Serenay Moon
Special XIV: Remember....
©2001 Kitty Ocean
"Quick, quick!" Zach yelled and pulled Kitt along. Behind them there were roaring engines of Derak's gang.
"I'll get you Kitt, I own you!" Derak screamed.
Kitt stopped. "What?! I ought to kick your...." Kitt said and clenched her fist.
"No time!" Zach ordered and pulled Kitt along again. Then he pulled her into a park. "Maybe we can hide here." He suggested.
"Just like last time, right?" Kitt sneered. "Derak didn't had any trouble finding us."
Zach growled. "Okay, maybe the mall wasn't the best place ever...." Zach let go of Kitt and together they ran on and on.
Suddenly, Kitt pulled Zach. He was very surprised, but Kitt had found a great hiding spot. The bridge was over a dry river bench and bushes were all around it. Derak would never find them here!
"Great thinking." Zach whispered.
"Yeah, I know." Kitt said back, but then placed her finger on her lips.
Derak drove over the bridge and soon the noise from the motors vanished.
"Let's stay here a bit longer, he might come back." Zach suggested. Kitt nodded. Zach was right. She thought deeply. This was already the 4th time this week Derak had found them! Before Kitt met Zach, she hardly had any trouble of him. Was it Zach's fault? She now knew him for 5 weeks. Kitt enjoyed his company, but if that meant she was in danger.... She looked at Zach, but when she saw his carefree face, she knew that everything would come right.
That night, Zach and Kitt decided that they would spend the night in the park. Zach had made a small fire and Kitt opened a can of food. "What's for dinner?" Zach asked.
Kitt poured the can into a pan. "You don't want to know...." She sighed.
"Beans again?" Zach exclaimed. "That's the 3rd time this week!"
"Some people would die to eat beans." They suddenly heard. Zach and Kitt looked up and saw an old man in rags. "I'm sorry to interrupt you, but I couldn't help the smell of your food. And ... well, I haven't eaten in 2 days, so... well... I would like to ask you...."
Zach offered the man a pace next to him. "Sure Mister! We can share our food, right Kitt?"
Kitt looked at the beans. "Eating a bit less won't harm us. Sure, why not? Take a seat."
"Thank you." The man sat down and warmed himself at the fire. Zach offered him a plate of beans and potatoes. "This is delicious." He complimented.
Zach nodded. "Yeah, I also noticed that whatever Kitt prepares, is just a treat... even though they are beans."
"Shut up Zach." Kitt growled.
'What?', Zach thought, 'You don't want any compliments?'.
Zach then turned to the man. "Do you want to stay here tonight?" Zach asked. "I can give you one of my blankets."
"You are too kind." The man smiled thankfully. "I want to repay you, but I'm afraid I don't have any money."
"Don't worry, Zach pays anyway." Kitt smiled. Zach looked angry at her.
The old man cleaned his plate. "I want to give you something. Please, let me tell a story to you, that's the least I can do."
Zach and Kitt agreed. If he insisted, why not? And besides, it would make the night before bed less dull. "Go ahead." Zach said.
The old man looked carefully at them. "You know why this park is called Hope Central Park?" Zach and Kitt shook their heads. "It hasn't always been a park. Once, there were 2 buildings here, called the Twin Towers."
"What happened to them?" Kitt asked eagerly.
Zach hushed. "Be quiet." He ordered.
"A long time ago, there were 2 towers at this exact spot. They were huge." The man continued. "Sometimes, it seemed that there would come no end to them and that they could kiss the sky. Those buildings were very important to the world and each day thousands of people worked in them. The people of this country, and especially this town, were really proud of these towers that took about 4 years to complete."
"Wow, must have been a really long time ago!" Zach noticed. "4 years? How big were those buildings?"
"Very big." Kitt snapped. "And what happened with them? Why did people made up a story about them?"
"It's not a story." The man quickly said, but Kitt didn't believe him. "But one day, tragedy struck the 2 towers. A plane crashed into one of the towers."
"Wow, isn't this a happy story?" Kitt sarcastically sneered.
The man ignored her. "At first, people thought it was an accident. Suddenly, right before their eyes, a second plane hit the other tower!" He waited a moment, to see the faces of Kitt and Zach. Kitt's face remained bored- she didn't believe it. Zach's face looked a bit down- he probably didn't believe it either. But he continued. "A third plane hit a federal building, and a fourth just crashed somewhere."
"Oh stop it!" Kitt suddenly burst out. "You are saying that all the planes just suddenly fell from the sky? Who believes that?"
