Kitt

This one has definitely caught my attention. I am looking forard to more.

The blank book i was expecting - the last line got me ! Very nicely done sir!

I loved it!

Lovely. It always baffled me why Hope, the only thing remaining in the box, was in there with the evils of the world in the first place. False hope would be an evil i suppose, but .... I especially love the imagery of "Dory" opening her "box" in the morning and using it's one remaining object to help people. Thanks!

Don't forget Cody! Living in Malibu, fabulous job with all the pretty people, pretty little daughter, all because Stef took a liking to him in Chicago!

A Fine Can of Worms Pandora’s Box Once opened cannot be shut Causing cascading failure Out of control An Idea Growing wings and feet Running ahead of you Out of control Emotions Feeding upon themselves Building a life of their own Out of control A fine can of worms.

A poem inspired by the anthology theme

Why can i see portraits done from photographs of the lost cap family members being added to the great hall and Andre's statue now? Good thing the hall is so large. Someone said something about cap stories all being happy endings. So why do we have Andre, Jeff, Sam, Rodger, Mouse, Billy, Tonto, Marie Crampton, Greg and several others who's portraits we could include?

Had the divorce been finalized? I could have been too wrapped up in the lead in to the horrible day but i could have sworn the last we had read Jeff Dansfield told Wade he was going to file, but we haven't seen more on that front have we?

Yet. I don't think Mark has quite finished with the day and how different people in the story have felt as things unfolded. It is entirely possible we may see the hour between the first impact and the second collapse through more eyes yet, and Robbie could still be one of them.

Agreed gentlemen, had to happen but I don't have to like it. And of course had he chosen Brad for the sacrifice, while it would have had a similar effect of shaking the entire family, It would have eliminated an entire thread of the story. With both Brad and Janine gone there would have been no issue left to settle over the emancipation. I can easily see the tragedy completely changing how both Brad and Will feel about things, but there is still a lot of work to do to get someplace where they can be happy together.

I'm with Ricky on the make people cringe list. Don't worry too much about "proper" English. I know several people who have graduated from top universities that don't speak English as well as you do Carlotta!

I'll sit here with my fingers crossed with you Tim, altho I am not holding too much hope. The best number I have found of people who survived the collapse was only 20.......

In spite of the facts of the story and the actual day itself I still find myself hoping Robbie was one of the few that survived the collapse. Incredibly powerful, gut wrenching writing Mark. I find myself loving and hating it all at the same time.

They certainly were adorable! I've heard similar noises coming from the woods behind my house with the reaction of WTF critter makes THAT noise?" We've never had fox around here before but now I will be watching for them!

This is what I meant earlier - being "gay" doesn't define who my neighbor is any more than being "straight" doesn't define who I am - people should just get to know and like/dislike someone on the individual's merrits. Bottom line is I am married and not going to be playing around with my neighbor, so what does it matter to me what sex the playmate in his bed is? And to try to categorize people based on how they "act" is ludicrous. The biggest "flamer" or if you will the "gayest acting" guy i know is totally straight.

LOL i guess brink answered that one pretty well!

Woo HOOO! Three cheers for Gill! Honestly, aren't there better things the WBC could turn their efforts to? Like spending the money they put into useless protests towards feeding hungry children or supporting safe shelters for the homeless? Maybe I better cut off here and move to a blog before I wander into forbidden subjects in the forum! lol

Yes - come chat with us - we love meeting new people and have a lot of fun most days.

Hello Solo. Don't limit yourself to just posting stories! Come visit with us in the forums and the chat room too! There are lots of wonderful people around. We get some pretty spirited discussions going.

Centex has an excellent point ladies and gentlemen. Not just the story will be bringing back memories for millions of people today, the anniversary. The news media will be broadcasting memorial services and all manors of reminders, and that is not going to be easy for a lot of people. Lets all try and keep that in mind today and be what help we can to the people around us. You never know when a little gesture will make a huge difference.

I was at work at a before and after school care program at the local elementary school. We were just moving from the auxiliary classroom out back where we had the care center set up to the main building for the day. Where we are you could see the towers from higher elevations like upstairs windows etc, but where we were we could not see the skyline. As we waited to go into classes we could smell the smoke ( we lived in the cloud for days on end it seemed). After the children went into their classes i got home to a ringing phone, my mother telling me to hurry and turn the TV on. We spoke for a while and I split time looking out the window at the real thing and at the TV reports. I literally watched the second plane hit. The office from the school called and asked me to come back in about 9:30 to help with the kids while teachers spent time with their cell phones reaching family members of children who had family in the area of the destruction. The goal was not to tell the kids what was really happening, but with so many parents picking children up it became too difficult. We were instructed to give just the barest of answers - that bad people had hurt a lot of people in the city and thats why mommies and daddies were picking children up early. As bad as that day was - the first anniversary was almost as bad here. I had a kindergartner run in to my classroom the afternoon of the anniversary screaming "Mrs G Mrs G they did it again!" The school had run an assembly to let the children watch the memorial services that day and the little ones didn't understand the images were replays.

I have to agree about JJ - being at odds with his mother if/when she is killed in the collapse will definitely mess with his head. Hope someone that survives has his shrinks number on speed dial. You are also right about the evac orders. Even if they waited till the second tower was hit there would have been many more lives saved if they had started evacs immediately. The shelter in place order may have seemed right at the time, trying to keep as many people off the streets as possible, but even if tower 2 had never been hit, the eventual collapse of one would have compromised the integrity of all the surrounding buildings. Everything for blocks should have been evacuated immediately. As for the summer of '05 and Katrina - Leave Mark alone to finish this one will ya??? Don't go getting his mind running off on other evil tangents! He gets quite enough ideas on how to torture his characters and us readers all by himself!

What I found surprising was that Hank didn't insist that Janine start down with the boys and Maddy. I can understand her following the command's instructions and being there to carry out what ever instructions they manage to pass to her, but one would think the safety of her lover would be as important to her.

I had thought I had prepared myself for reliving the day through your eyes Mark. Apparently I was not as prepared as I thought I was. I found myself sweating as Stef slipped on the ladder, growling at Janine's decision to stay with Hank and wanting to slap JJ upside the head when they were evacuating the hotel. I think the multiple viewpoints are very powerful, and very realistic. Some of the things you have described so far come very close to things friends said after walking out of the city that day. I can't wait to see how these things affect the way the family feels about things. You have shown us our first glimpse when John sniped at Marie and then walked out leaving her gaping like a goldfish. I find myself wondering just how long it will take Brad to realize Will's "impossible" behavior saved both his and Stef's lives. Had they not delayed for that argument they would have been above the impact. Looking forward to your next post sir. Kudo's for a wonderfully powerful chapter.