15 for 15 Contest --- Closed

"How's your leg doing, Christina?"

"It's better now that I'm out of those heels. I really need to stop wearing them."

"You've only been saying that for almost seven years now. Why wear them, anyway? You're almost six one."

"Yeah, but the flats they make for people my size are just so...plain.:"

"Whatever you say. So how are you doing otherwise?"

"Meh. I'm checking out the footage from Gaza. Reminds me of my leg, though."

"What exactly happened? You've told me the basics, but what caused you to have this chronic pain?"

"Well, Rodrigo, it was happy nine eleven, as I call it. Otherwise I can't deal with it. Anyway, my friend Adrian and I had the day off from the conference we were attending, so we decided to go to the Windows of the World restaurant for breakfast. We figured it was Tuesday and it wouldn't be that busy. It was packed, and there was a wait. Adrian decided he didn't want to wait, and I said 'Fine'.

So we went all the way down to the second floor where there was a bagel shop. We were hungry and decided to eat there. In the middle of breakfast, we felt the building shake, and I first thought it was an earthquake. A couple minutes later people were running for the exits, surprisingly not tripping each other over in the process. When we found out what was happening and how tight the exits were, we decided to make another exit route for people. Adrian set up nets a few feet off the ground using some hammocks in our bags and whatever we could get from nearby stores. I, meanwhile, used a chair to smash the glass. Boy, that was rough."

"How did you hurt your leg?"

"Well, as I was guiding people to our little exit area, I got hit by some large debris. I think it might have been a door. Anyway, it knocked me out of the window, but my leg was impaled on the glass. That hurt. And when I was finally pulled free, I fell into the net but couldn't move. Then when someone landed on me, well, it was broken in five places."

"Damn. So when you see these people on television-"

"I know exactly how they feel. Well, maybe not that guy who's face is coated in blood, but all that...I went through it. I had to be carried, and had I not been carried, I'd have been buried in a concrete grave."

"I bet you're thankful that you aren't."

"I am, but I sometimes wonder if perhaps we need more of that to change our ways. Terrorism can change a person, but those who were not physically broken have injuries to their attitudes that are beyond repair. Maybe, just maybe, an attack like this one I'm watching will make a true difference."