"I'm not saying the planes just crashed." The man whispered. "Terrorists had taken them over and used them to cause great damage to this country."
"Yeah right!" Kitt sneered. "No human being could do such a horrible thing, right Zach?"
The man looked at Zach, who looked at the ground. "I'm sorry Mister, but I must agree. This sounds more like a movie-script that an actual event. But thanks for the story anyway."
"I cannot tell you what to believe." The man sighed. "Now, if you would excuse me, I would rather have some sleep."
"Great idea." Zach nodded. "It's already late."
And together they lay down in their sleeping bags and the man in Zach's extra blanket.
During midnight, Kitt suddenly woke up. Sleepy, she looked around her. The fire was still on and it was nice and warm. "I think I'll take something to drink...." She said and climbed out of her sleeping bag. At that moment, she noticed the folded blanket next to Zach's backpack. When she looked around, she saw that the old man was missing. "He left?" She asked herself, when she suddenly heard a noise behind her. Kitt was ready for Derak, but nobody appeared.
Then she heard it again! Kitt decided to find out what that noise had been and stepped at it. She walked for about a minute. "Oh man, that old man really left and I still haven't found where that noise had come from. I'd better get back. Zach might do something stupid if Derak shows up." She turned around, but then noticed she was lost! "Oh Kitt, you are so smart!" She growled sarcastically. "Running through an unknown park in the middle of the night with no map, no flashlight, no whatsoever!" Kitt complained more about her stupid move while she walked further.
Suddenly, she stumbled upon something. It was big and grey and as cold as stone. "It's a statue." Kitt noticed. At the other side, there was a streetlight. "What a weird place to place a statue." She walked around and saw that the statue was a crying angel with an eagle. "Oh, now this really brightens people up when they walk by it. And just look at it, nobody has cleaned it for years! Look at all those plants." She whipped away some plants. "Poor things, people must have forgotten about it and ... hey, what's this?" Kitt saw some words and cleaned the plate a bit more. Slowly, she managed to read the lines. "In honour of those who died in the tragic terrorist attack where 2 planes hit the Twin Towers, one crashed in Pennsylvania and a 4th that hit the Pentagon... on the 11th... of September.... 2000... and one...." Kitt gasped.
In the mean while, Zach woke up and noticed Kitt and the man were gone. "Maybe Derak found her...," Zach thought while he looked for Kitt. "Or maybe that old man... no, it couldn't be him... however, it was a complete stranger... no, it must have been Derak! But why didn't I hear anything?" Suddenly, he saw Kitt standing before a statue. "Ah, there you are!" He said. "Why did you walk away? What are you...? Kitt? Is everything all right?"
"I'm so cold." She whispered softly back.
"Kitt?" Zach asked. "What's wrong?" But suddenly, Kitt just burst into tears and cried on his shoulder.
"Please..." She cried. "Please tell me it isn't true! No human could have done this, right? Right? Humans don't do things like this, right?"
"What are you talking about?" Zach looked at the statue and read the words. "Oh... I see...." But there didn't came anything more out of him.
For hours, Zach and Kitt just stood before the statue. They were still there when the sun came up. "Kitt?" Zach finally said. "I think we'd better leave now. Derak...."
"No..." Kitt said. "I just can't leave here without doing anything."
Zach understood her. "But what can we do? It has happened a long time ago."
"I just can't leave here."
After a while, a motor gang drove by the statue. The angel was now freed of the plants and the statue looked like it was completely new! At the bottom, someone had placed flowers and a candle.
"Look." One said. "I've never seen this statue before, and I was born here."
Another member of Derak's gang nodded. "Me neither, but I wonder what it is about."
"Then go and read!" Derak ordered. "We have more things to do."
The member stepped of his bike and walked at it. "In honour of those..." He read it till the end. "Weird, I never knew this happened. But it's horrible. Who could do such a thing? Man, what a tragedy."
All the time, Derak had been silent. With the word 'tragedy', a long forgotten memory pushed itself to his conscious again. The memory, of a little boy with green hair that sat in a crumbling house during an earthquake. The memory, of an eight years old boy, that saw his mother die while she tried to save him.... The memory of....
"Derak?" One of the gangmembers asked. "Shall we leave now?"
Derak snapped awake. "What? Oh, yeah, right, just wait a minute."
And when the gang drove away, a second candle burned before the statue....
The end.
In honour of those who died on the 11th of September 2001- may you all rest in
peace.