May 25, 2018

Sean was as nervous as he could be but he took a deep breath and asked his grandfather, "Would you come sit in the front row?"

Frank looked up at Danny and Jack as they stood nearby. They both shrugged as if they did not know why so Frank shrugged. "Sure."

Mrs. Ryan was confused, too. "I hope this isn't because of the news crew," she said.

"No," Sean replied. "It has to do with his story."

Mrs. Ryan made her way to the podium on stage and past the table filled with 9/11 mementos as everyone else took a seat in the auditorium. "Our next and final presentation is by Sean Reagan. He has gathered stories from September 11th, 2001."

Sean took a deep breath then stepped up to the podium. On a screen nearby, a slide show began as Sean read out the timeline relating the facts of 9/11. When he finished, he said, "These are the facts of that day. But my assignment was to find the stories." He paused to let his words sink in. "As I was doing my interviews, I got a few surprises, too. The stories intertwined in ways I never could have guessed or imagined. I also learned something important about my life." He paused again. "On September 11th, when tragedy and death were all around, one little miracle happened in my family. My mother, Linda Reagan, found out that she was pregnant… with me."

Amid the gasps of wonder from the group, he signaled for the video to start. He went to sit on the aisle across from his grandfather and next to Mrs. Ryan. The lights dimmed and the screen went bright with the title of his project. "Triumph and tragedy: Stories of 9/11."

Sean had decided to start with the stories that did not occur at Ground Zero. Poppy, Henry, Erin and Jamie spoke on the screen and then came Detective Baker. Her story led into Joe's and the images and film of him on that day as Sean's voice told the story.

"Jamie, that's…," Eddie said softly as she pointed from her seat behind Sean when she saw the images of Joe covered with dust and debris and recognized him. Then, Sean's voice spoke her aunt's name and then Eddie's name in the course of reading the story. Jamie looked at his fiancé in surprise as she gaped, so surprised that she had no idea what to say.

Eddie's story came next, revealing the other half of the story of a seventeen-year-old girl who had just lost her favorite aunt. Mrs. Ryan looked at Sean, as did many others in the family. Sean, acutely aware of his family's attention looked steadfastly at the screen as if he was not.

The next story was Danny's. There he had put in a few pictures of his mother that day and as the pregnancy progressed, then of him and his mom shortly after he was born. Danny wiped away the tears as he felt a wave of pride in his youngest son.

After that section finished, the screen went black and the photos Parker had taken flashed on the screen as her voice described the morning. The view out the windows at the restaurant, a couple of her husband and one of them together played. Sean took a glance at his teacher to see the tears streaming down her cheeks so he grasped her hand and smiled when she looked his way. She smiled back and squeezed his hand before letting go.

The pictures changed to ones taken after the plane had hit of the stairs, the dust and the firemen going up as she told about getting people out. Then it went to her.

"Now this is where it gets kind of fuzzy," she said. "I think I was only five or so floors from the lobby when a piece of something from above broke loose and slammed into me." She lifted a piece of her hair to show a long scar along her hairline. "It cut my head good and broke my hip. I thought I was dead then and there…"

All of a sudden, it went to Frank. "I was in the North Tower with John McKenna," he said. "The South Tower had collapsed and we were afraid the North would soon follow. We were going down the stairs when we found her. At first we thought she was dead. Her face was covered with blood and she didn't move. Then she coughed so I hollered up to John, who was checking the door above, that I needed help. I handed her the handkerchief that Mary had embroidered to bring me luck. I guess it did. I told the woman to use it to cover her nose and mouth to breathe through."

It switched back to Parker. "I wouldn't be if I hadn't been discovered by two men," she said. "One of them had a bandanna covering his face and he gave me a handkerchief to cover mine." She pulled a dirty cloth stained with blood from the box. Through the dirt and blood, you could almost make out Frank's initials. "He picked me up and carried me out where we were able to take cover in time for the North Tower to fall." There, Sean had put the last picture from her roll of film.

It was dark, slightly grainy and out-of-focus, but there was Frank, covered with dust and debris, a red bandanna tied around the lower half of his face, reaching out to help. Behind him, you could see the shadowy figure of John McKenna. Parker gasped and covered her mouth.

The audio played over it. "She protested, having resigned herself to certain death, but neither John nor I could leave her. With John's help, I picked her up. We both winced when she cried out in pain and begged for us to go on without her. We refused of course."

Frank's present image returned to the screen as he described taking cover behind the pillar then, when all was clear, carrying her to St Paul's Chapel.

