“What happened to the plane?” Sylvie asked.
Agnes shook her head. “I thought you weren’t allowed to fly over Manhattan.”
As they watched, another plane appeared on the screen and they clutched at each other. “Swerve!” Sylvie yelled.
“Jesus,” Agnes said softly. “I’m going to Polly’s.”
“I’ll come with you,” Sylvie said.
“Yes. Do. We’ll leave Maisie, though.”
It was warm but clouding over. The grass had lost its green, its sap, and was shriveling and a lovely beige. Not many wildflowers left. The scent was as heady as ever, wheaty and warm. Hard not to notice beauty, even in shock.
“You think Maud is all right, don’t you?” Agnes just wanted to hear it. “Say yes.”
“She’s nowhere near,” Sylvie said firmly.
“I should have called her. Sylvie—will you go home and try her? Then call me when you have spoken to her.”
They were opposite the graveyard. Sylvie put her hands on her hips. “Yes. I’d like to do that.”
“You don’t mind being alone?”
“What difference does it make?”
And that is why I can live with this person, Agnes thought.
She walked into Polly’s through the terrace doors. Agnes fleetingly appreciated how nice it was to ignore ceremony now that Dick was gone. Another punch in her ticket to hell.
“Polly!”
“In here!”
Agnes found her in her own den, pacing the length of a telephone receiver cord in front of her TV. She shrugged helplessly and covered the receiver with her hand. James, she mouthed. Agnes settled into a side chair and stared at the TV, this one in color. Both towers were hideously on fire. So much black smoke. Theo had told her about eating at Windows on the World on a rainy day when the room was in the clouds. She didn’t know which tower that had been. No one would be up there this early, surely. The offices, though—would people be at work? She wasn’t sure what time things got going in New York. There had to be some people in the building. She shuddered, imagining their fear.
The tower on the left expanded into a cloud of gray smoke and slowly, very slowly, gave way. It seemed to sit down. A gray puff, a collapse. Oh my God. She pointed speechlessly.
Polly glanced at the screen. “James! Are you all right? Yes, yes, okay. Yes. I see. Good, thank God. No no, please don’t hang up—”
She put the receiver back on its hook. “He has to keep calling everyone.” She went to Agnes and hugged her. “It’s unbelievable. Jillian is the only one who works in the towers, but she’s not there. She was there, but Knox spoke to her and told her to go home immediately. He told her to get out. She was still in her sneakers, so she left. You know what I’m talking about, don’t you?”
“That’s why I’m here. Oh my God!”
Polly spun around. People were running wildly in the street. A brown cloud rushed up the avenue, chasing them. People were covered in gray dust, choking. Running from a tsunami. Or a volcanic eruption.
“Oh my God,” Polly whispered. “Oh Jesus.”
“What about the children?”
“Children?”
“Your children.”
“James is calling around.”
As Polly paced back and forth, muttering “Call me back, call me back,” Agnes watched her with a growing irritation. It was typical of her to fidget, as if that might change the course of history. It was on her nerves.
“Should I call him back?” Polly asked. “I wish he hadn’t hung up.”
“No. He told you, he’s checking on everyone. He checked on you, you’re safe.”
“But I want to know what’s going on.”
“So sit down and watch the TV. James doesn’t have a newsroom at his disposal.”
Polly frowned. “That was unnecessary.”
“You are wearing a hole in the rug. Stop it!”
Polly looked down, then up again, perplexed.
“Sit down,” Agnes said forcefully. “I can’t concentrate with you moving around like that.”
“Aren’t you upset?”
The reporter on the TV said the words “terrorist attack.”
“Oh my God,” Polly said, and sank down into the sofa.
“Yes, I’m upset. But I’m not entirely surprised. We’ve been bullying the world long enough.”
“How can you say that?”
Agnes wasn’t sure. But it made her feel better to be out ahead of things. “I’m just speaking the reality.”
Polly pressed her lips together and looked down at her lap. “You can be quite the monster, you know.”
“I’m not the monster, I’m the messenger. I didn’t do this thing.” She gestured at the TV.
“Maybe you can be so cold because you don’t have a family.”
“I’m going to ignore that idiotic remark.” Agnes’s blood thrummed wildly. Breathe, breathe, get a grip. This wouldn’t help anyone.
The phone rang. Polly dove for it. “James?” Polly listened, nodding frantically. “Everyone? You’re sure? All right. No. Why not—come up here! Tell them all to come. No wait, don’t go— I can’t hear him.” She looked bewildered.
“Come sit back down and stop fretting. He said everyone was okay, didn’t he?”
Polly responded to the command and came over. They watched in near silence. The TV reporters were in shock, and in tears.
“Where was James?” Agnes asked.
“In Philadelphia. At the office.”
“Oh. I’m sure Philadelphia is safe,” Agnes said firmly. Though if national sites were targets…
“What about Independence Hall, though? That would be a good target. I mean, as a symbol.” Polly had had the same thought.
“Philadelphia will be fine,” Agnes said. She’d gotten her strength back in light of Polly’s distress. It was automatic to balance the scales with Polly.
The phone rang again. “Oh, thank you, Shirley. No, that’s fine. I’m fine. Agnes is here.”
“I’m here,” Agnes called out.
Polly hung up again. “That was Shirley. She’s watching TV with her husband.”
“Fun.”
“Agnes!”
“Sorry.” She thought of something. “What about Robert?”
“He must be safe up there,” Polly said.
“But does he even know what’s going on? Do they tell them? He may not know.” The thought of that horrified her.
“Those poor people,” Polly said. “Do you think everyone escaped?” She put her face in her hands.
“Polly—no. I don’t.”
“But a lot of people must have gotten out.”
“Probably. That’s not the point right now.”
“For them it is.” Polly lifted her chin, reaching for a higher truth.
“All right. I am in no mood to argue. You are fine, by the way.”
“I don’t care. Who cares about an old lady? I wish I could trade my life—”
The other tower fell. They moaned and covered their eyes and watched and moaned more and pushed their hands deep into their stomachs and pinched their own arms. Polly slumped down to the floor. Agnes got glasses of water from the kitchen.