About 23 hours later, Jordan’s prayer had been realized in a horrific manner. She didn’t make it to school that day nor would she for the duration of the week. On Tuesday morning, she and her Mom sat in front of their living room 32″ Panasonic tube television with eyes opened wide in stunned silence. Mindi and Jen were still asleep when Sally had run to wake Jordan up moments after the second plane hit at about 6am. The only noises that could be heard were the hum of the fridgerator, the frantic and confused news reporters on the screen, and the muffled chokes and whimpers of Jordan and Sally’s hushed crying. As was the case for most of the world that day, the Reynolds were in shock.
After absorbing the raw emotion of shock and sadness for a few minutes and trying to grasp the meaning of an intentional attack of some kind her country, Jordan’s mind shifted to fear: will there be more? Is dad ok? He left for work at 5:30 like he normally does so he might not even know about this. Are there going to be more attacks in Seattle? Is this just the beginning?
She knew that his non-profit, Hope Seattle, was right downtown near many high buildings and could be in danger.
Even though it was in the early days of cell phones, Ted still had one and Sally had been ringing it all morning to no avail. It was either off, Ted was ignoring it, or something bad had happened. Over and over again, Sally called his number and attempted to appear calm – her hands shook slightly. She was as terrified as Jordan although she was trying not to wear it on her sleeve quite as obviously. Still in her 2-piece cotton pajamas, Jordan had developed large red blotches on her neck and face in response to her stress, she was sweating profusely down her back, neck, and on her forehead, and she seemed to be shaking as she cried.
