September 11 (Fiction short story)

[Rudy Spillman]

In tribute to all victims of the terrorist attack on 11 September 2001 in the United States of America.

September 11

The following story is fictional, unless the author has been able to dream of a story that occurred in our daily reality without knowing it.

Christie was a sweet and good girl. Only child, lived with her parents, Jeremy and Rosie Murdock, New Jersey, U.S.A. She grew up with a gift that was not particularly welcomed by anyone in the family. And with the passing years, not even by herself. Becoming aware of what happened to her made her feel ashamed and guilty. She begun to hate this ability that God, Nature or God knows who had given her. Gradually it became to be a complex and the only thing that generated the feeling of hatred in Christie. Only about the gift she had received, since towards people she had only love and good feelings.
The worried parents took her to whatever doctor, psychologist, psychiatrist and healer who could do anything for her. They visited spiritual advisors, psychics, fortune tellers. Nothing was hold back in trying to help their daughter. But there was no one who could help. Only false promises with or without intention were exposed when the uncanny ability appeared again in Christie. Once again money was invested getting only a new frustration.

The fault grew inside her permanently and was overwhelmed by the ruined family's financial situation due to her problem.
Christie was eighteen years old and her parents had to sell the car and the house because several physicians suggested that the teenager was in danger of losing her mental health if her gift was still taking place. She used to wake up sometimes in the middle of the night. Her uncontrollable screaming of despair had awaken the neighbors who tried to be understanding of the situation. During her attacks, as possessed by the devil, Christie was pulling strands of her own hair, scratching herself and throwing up. Until she woke up slowly releasing herself from the trance. Sitting on the bed, exhausted, sweating and the white of her eyes filled with red threads looking at infinity without seeing anything, she was pronouncing a name. Always someone's name who had just died and whose death no one was aware of. When the event took place regarding family's relatives the pain, hopelessness and guilt she felt were significantly increased. In these cases, the family's trauma became indescribable and everyone felt they were losing their ability to handle the situation.

The first time the gift was evident the girl was only four years old. But at that time she had no symptoms which came later when she was bigger and took place during her strange nightmares.
That first time she woke up crying normally like any child. But once calmed by Rosie, her mother, the child began to repeat her aunt's name (mother's sister) who used to visit them almost daily:
- Amie! Amie! Amie! Amie! – It's all she repeated, over and over again.
- Calm down, my dear, your aunt is on her way here. Have you dreamed about her, my child? - the mother asked her while stroking her hair and holding her.
But she kept repeating on that occasion:
- Amie! Amie! Amie! Amie! – while her crying became more and more consistent.
Indeed, the aunt was in her way to meet them and had just been fatally hit by a truck. Such were the beginnings of this unfortunate gift which Christie appeared to have been born with.

