Ground Zero

Reshmina wakes up. Her grandmother is singing the song “Momardene Afghane.” Reshmina finds her way to her grandmother, and soon so do other family members and neighbors. It is pitch black, and Reshmina tries to turn on the flashlight in her pocket. Taz can see a little bit of the light. Reshmina has a cut on her hand from the explosion. Taz gives her Kerlix, a kind of gauze. He says she may still get a scar and shows her the scar on his hand. He says, “‘It still aches every now and then, when it’s cold and gloomy outside […] But most of the time…’ Taz paused, as though what he was saying brought back a painful memory for him. ‘But most of the time you just forget it’s there,’ he finished” (244).

Part of the cave collapsed in the explosion, and Reshmina is worried that everyone in that part of the cave has been killed. She throws a rock at Taz and yells at him, blaming him and all Americans. She tells him to leave Afghanistan. Taz says that the Americans are trying to help and that if the United States does leave, the Taliban will rule the country again. She tells him that the United States has been in Afghanistan for 20 years and still cannot defeat the Taliban. She asks again why they are even there. Her little brother, Zahir, crawls away and finds a hole. Reshmina thinks they may be able to escape the cave.

Brandon and the two others pull Richard out of the debris. They all hold onto each other to move through the dark to find the exit. He smells bananas and pink grapefruit and tells the others that they are by the Body Shop and going the wrong way. He trips and picks up a stuffed animal. He feels the thing he tripped on and realizes it is Bugs Bunny and they are outside of the Warner Bros. Store, the right way to the exit. A cellphone rings repeatedly, but the owner never answers it. They pass the Sbarro, reach the stairs, and exit on Vesey Street. Their celebration does not last long because they quickly realize that “it looked like somebody had driven a tank through the city” (256), and there is no one around. The South Tower is gone.

Reshmina pushes herself through the hole and finds herself in another room. She is frightened by an Ancient Greek statue. There are other artifacts there from every time Afghanistan was occupied by another country. She hears Taz singing a song that repeats, “We’re here because we’re here” (259). He tells her that it is a song soldiers sang in World War I because they did not know why they were fighting in the war. He says, “I think we’re still in Afghanistan because we got in, and we don’t know how to get out” (260). Reshmina looks around at all the artifacts and thinks the room represents all the failed attempts to conquer and rule Afghanistan.

She sees a crack with a small amount of light coming through. She takes a Soviet mine from the artifacts to blow open the wall. She throws a statue of Lenin at the mine to set it off. She misses, but an explosion above loosens rocks that set off the mine. She is thrown by the blast. 

Brandon stares at the place where the South Tower should be. He thinks the tower falling is what caused the blast in the basement. The North Tower is still consumed by smoke. There are people jumping out of it, away from the smoke and towards the ground. Brandon wants to try calling his dad again, but Richard says they should go to his house first. An EMT gives them masks and tells them that the dust they see covering everything is toxic. The EMT properly bandages Brandon’s wounded hand. In his other hand is the stuffed animal he grabbed in the mall, a Tasmanian Devil. Richard tells him it must be lucky and Brandon should keep it.

The top floors of the North Tower start to collapse. Richard tells Brandon to run. This is the scariest thing Brandon has experienced all day because “the thing that had killed his father was coming for him, chasing him like a giant monster through the streets of Manhattan” (270). The blast tosses and throws him. He calls for Richard and finds him unresponsive. Richard reaches his arm out for Brandon and they hold hands, weeping.

Reshmina awakes and asks what happened. Taz tells her that the mine blew a hole in the wall and people were able to escape the cave. He had to take off and leave his belt with Army equipment to fit through the hole, and Reshmina thinks how it is “[o]ne more artifact for the shrine to failed conquerors” (274). Taz tells her that his eyesight is starting to come back. There are American and Afghan soldiers helping the injured. Baba arrives, and Reshmina is thrilled to see that he is alive. He asks where Pasoon is, and Reshmina tells him.

