Tuesday, September 11th, 2001

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Epilogue

2019

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The light columns shone brightly in the night sky, visible over my son's shoulder outside of the window. The memory of the towers that once stood in their place give me the tiniest of smalls that crosses my features, though it is filled with sadness.

I turned to See Robin sitting next to me, taking a deep breath. I reach my hand over to her, and intertwine our fingers, she gives me a grateful smile in return. I feel the wedding band and engagement ring on her hand, the cool metal feeling comforting.

We married a few months after the incident and had our first-born a year afterwards. I turn to my three kids, our seventeen-year-old, who is non-binary, and our twin sixteen-year-old sons.

And as we sit, in comfortable silence, eighteen years later, sorrow seems to fall over us. We moved to Long Island, Williamsburg specifically, after we got married, and we live in a little neighborhood on the coast, and our backyard has a spectacular view of the tribute in lights memorial every night. And every night before we go to bed, we both look out at it and thank whatever may be in control of our lives, fate, a God, some other higher power, that we are alive and well.

"So, what did you guys call a family meeting for? We're supposed to go see IT Chapter Two at nine," the eldest of the twins, Lucas states.

"Right, well, I don't believe we ever told you guys some stuff that happened to us, eighteen years ago, and we feel you know the history of your lineage, so, um, I don't think we ever told you guys this, but we haven't lived in Long Island for our entire lives here," Robin states.

"Well yeah, Dad moved from Australia when he was eighteen, and you came here for college," our seventeen-year-old, Peyton said, with a tone making it clear to be common knowledge in the household.

"Well yes, but for a decent amount of time, we lived in Manhattan, Battery Park area to be specific, and you guys know that I was in business management for a while, and Robin was in the Secret Service agency," I stated. The three nod.

"Well, Eighteen years ago today, your father was on the 64th floor of the South Twin Tower, and I was in Florida, where President Bush was speaking at an Elementary school, and I was there as an escort with Sara and Austin," Robin stated, breaking the icecap for the news.

The three seem to reel back in shock. "So wait, you were in the South tower when it was hit?!" The youngest of the twins, Chris exclaims, extremely shocked. The other two gape and motion to him as if saying, 'Yeah, what he said.'

"Yes, I was, and your mother was on Air Force One, with Sara and Austin, and I was in the streets with Maria and Micheal when the tower came down, and we actually, barely made it out of that alive," I say, getting a little choked up.

Robin sees this and starts rubbing her hand up and down my back comforting me. "And we lost three loved ones that day, as Maria's husband at the time was in the north tower, one of the floors that the plane hit, Sara's big brother was working in a nearby building, and Aunt Jax, she actually was pregnant and had a miscarriage at the time, because she couldn't get in contact with Austin for hours during what was happening," Robin explained. A tear ran down each of our cheeks.

"You can search the memorial in the museum and you'll find the names Masen Macalove, and Kyle Reverus on it, " I stated, my voice sounding choked from the emotion filling it.

"Um so we just wanted to let you guys know, what happened to us all those years ago, but I think we're gonna stop there so we don't trigger any PTSD related issues, and we are gonna go out to dinner with everyone, and go see the movie, and have a fun time!" Robin exclaims, wanting to bring the mood up.

I nod, wiping my cheeks. Putting a smile on my face, I raised Robin's hand to my mouth, kissing the top of it, and sending her a look. She seemed to nod, understanding that I was thanking her.

"Alright, let's get going!" I say with a cheer to my voice, wanting nothing more than to change the topic. We drove to a little small-town restaurant that's around here, called Freehold. We got there, finding that Micheal and his daughter, as well as Maria and her girlfriend, were already there.

Micheal had settled down with a woman, but she cheated on him and left him with their baby daughter, Amara, who is now eight years old. Maria discovered that she is actually bisexual, and she is now with her girlfriend, Leah, in a happy and loving relationship of four years. There's talk of marriage but nothing big.

We sit and chat for a moment, before Austin, Jax, and their kids meet us as well. After the miscarriage, they continued to have difficulty carrying to full term, and Jax ended up having cervical cancer and endometriosis, so they tried In-vitro and had a son, Adrian. They later adopted a little boy from India when he was a baby without a name, Mica. So now they have three, Ana, who is nineteen, Adrian, who is fourteen, and Mica, who is eleven.

And later came Sara who is now also happily married to a man named Kai, and the proud stepmother of two little girls, age thirteen and ten.

And as we all sit around the table, I look around at the lives filled we love that we have lived out and once more feel more than appreciative that we were given this, and the chance to have this. And it puts a smile on my face incomparable to any other, besides the one on my face the day I married the love of my life, or the day my kids were brought into the world.