A Better View

Kayla Fraley pulled the blankets over her head to keep the light out of her eyes. It was a trick she tried daily but she rarely succeeded at achieving it. Her mom walked into her bedroom for the second time. She yanked the blankets off of Kayla’s small nine year old body.  

“It’s past time to get up and get ready for school.” Linda Fraley told her only child. Despite Kayla’s young age, she could hold her own against her mom, except when it came to going to school. Linda always won despite Kayla’s protests. “We’re already way behind schedule.”  

Kayla put on her glasses and got out of bed. Her pace was the only move she had left now that she was out of bed. Her movements were slow even though the clock showed they needed to leave in ten minutes for them to be on schedule.  

It wasn’t school that Kayla didn’t like. It was her classmates. They always made fun of her and her glasses. She looked at herself in the mirror. Her glasses didn’t fit her face. She looked exactly like what they called her. Four-eyed Fraley and sometimes adding freak at the end. Kayla took off her thick glasses and her vision immediately vanished. Everything blurred together right in front of her. She could see shapes and most colors but she couldn’t clarify what anything was if it was further than an arms distance away.

She placed her glasses back on her face. I am a four-eyed freak. I’ll never be popular. She thought to herself. 

Linda poked her head in the room again, “Honestly Kayla! Five minutes. Get dressed!” She shouted. “We are late already.”

Once Kayla was dressed and ready for school, they hopped in the car to start their trek through Tribeca during rush hour. Linda looked over at her daughter and spoke clearly, “I need you to listen to me. When it is time to wake up and get ready for school you need to get up! I have an important meeting today at work and I really shouldn’t be late. School started a few minutes ago and we are still in traffic.”  

“Darn.” A devilish smile escaped from Kayla’s lips. Kayla turned in her seat and looked out the window and up to the sky. It was a beautiful September morning. Kayla noticed a large plane in the distance and continued to watch it sink lower towards the city.

Linda looked over at her daughter looking out the window. She broke the silence between them, “I know school is hard for you Kayla and you don’t like it…”

“MOM! That plane is going to crash!” Kayla shrieked and pointed up towards a large building they’d pass nearly every day on the route to school. The shadow of the plane blocked the sun which was shining in the car. First the loud crash sounded, then the vibrations shook the building which they could feel in the car.

Linda opened her car door and stood outside her car. She looked up to the smoke. “Those poor people.” Linda gasped and placed her hand over her mouth and froze in place.  

“Mom?” Kayla also got out of the car and looked up at the smoke that was filling the sky. “What happened?” She asked as papers and ashes from the crash fell from the sky like snowflakes, gently easing their way to the ground.

Linda put her hand on Kayla’s shoulder, “I don’t know baby, I don’t know.” Both of them stood there looking at the building. Sirens were going off, fire trucks were trying to get through traffic. It seemed like they were frozen in time but before long they heard another crash and more vibrations filled the street. The streets which had stopped in silence just to watch moments ago turned to chaos. People were evacuating their cars in the streets and coming out of the buildings nearby.  

Kayla pointed up towards the building. “Look mom, there’s someone falling from the building.” Kayla’s eyes began to water. “I think he jumped.”

Linda covered Kayla’s eyes. “Don’t look honey, don’t look.” Her voice trembled. 

A cop came up to Linda and Kayla, “Folks, it’s not time to stand around, get moving.” Linda went back to the car. “No ma’am, start walking, we’re evacuating the area.” Kayla grabbed her mom’s hand and they abandoned their vehicle and joined the crowds of people walking away from the building. Everyone was looking back. Sirens howled in the silent streets. Cops and Firemen were running towards the buildings. The debris was getting thicker and falling faster. Unpleasant sounds kept coming from the building.   

Everyone around Kayla was talking and her mind was racing trying to keep up with what she was hearing.  

“It’s a terrorist attack. Two planes within minutes. That was intentional.”  

“The Pentagon was hit.”

“This is war!”

“Mommy? What is happening?” Kayla asked again. “I’m scared.” Kayla pushed her glasses up her nose and looked around the sky again for another plane. They were surrounded by skyscrapers. The ashes clouded her glasses in moments and Kayla blew air up with her lips to keep the lenses clean. It wasn’t helping.

“Me too. Keep walking.” Linda said. An eerie sound filled the air and almost everyone looked back to the building.  

“The tower is collapsing!” A man shouted. “Run, everyone run!” The rumbles filled the streets. Ash flew through the air. Before it was like now snow falling but now they were caught in a white out blizzard of ash.  

