We All Fall Down

On September 10, 2001, Will Fuller, a ninth-grader, sits in his history class while his teacher, Mrs. Phelps, explains that the nursery rhyme "Ring Around the Rosie" is believed to be about the bubonic plague, with "we all fall down" referring to death. She tells the class that the next day they will participate in co-op placements, shadowing adults at work. Will's best friend, James Bennett, whose father is a New York City fireman, will visit his father's fire station in downtown Manhattan. Will, unenthusiastically, will accompany his father to his office at an international trading company in Manhattan. Mrs. Phelps tells them that tomorrow "might be an experience that changes your entire life" (14).

That evening, Will eats dinner quickly, eager to leave for band practice. His father's place setting sits untouched. Will's mother insists his father would prefer more time with the family, but Will is skeptical. She reveals that his father once played drums in a garage band as a teenager, a detail Will cannot reconcile with the businessman he knows, and mentions that his father has been eagerly anticipating their co-op day.

The next morning, September 11, Will reluctantly joins his father for the commute into New York City. On the train, Will reflects that his father is more of "a rumor at our house than a confirmed fact" (24). He meets his father's regular commuting companions, who reveal that Will's father talks about him constantly. Will feels guilty for nearly faking illness to avoid coming. The group teases Will's father about rooting for losing teams, and Will admits he cheers for the same ones, the first sign of how alike they are.

They arrive at the World Trade Center, the complex in Lower Manhattan that includes the Twin Towers, two 110-story skyscrapers. Will is awed by the towers rising into a cloudless blue sky. His father describes them as symbols of American ambition, comparable to the Eiffel Tower or the pyramids. They enter the South Tower and ride an express elevator to the 107th-floor Observation Deck, then walk down 22 flights to the 85th floor, familiarizing themselves with the stairwell they will later use to escape.

On the 85th floor, Will's father is pulled into work, leaving his personal assistant, Suzie, to show Will around. Colleagues tell Will his father is widely respected, the person who holds the office together. As Will looks out the windows at the North Tower, a thunderous explosion occurs.

At 8:46 a.m., a plane has struck the North Tower. What appears to be snow is actually thousands of pieces of burning paper swirling between the towers. CNN confirms that American Airlines Flight 11, a hijacked commercial jet, has been deliberately crashed into the building. Will witnesses two people leap from the burning tower, an image that haunts him. His father, the designated fire warden for the 85th floor, orders all staff to evacuate. Will leaves a message on his mother's answering machine. His father checks the other offices on the floor, but the head of a rival trading company aggressively refuses to leave. A building-wide announcement then declares the South Tower secure and instructs evacuees to return. Will's father, embarrassed but resolute, tells Will they are leaving.

At 9:03 a.m., a second hijacked plane strikes the South Tower at floors 79 through 82, below them. The building shakes violently, glass shatters, and ceiling tiles crash down. Will sees fear on his father's face for the first time. They are trapped above the impact zone. Employees who refused to evacuate now flood the corridor, climbing upward. Will's father pulls him away from the crowd, explaining that following the herd is not always right. He prepares them for a descent through Stairwell A, the farthest from the point of impact, fashioning wet masks from ties to filter smoke and giving Will a flashlight and a whistle. He tells Will to blow the whistle if they are separated, promising, "you know I'll do whatever I need to do to find you" (97).

The stairwell is empty and dark, lit only by dim emergency lights. At floor 81, sprinklers pour water and the floor is buckled from the impact. Will's father kicks through collapsed drywall blocking the passage below. At floor 80, the door is red-hot, with fire glowing beneath it. They descend sideways, faces pressed to the wall, feeling scorching heat as the stairs run with water and jet fuel. Below floor 77, the air clears. They have passed through the fire zone.

On the 74th floor, Will's father considers going back to tell the trapped people above that the stairwell is passable but decides against it, reasoning that the fires are intensifying and he cannot risk Will's safety. He tells Will that nothing matters more to him, and that having his son with him is the reason he chose to go down rather than up.

They hear a faint voice behind a jammed door and find Ting, a Chinese woman pinned beneath a filing cabinet with a head wound and a badly injured leg. She speaks very little English. Will's father frees her and lifts her onto his back. Ting shows them a photograph of her twin daughters, and Will realizes she is a mother whose children are waiting for her. Father and son take turns carrying Ting in a competitive relay, each tracking how many floors the other manages.

At the 39th floor, they meet firefighters climbing toward the fire. The lead fireman is stunned they descended from above the impact zone and asks them to continue carrying Ting to the ambulances below. They then encounter James's father, Mr. Bennett, among another group of firefighters. He asks them to pick up James from the station, since all emergency personnel are on 24-hour call and James's mother cannot reach the city.

During the descent, Will's father admits that business consumed him, that "money is just how you keep score of who's winning" (166), and that his competitive drive caused him to lose sight of what mattered. Will tells him honestly that he was a better father when Will was younger. They recognize that their shared competitiveness kept them pushing each other to carry Ting farther. His father speculates that Muslim extremists are likely responsible but carefully distinguishes between extremists and the broader Muslim community, emphasizing that most people of any faith are peaceful.

Just before 10:00 a.m., they reach the devastated lobby. Paramedics rush to take Ting, but she panics and clings to Will's father. He stays with her for an examination and sends Will ahead to the ambulances to call his mother.

A police officer guides Will across the debris-strewn plaza. He glances back at the smoking towers and begins dialing. Then the South Tower collapses. A blast of air throws him to the pavement, engulfing him in a blinding cloud of white dust. An officer tells him the tower is gone. Will screams that his father is in the lobby. Through thinning dust he sees only twisted metal where the tower stood. The nursery rhyme echoes in his mind: "we all fall down." In desperation, Will puts the whistle to his lips and blows.

Through the haze, he sees two figures, one carrying the other. His father emerges covered in dust, clothes shredded, blood streaming from his forehead, with Ting still on his back. He tells Will he heard the whistle: He and Ting had just exited the building when the collapse blasted them forward, and he crawled away with her clinging to him. The officer urges them to move. Will replies, "This is my father . . . and now we can go" (181).