Jordan, for her part, felt even more pressure from her mom to help with care of her sisters. At the same time, she felt even more need to be cared for herself.

I’m Scared TOO Mom! She kept thinking during the day. You’re not the only one who is upset with dad, you’re not the only one who is confused and worried. I’m just a little girl though. But by her appearance and age, she was growing up and Sally leaned on her all the more that day.

Alex never had come over to the Reynold’s house that day. Soon after her Ted’s phone call that morning, Alex called back a little calmer to say that her aunt had come to their home and that she didn’t to head over to the Reynolds. Jordan was happy Alex was ok and a little relieved to not have to worry about one more person in the house to look after.

Although Jordan had learned to cope (to some degree) with the stress in her home by writing, in truth it was a drop in the bucket. She wasn’t aware of how much her home life was affecting her at the time, and she certainly didn’t know how to process the high level of fear and drama in her house that morning – especially alone. Because writing was the only thing she had ever done to self-care, her mind was naturally drawn to it all day but because her mom leaned on her so hard for help, there was never a moment to get away. Little did Jordan know, this lack of ability to process what was going on in her life would come back to haunt her.

Ted had treated it like a normal workday; apparently many people in the city had as well. A few staff from the shelter had gone home to their families after the towers fell but “the homeless people we serve don’t have anyone to go to, Sally”, he had said at one point during their debate once the younger two kids were in bed. At another point, it came out in the conversation that Melissa had also stayed behind in the shelter all day.