Jeff Parker was a successful businessman in real estate, broker and customs, with important and solid contacts that enabled him to increase his powerful economic empire, on daily basis. Not even he knew what his fortune was. His relationship with Jonathan, the eldest of his two children was not good. It is known that in many cases mountains of money separate parents from their children. Jonathan had received during his entire twenty years everything except love and time shared with his parents. He attended three times a week to Dr. Dick Harlington, a psychiatrist that in addition to sending a monthly bill for Jeff Parker, failed to advance his young patient in resolving his conflicts and relationships. But from this therapy two things were obtained. In one hand, Jeff thought of cleaning his conscience by the monthly check sent to the outstanding professional and on the other hand, Jonathan would quiet his rages against his father by spending all the money he could since time was a fallen value in the family, from its origins.
It was one of those rainy afternoons in New York when they met. Jonathan left the luxury building near Central Park which accommodates the office of his psychiatrist when he saw the beautiful Christie entering, who seemed not to notice him. The crush at the time was such that Jonathan Parker decided to leave his unoccupied occupations and wait the fifty minutes he knew it would take the unknown girl to leave. That day the rain stopped, the dark clouds were cleared and the sudden daylight put color on this relationship that emerged from conversation, companionship and understanding.
The sudden marriage of Christie and Jonathan stabilized the economic situation of the Murdocks. Although there had been no intention, the truth is that Christie's guilt was lessened while awaiting for her symptoms knowing that if present it would mean that someone more or less related had died in the last few hours.
Jonathan knew the strange story and remained a bit skeptical to believe it although he didn't express it so Christie won't feel hurt an misunderstood. The healthy and growing relationship of love between them had influenced miraculously well in the relationship between Jonathan and his father.
The first two years passed with no deaths or nightmares that would discover them. Jonathan worked in his father's offices. One evening, arriving back home he learned that his wife was pregnant. They both wept of joy because they had seek to become parents for a long time. At the same time that Christie was heading for the phone elated to involve her family with their own pleasure, it rang before she picked up the handset. It was her mother Rosie, weeping uncontrollably. The husband had just died victim of a sudden cardiac arrest.
Christie had to move from one mood to another opposite counting only on her partner who was there to hug and hold her. But in his arms she could not help thinking that perhaps her spooky ability was gone forever. And the idea was somehow comforting although she knew that in Jonathan's and his family's eyes the gift may had never been there, only in her own and her family's fantasies.
To manage the feelings of joy and sadness she had simultaneously on her soul was no easy task for Christie. But there was no doubt over the days and weeks that feeling the new being growing inside her womb and that no nightmare had emerged corroborating her father's death helped the mother to be, bearing the loss that cost her so much pain and having a pleasant memory of her progenitor.
It was September. There were only two months left for Christie's delivery. She was heavy but in good health when it happened. After lunch at home with her mother who was accompanying her, she had an irresistible urge to nap and so she did. Rosie was in the kitchen. After an hour, she suddenly heard screams. It had been years since they heard them. She felt like her heart was about to stop. But then came the worst, the cries of her daughter announcing a name, a new victim:
- Jonathan! Jonathan! Jonathan! Jonathan! -
Christie had not risen from her trance yet when her mother broke into a jerky, uncontrollable crying while hiding her wet face behind her hands.
With some hair still tangled between her fingers, carefully taking her huge belly to get up from bed, Christie in despair and with difficulty reached the handset of the phone and managed to dial the number of the offices were her husband was suppose to be:
- Hello! Hello! Please answer! – The anxiety and desperation to prove the worst prevented Christie from waiting.
- Hello my love ... But what happens to you? Do you have contractions? - The naivety of Jonathan prevented him from knowing immediately the real reason for his wife's call. Christie wept silently and gently stroking her belly while informing her not yet born child, quietly and calmly, that he was not an orphan.
- But why are you crying so, woman? - The unease of not knowing grew in Jonathan.
- Of happiness, my love ... of happiness ... - The relaxed and smiling Christie did not match her face all wet in tears.
Once they both relaxed Christe recounted the details of what happened to Jonathan and her happy surprise at the end. It was the first time she dreamed of a name that didn't announce its death. But the event, the nightmare, all the symptoms had taken place the same way. This could mean for the first time that the nightmare might be anticipating death instead of announcing it after it happened.
Despair began to grow back inside her by considering this speculation. The fear that the usual would occur having nothing to do about it.
- Stay calm, woman. This proves that it's all over now. Your skill is gone forever. I
have some papers to arrange and then I'll go home to be with you, my love - the husband had finished his day's work and was preparing to lift his wife's spirits.
- No! No, please ... do not move from there! Jonathan, you should spend the night in the offices and not leave all day tomorrow. Not even for a coffee. Only then we can be sure - Christie feared that over the next twenty-four hours any accident could happen to her husband and the curse would take place again. Jonathan smiled. He did not appreciate much spending the night at the office, no matter how comfortable it could be. But was afraid to contradict Christie. He loved her and wanted her to feel good and relaxed. And that the last nightmare would end as quickly as possible. They chatted on the phone till very late into the night. They sent each other endless kisses of love. They said they missed one another. They would both spend their first night apart since they married. When they decided to hang up because they were very sleepy they exchanged vows and promised to celebrate the end of those nightmares the next day. It already was after midnight, 11 September 2001. The offices of Christie's husband were located in the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York.



Translation from Spanish language by:
Ariana Spillman

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