My teacher got a phone call from the office and suddenly looked disappointed. I thought maybe someone in his family had gotten injured or died, so I was sympathetic. I didn’t ask him what was wrong because I didn’t think it concerned me.

When the bell rang, I went to my next class as an intern, around 10am, and the women in the office were glued to the TV as a building was burning. Naturally I thought they were sick to watch that (you know how people are so fascinated with disaster). I was laughing at what animals they seemed to be. “Oh how terrible” they cried as I sat and laughed at their best pathetic attempts to look appalled.

I didn’t believe what they said was all going on until a couple of days later I realized that it wasn’t all just a joke, or a dream. It was very real. Things like this happen I suppose and there really is nothing we can do about it.

Now I realize that my teacher never said anything because he knew eventually we would all find out and he didn’t want to “cause” a disturbance.