Poems of Oskar Douglas
Black Monday. (No Tuesday)

I never felt a thing when it happened; there was no physical pain at all. I thought there would be, but no! Too soon, too fast, Just a blinding white flash - then nothing.

Not for me on that Tuesday morning. It wasn’t supposed to be a Tuesday, Monday is the worst day of the week, isn’t it? Not Tuesday, Tuesday is a good day, isn’t it? Well isn’t it? Tuesday’s Child is full of grace. Not much grace in evidence here though. Not up here with these monsters.

I didn’t feel pain then, no not then. I felt pain when they said,”Call your loved ones, and say goodbye”. What did they mean goodbye? Where were we going? What was happening? Then it dawned on me. We were going all right, going to Heaven. At least some of us were and some were going straight to eternal Hell. Why me? I found myself thinking, why us? What did we do to deserve this? Tuesday’s child is full of grace for God’s sake. This was the ultimate punishment for some unknown misdemeanour and we were all going to pay for it. What about all the families and friends, they don’t deserve to be punished like this. We go quickly don’t we? But the memories of today will linger in the minds of our loved ones left behind. Nobody will ever understand the pain and torment they will have in their hearts for ever and ever.

My heart was pounding with fear and my stomach was churning with anguish. That’s all gone now. No more worries, no pain. It’s the ones who are left behind who are feeling the pain.

Mum worries a lot at the best of times. She would think that I was off to Los-Angeles on American Airlines flight 11 from my hometown of Boston, New England. The time was 9:35am and I keyed in her number on my mobile. It rang, but I got her answering service. I hate those infernal machines, no way to be personal. What to say! I was going to die and I was talking to an inanimate object, a machine without a trace of feeling or conscience. Just like the monsters who had taken charge just a short time ago.

Hurry! Hurry! I heard and I panicked. I hung- up, nothing was said to the damn machine. It couldn’t tell that I was going to die. It had no feelings other than despair and fear. It was 9:40 am and my mind was in such a jumble. Where were they taking us to die? What foreign land were we going to end up in? We were being hi-jacked and all 92 of us including the crew, were stunned.

I glanced at my watch, it was 9:44 ………………………………………………………..

It’s bound to be in the news
 

Mum cries a lot now and I can’t be there.

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