautions.

Elena: You're right. But I'm worried about dad, I mean his office was so close to the crash zone in the South Tower…what if he didn't get out in time? (growing more panicked and is choking up almost yelling) Or what if the smoke got to him and he couldn't breath-

Sarah: STOP IT! STOP IT RIGHT NOW! Your father is a smart man and he is fine he--

Elena: MOM! OH MY GOSH! MOM! DAD NOOOOOO! (Panicked screams of terror)

[From the window, she sees the South Tower collapse and a big puff of smoke rises into the air. There is a loud boom in the distance and on the TV there are similar shrieks from a nearby crowd.]

Sarah: Ernesto….(says in disbelief)

[Sarah collapses on the couch with a look of disbelief on her face]

Elena: We have to call again! He has to answer! He has to be all right! You said so mom! (Elena is on the edge of losing it)

[Sarah stands up and shakes Elena out of it]

Sarah: Calm down, before we make any harsh decisions, let's call all the hospitals and see if he is in one of them, maybe he evacuated before the second plane struck.

Elena: Ill get my cellphone and the phone book. (sobbing)

[Elena exits the room and Sarah kneels on the ground in front of a statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe, a religious icon for most Latinos; it is essentially the Virgin Mary.]

Sarah: (Whispering) Virgin of Guadalupe, Mother of God, only you know what is really going on and why those people did what they did. I ask that you help all the families who had family members on the planes or working in one of the towers. Give them the strength to endure whatever comes their way. I also ask that my Ernesto is safe and alive. I don't know if i can bear it if something happened to him…please, I beg you. Amen.

[Sarah gets up just as Elena re-enters the room.]

Elena: I have the phone book.

Sarah: Okay, let's start calling.
[They make several phone calls to nearby hospitals asking for Ernesto Gonzalez, but time after time they are told that they don't seem to have anyone by that name.]

[Loud rumbling off into the distance. They both hang up and rush to the window. The North Tower is gone and only a big cloud of smoke is in its place.]

Elena: The North Tower its gone..They are both just GONE.

Sarah: There is no longer a World Trade Center.

Elena: Mom, we have to find dad.

[They continue to make phone calls until one hospital confirms that there is an Ernesto Gonzales in the Emergency Room]

[Change of scenery so that they are at a reception desk. Elena and Sarah enter onstage and are short of breath. They ask for Ernesto Gonzalez and are directed to a room. The room has 3 beds crammed into it and the TV is on the news where there are reports and new information coming out about the attacks.]

[Elena sees her dad in the last bed and runs to him.]

Elena: Daddy! Daddy!

Ernesto: My Elena! Oh it's so good to see you! Sarah, honey! Oh my two girls.

[They embrace for some time with tears of relief streaming out of their eyes. Ernesto has a broken arm and has some burns and cuts that are bandaged.]

Sarah: Where have you been? What happened? Why didn't you answer your phone? Why didn't you try to--

Ernesto: Woah! Woah! Easy honey, take a big breath and relax, Ill tell you what happened.

Sarah: Okay..(takes in deep breath)

Ernesto:
After I hung up from talking to you, I went back to work as usual. A couple of minutes afterwards, we received orders to evacuate the building since there was a chance of debris crashing in through the windows and harming us. So I packed up my stuff and headed to the stairwell. I hadn't gone 2 floors when we heard a loud rumble getting louder and a loud boom. The building shook furiously and there was an explosion above us. I was flung to the side of the stairwell an I felt a sharp pain in my arm.

Elena: That’s when the second plane hit…

Ernesto: Yes, but weWe saw smoke and we thought that a chunk of the North Tower broke off and hit us our building. People started to panic once they smelled smoke and gasoline and raced down the stairwell.a bit and we started to exit the building more quickly. Once we were down in the lobby area, we were met by firemen and policemen asking if we were okay and what floor we came from.

I asked one of them what had happened and he told me that a second plane had struck the tower we were in and that there were rumors of it being a terrorist attack.

Sarah: Yea, they were saying on the news that New York was being attacked.

Ernesto: I was shocked, I couldn't believe what was happening. I mean who would of thought that the terrorist would use one of our OWN commercial airplanes against us? I mean we always thought they would send a missile or something. It was a complete surprise.

Elena: I think they were planning this over some time, didn’t you hear they also hit the Pentagon?

Ernesto: Yes I saw it on the news…That’s when the panic started and things got serious.

Sarah: Yes it did, but how did you get here? Did you walk here?

Ernesto: No, I went over to one of the paramedics and I told him that I couldn't move my right arm. He took me over to a nearby ambulance and he told me that I had broken it. I was then to be taken to the hospital along with two others that had been injured. and as I sat there getting treated for it and then weOnce inside, we heard a loud rumbling noise--it sounded like crunching metal. I looked outside up at the towers, and I saw that the South Tower…, the tower I was in this morning--was collapsing!. The ambulance picked up speed to get away from the cloud that was following as a result of the collapse. The ambulance quickly drove off in order to avoid the debris that was falling. Behind us, I saw a big dark cloud of dust following us—

Elena: Yea! From out apartment, it looked like a cloud was surrounding the world trade center, it was traveling through the streets like water.

Ernesto: When I got here, I was treated for cuts and burns that I didn't even know I had--nothing major other than the broken arm.

Sarah: Thank goodness! (Tears of joy run down her cheeks)

Ernesto: While they were placing the cast on my arm, I was watching TV and I saw that the North Tower was also collapsing. I guess that from the shock of there not being a World Trade center anymore, I forgot to call you guys to tell you where I was and-- On TV i was watching as the North tower collapsed and I guess I was so occupied that I forgot to call you guys to tell you where I was and--

Sarah: You should have called! We saw the South Tower collapse and-and we thought…we thought you were DEAD!! (she bursts out weeping and Ernesto tries to comfort her with his good arm.)

Elena: It's okay mom, at least we know he's safe and sound now. (hugs both of them)

[In the background, President Bush appears on the screen and addresses the nation.]

Ernesto: I don't know about you guys, but to me, that sounded like a declaration of war. Hard times are ahead of us.

Elena: As long as we are together, we can handle anything. If we survived this, we can survive anything.

[End of scene.]