The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland

by Jim DeFede

The night before, when she stepped off the plane, Roxanne hadn’t noticed just how many planes were on the ground. Now that they were all empty, they were parked nose to tail, one after another. “Wow,” she said, getting off the motorcycle. “That is amazing. All those planes. So many people.” Roxanne looked away from MacLeod and stared at the stars in the sky. How could somebody do something so evil, something that adversely affected so many innocent lives? How could somebody have so much hatred for America? She could feel the tears on her face. It was all finally catching up to her: the notion that her country was under attack; the magnitude of the suffering of the families of the dead and missing; the ambiguity over how long she and the others would stay in Gander and where they would go next; the lack of sleep; the lack of privacy; the separation from Samantha; the rejection by Alexandria. On the side of the dark and empty road, dwarfed by the jumbo jets all around her, she allowed herself to cry.