The first reports came on while most of the world was starting its day. Nobody understood what they were looking at yet — a plane, then a second one, then the towers weren't there anymore. Phone lines jammed. People called everyone they knew, just to hear a voice. School, work, whatever the day was supposed to be, stopped. Nearly three thousand people died across the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania where passengers fought back. Airports worldwide grounded every flight for days, something that had never happened before. It's strange how a single morning can redraw the next twenty years of airport security, foreign policy, and everyday caution, and how clearly people who weren't even near New York still remember exactly where they were standing when they understood what had happened.