Mrs. Ryan came back on the screen. "If you could meet the people who saved you," Sean asked her. "What would you say?"

"Face to face?" she asked. "I'd thank them for saving my life."

Then, Frank. "Did you ever see that woman again?"

Frank shook his head. "No," he said. "I never did."

"What if you ran into her," Sean asked. "What would you do?"

"I would ask her if she was OK," Frank said. "And tell her I was glad we could get her out." He paused to take a breath. "And I would tell her about the man that helped me rescue her. John McKenna."

The screen went dark and the lights came up and Sean stood to stand in the aisle between his grandfather and teacher. "Today I have the pleasure of introducing my teacher, Parker Ryan," he held a hand out to her and she stood, tears streaming down her face. "To one of the men that saved her life that day. My grandfather, Frank Reagan."

Frank stood and looked at Parker as she looked back at him.

"Thank you very much for saving my life that day," she said, smiling through her tears.

"Are you OK?" Frank asked and she nodded furiously. "I'm glad we could get you out." He stopped when she stepped forward and gave him a massive hug. Around them, the group in the auditorium, small though they were, gave thunderous applause… with not a dry eye in the house.

After what seemed a lifetime, she let him go and stepped back, but he still clung to her hand. "I want to tell you about my friend John McKenna," he said.

"And I very much want to hear about him," she replied.

Sean stopped them there. "I'm not done yet," he said and handed the handkerchief and badge that he had retrieved from the box on the table to Parker.

"Here," Parker said. "Is the handkerchief you gave me that day; to cover my mouth and nose." She held up the badge. "Where can I return this?"

Frank took it from her and ran his fingers over the cool metal. "I'm afraid you could only return this to his widow," he told her. "John died from cancer caused by his time on the pile. He passed a few years ago." He handed it back. "You keep it until then."

Parker nodded through her tears and turned back to Sean. "I get the feeling that you are not quite finished with your report.

Sean nodded. "No, I'm not. I'm hoping no one is forgetting the kindness that my Uncle Joe displayed to a certain current NYPD officer years before she became an officer."

He moved to Eddie's side and pulled her from her seat. "She lost her favorite aunt, Maia Janko, that day," he said. "But thanks to my Uncle Joe, she gained not only a career, but a fiancé." Eddie surprised him with a hug then she mussed his hair.

Sean stood in the aisle with a smile. "I guess the things I learned from all this would include that the world is a big place but can be awful small when tragedy is involved and that even from great tragedy like this city experienced that day, a seed can grow." He shrugged. "It seems that that seed was me."

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It was unusual for the family to be having a family dinner on a Friday, but here they were sitting at the dinner table, passing take-out around and being a family.

"So what did you get on your project?" Jack asked his brother.

"Mrs. Ryan was so impressed with the final product," Sean said. "That I got an A+."

"You did such a great job on that," Danny said as he gestured with his fork. "That all your other teachers should give you an A+ in their classes, too."

"The one thing that really surprised me was that story from Joe's journal," Frank put it.

"It is a very small world," Eddie agreed. "Jamie is always talking about him and it kind of made me sad that I would never get to meet him." She stopped to take a bite of her potatoes. "Now it turns out that I had. And he changed the direction of my life!"

"And of course Abigail saw it all," Henry put in.

"What did you do when you discovered all these things had happened?" Nikki asked.

"I didn't know what to do," Sean replied. "I knew it would come out with my presentation so I didn't say anything to anyone… except Baker."

"Why her?" Erin asked.

"Because I kept making faces when she was telling her story," Sean said. "Every time she said something about someone else's story, I would make a face and she asked me about it, so I told her."

"She made arrangements for the news crew," Frank said. "Didn't she?"

Sean nodded and shoved a piece of his roll in his mouth. "They'll be running it on Monday," he said.

"And they want us there," Frank told him. "Garrett called me about half an hour ago and said he'd gotten a call from Poppy. She wanted to arrange for the whole family to be on This Morning. And your teacher, too."

"Really?"

Frank nodded. "It's something we can all be proud of," he said.

Henry clapped his hands with joy. "First you win the award on your essay and now this!"

Danny put his fork down and gave his son a side hug. "You know how proud your mom would be of you today?"

Sean blushed. "Yes," he replied. He went on as his father released him. "Getting the award on my essay kind of prepared me for my project."

"How so?" Henry asked.

"I showed me I could make a great speech with getting teary," Sean replied.