08/31: Never Forget

I remember when 9/11 happened.
You know, like the only 9/11 that Americans care about.
I feel kind of hokey about it,
but I thought I'd add my 9/11 memory.
I was getting stoned and watching Animal Planet
while eating a bowl of Lucky Charms.
Suddenly a wild phone call springs on me,
it's my mentally unstable alcoholic boss, Annette, from Claire's
(yes, I worked at Claire's. I pierced ears at the mall....)
She was becoming completely unhinged,
yelling incomprehensible things between sobbing.
Stuff like "We're next!!!"
"It's the end of the world!!!"
And then asking me what she should do about
closing the store and whatnot
since the whole mall was shutting down.
I asked her what was going on, why she was freaking,
which only made her freak out more...
"WHAT?!?!!?! DON'T YOU KNOW?!?!?!?!"
"No, man, I'm watching Animal Planet. It's not even 10am yet, shit."
"OH MY GOD!!!!!!!! TURN ON THE NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
So I did.
And I became absorbed.
It was like being sucked in by a vector beam of media devastation.
I snapped out of it and went to the mall to close down the store,
no big deal, unless you're insane and drunk on the job like Annette.
I came home and by that time,
my roommate Annie had returned from her job.
I continued to get stoned
and we just zoned out on news coverage about the planes
crashing in the the buildings all day long.
We didn't even notice that our landline phone had rang.
We checked the messages and heard the creepiest ass messages ever.
It was Annie's devotely chirstian parents...
I don't know if devote really even captures
the zeal of their god-love.
Anyway, they live out in the country
and have a small lake on their property.
Their messages were:
"Annie. You need to come home. You need to pray by the lake.
You are not safe in the city. Come home and pray with us."
Their voices were calm and chilling...kid killing chilling.
I grabbed her and told her not to go out there
because it sounded like they were going to drown their children
and then drown themselves due to crazy Christian theories.
You see, Annie was taught
that there are four signs of the end of the world.
1. Fall of a charismatic American leader - JFK
2. Massive death by flooding- Mississippi flooded about 15-20 years ago and fucked shit up
3. The rise of a charismatic middle eastern leader who would gain a lot of followers that would
in the end do his bidding. This man would be considered the anti-christ.
4. An event would happen that would trigger a war of the countries, something so bad
that all the countries would fight and the human race would eventually destroy itself.

Now, it sounds crazy to non-believers.
But Annie was raised to believe this
and even though she thinks its all shit, rationally,
there is still a part deep inside her that has some fear.
Either way,
I wasn't letting her go out to the lake to be drown
by her insane Christian parents.