She worries that all the villagers are dead because of her actions that day. Baba shows her that almost everyone did survive, and her actions saved them. Taz talks to another soldier, Carter, about how it is September 11. Reshmina says she has never heard of 9/11 or the World Trade Center. Taz and Carter are in disbelief. Taz says that 9/11 is why he and the rest of the Americans are in Afghanistan. He shows her a picture of the Twin Towers, but she does not recognize them. Her parents have also never heard of 9/11. No one in the village has. Taz gets irritated and tells her his dad died that day, along with 3,000 others. He says his dad’s name was Leo Chavez. Reshmina is confused because his uniform says Lowery, not Chavez. Brandon says Lowery is his adopted name; he was adopted by Richard Lowery.

Reshmina understands that the Americans are in Afghanistan for badal, revenge. She asks Taz if the Taliban were the ones who attacked the Unit States. He explains it was not them, it was al Qaeda, but the leader of al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, lived in Afghanistan. The United States invaded to find him. Reshmina is angry because the United States has destroyed more buildings and lives than al Qaeda did, and al Qaeda was not even from Afghanistan. She is even angrier when she learns that bin Laden was captured and killed over 10 years ago. She says that America makes its “own rules” (281).

Carter gets a call on his radio, and he orders a helicopter to strike. The missile destroys a house, and then each house below it crumbles and is destroyed. The village is gone.

Brandon and Richard walk to Richard’s house. They walk across the Brooklyn Bridge with other distraught people leaving Manhattan. Holding hands, they finally reach Richard’s house, where his family greats them. He has a wife, a dog, and two kids. Richard tells his wife, Talisha, that Brandon saved his life. Talisha brings Brandon to the bathroom so he can take a shower. Brandon is uneasy now that he is not fighting for his survival and “didn’t know what to do with himself” (287). After his shower he puts on Richard’s too-big clothes. Brandon calls his apartment and listens to the recording of his dad and himself. He leaves a message for his dad, even though he knows his dad will never hear it. He tells his dad he is okay and can call him back. He tells him he loves him and goodbye.

Brandon cries in the bathroom and then watches TV with Richard’s family. They learn that the planes were hijacked by terrorists and that the place where the Twin Towers once stood is being called Ground Zero. There was a third plane that was flown into the Pentagon, and a fourth that the passengers crashed themselves into an open field in Pennsylvania, knowing terrorists had taken control of it. Richard tells Brandon that no one at his school will understand the way he does since he lived it. They listen to President Bush, and both want revenge against whoever did it. Brandon feels alone but thinks of all the people he helped and had been helped by that day. He decides that we all survive by doing things for each other.

Reshmina is digging through the remains of the village with Baba, saving anything useful they can find. Taz brings her blankets and food. He asks her if she will go to Pakistan like many of the other villagers have. She says they will stay and rebuild, but she thinks it is pointless because the Americans or another army will ruin it again. She asks if the Twin Towers were ever rebuilt, and Taz says yes, but as one big tower. He offers to stay and help rebuild. Reshmina angrily complains how America just gives them money after the Army has killed someone or destroyed something. She says money is worthless to them anyway because they cannot spend it anywhere. Reshmina says America should leave. Taz tells her that it should be “all of us, together. For each other” (299). Reshmina replies that no one can be “for” them if they are “rebuilding villages and destroying them at the same time” (299). Taz reflects on the aftermath of 9/11 and how he joined the Army wanting revenge. He wonders if he and America have become the type of bully his dad warned him about. He says he may leave the Army and invites Reshmina to join an interpreter program through the Army. She declines because she wants to follow her own path. Taz promises to return some day and gives Reshmina his stuffed animal.

Reshmina says goodbye to Taz and walks down a difficult path of debris with Baba. She sees Pasoon in the distance. She is happy he is alive but does not return the wave he gives her. She tells Baba she sees a new path.