“My glasses are clouded!’ Kayla coughed out but still she was running. Her mom was pulling her hand guiding her. “I can’t see where I’m going!” Kayla cried.

“I’m right here, just hold on, follow me.” Linda shouted and they continued to run through the streets of New York. The once familiar streets were no longer recognizable.  

A business man shouted from his door. “Get in here! Quick. You don’t have much time.” He opened the door for Kayla and Linda and they ran in just before a heavy cloud of debris took over the outdoors. The city was covered with grey ash. They huddled in the corner of the shop while rock flew in every direction hitting the windows that were keeping them safe for now. The building shook around them. Kayla wiped some of the ash off of her glasses so she could see a little better, even though she wasn’t even sure she wanted to see any more after what she’d already seen today.

“Thank you, you saved our lives, thank you!” Linda was weeping in the arms of the business man.  

Kayla looked out the window to see people covered in ash walking the streets like zombies. Most were coughing. Some were bleeding. The look of stunned fear was on everyone’s face. The smell of burnt steel filled the air.

The business man handed Kayla a bottle of water and some napkins. “So you can clean up.” He gave a weak smile. He had glasses just as Kayla did. His lenses were covered in ash but not to the extent Kayla’s were.

“Do people still call you four eyes when you are an adult?” Kayla asked just above a whisper.

The businessman laughed. “No. Kids can be mean. I got picked on a lot as a kid until my dad told me the secret about glasses.” He leaned in closer to whisper. “Glasses help you see perspective.”

“What’s perspective?” Kayla asked, dumping water on her glasses. The dirt turned into mud instead of washing clean like Kayla was expecting.

“Perspective is a different point of view. So when you have your glasses off and your vision is blurry that is one point of view. When you have your glasses on and your vision is clear then you have another point of view. At your young age, you know what it is like to see more than others. That is the secret to glasses. Anyone who doesn’t wear glasses is missing out.” He gave Kayla a wink.

Kayla smiled at the kind man and continued to clean her glasses since she still couldn’t out of them very well. “So, I have three perspectives. Clear vision, blurry vision, and dirty glasses vision.” The business man laughed while Kayla put her newly cleaned glasses back on her dirty face. She still felt like she was moving in slow motion. This morning, she purposely moved in slow motion but now the whole city was on the same pace as her. She looked over at her mom. She was still shaking and crying. Kayla moved closer to her, snuggling her body beside her mom.

“Mom?”  

“You saved me.” Linda grabbed Kayla and hugged her tight. “If we weren’t late this morning, I would have been in that building.” Linda cried. “You saved us.” They embraced and Kayla could feel her mom still shaking. “I’m so sorry I yelled at you. I love you.”

“I love you, mom. I’m still scared.” Kayla admitted to her mom. “I want to go home.”  

The business man pushed his door open once the dust had settled. There was enough ash on the ground, it could have been shoveled. “It’s gone. The whole building is gone. 110 story skyscraper fell down in an hour.” He marveled. “The other building is still burning.”  

Kayla walked over to the window in awe of the destruction around her. How was this possible? It was just a normal Tuesday. She was supposed to be at school and being picked on for her dorky looks. Now she was looking at her hometown covered in soot. They looked at the open sky line in the distance where the World Trade Center once stood. Chunks of steel fell from the other building.

“It’s going to fall, too, isn’t it?” Kayla asked while looking at the businessman. He had tears in his eyes.  

He nodded. “Probably soon. We should take cover again.” He closed the door to his business. The three of them huddled in the corner and waited. 

It wasn’t long until they felt the now familiar rumbles of a crashing building. The sounds were just as eerie as they were for the first building. The streets were again filled with thick clouded air. Kayla held on to her mom for dear life and waited for the dust to settle.  

Sirens and screams became a common soundtrack on September 11, 2001. Manhattan covered in ash was its new look. Fallen stone and bent steel were the new décor. Death and fear was the new smell. Desperate for water and a cottonmouth was the new taste.   

Kayla had already seen more than she ever wanted to see. She saw a plane hit a building. She saw a man fall to his death. She saw two buildings crumble. She saw chaos, terror, and pain.

But when she remembered what the business man said, she thought about the day from a different point of view. She noticed there was a different feeling between the people. It was love. It was kindness. It was serving. It was unity. She noticed it with all five senses. Kayla could see all of it clearly. She didn’t even need four eyes to see that light always overcomes the darkness. Kayla was glad to know the secret to glasses is always looking beyond what you can’t see at first.