September in New York

By Rachel Sommer

Maggie Carson is a typical teenager in the year 2035. She rides to school on her mom’s heliscooter, eats meals prepared by a robotic maid, and chats with her friends on a personal communicator. But when two survivors of the 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center visit her classroom, she finds herself deeply disturbed by their stories.
One day she is transported in time back to her previous life in New York City on September 5, 2001 – with a conviction that she has been given the chance to alert the city and thus save the lives of thousands of innocent people.
But who will believe her? Taking advantage of the fact that everyone believes her to be Jennifer Applebee, an average teen from Brooklyn; she tries to see Mayor Giuliani but can’t even get into City Hall. Even her best friend Katie thinks she’s crazy. But when Katie decides to throw a birthday breakfast at the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11, 2001, the impending disaster becomes personal.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rachel Sommer
• Release date: Aug 22, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301384143

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September in New York

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2010-2013 Rachel Sommer

All Rights Reserved

Cover Design by Laura Shinn

All rights reserved. No part of this novel may be copied, printed or distributed in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotation embodied in critical articles or reviews. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy.

Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

September in New York is a work of fiction.

Though actual locations may be mentioned, they are used in a fictitious manner and the events and occurrences were invented in the mind and imagination of the author. Similarities of characters or names used within to any person – past, present, or future – are coincidental except where actual historical characters are purposely interwoven.

Chapter 1:

2035: A Day in the Life

Get up! the crowd was screaming. Get up! You can do it!

All around her, men women and children were cheering her on. A few more feet, and she would be the winner. She felt her breath getting shorter; she did not want to give up. She had to win! Suddenly, however, she fell. She tried to move her legs and get up, but they refused to obey. Her legs were numb! Dead! She was persistent nevertheless and tried holding onto something, she tried to spread her hands on the ground and push her way back up. Nothing worked.

Maggie, get up. The voice seemed to come from far away.

Margaret Carson, wake up! You’ll be late for school. Come on, sweetie, the voice tried again. This time the voice sounded closer.

What day is it? she sleepily asked, snuggling deeper into her soft blanket. Who was disturbing her dream?

It’s Thursday morning, the girl’s mother said. Maggie opened one eye; her mom was dressed and ready to start the day. You’ll be late to school if you don’t get out of bed right this minute!

Sliding her hand under the blanket, she pinched one of her legs. Happily she felt a sharp pain. Her legs were not numb after all.

Climbing out of bed, Maggie went in to the bio-health room to shower. She gingerly removed the Molar-Hygienes, otherwise known as M.H, from her four molars, and threw them into the colorful recycling bin. They keep her mouth free of any harmful bacteria, protecting her white healthy teeth from damage. Last night she chose a cranberry flavor. They taste delicious when one pops them in at night, but develop a nasty aftertaste in the morning. Overall, though, she loves them because it saves her from having to brush her teeth.

Her parents are lifelong tooth brushers; her dad, a professional astronaut uses the M.H. system in space. However, he thinks that his daughter, like the rest of her generation, is just lazy by not brushing her teeth in the good old fashioned way. Maggie presumes that it’s hard for adults to change a habit acquired in childhood.

With her eyes half open, she stepped into the shower.

Four names appeared on the screen: Steve, Jessica, Ally, and her name: Maggie.

Please enter your password, the machine commanded in its cheerless monotone.

Invalid, invalid, invalid, the machine kept spitting out when she clicked on her name.

Ah! Cold! the sluggish girl jumped, feeling needles of ice water jabbing her back. Maggie shut it off and tried again.

Ah! Hot! the confused girl jumped away again. What’s going on here? Hmm… let’s see, power off, power on. This time she was fully awake. There we go, it should work now…

At last, the perfect temperature. Ally must have done this! Maggie’s conclusion was that Ally was probably using her sister’s name to hide the number of long showers she herself takes. Maggie promised herself she would confront Ally about this issue later.

Heading back to her room, she began to consider her wardrobe for the day. Today she wanted to have a dramatic look in school. Maggie always likes to begin with shoes. She pressed the power button on the dressing station, scanning the famous designers who were willing to let the public purchase their ideas. She then chose a style and material and clicked on the applicable icons. For today, Maggie decided to go with a Ms. Thodo’s green and silver striped pump with a medium low heel.

The raw material went through the manufacturing process, and a few minutes later, her shoes for the day appeared on the conveyor belt, ready to wear. The happy girl wore her new shoes and revolved one of her feet on her thin ankle to make the new material catch the light. The shoes turned out even better in real life than on the screen. Maggie decided to wear these shoes for a few days instead of recycling them that night. Of course her mom did not like it when she wore old shoes, but Maggie thought that today she might be able to convince her, since this style was so cool.

Shoes were an easy decision, but now she had to decide what outfit to order. Who says life was easy? Maggie realized that she was wasting an excess amount of time, so she did the shortcut again. She clicked on her friends’ style display screen to see what they ordered for today. Most people tried to check one particular screen in the morning so they could see what Ramona, the queen of the class, was planning to wear for the day. The queen, however, gave out only a trifle of information.

Ramona knew how to manipulate her followers, and understood that if they knew too many of her thoughts and plans, they would become bored, and they would dump her for a new queen. Obviously, there was a group of students that attempted to copy her every move and follow her every step. Maggie didn’t belong to that cool group.

Maggie pressed a button on the style display screen to exchange fashion ideas with her friends and eventually came up with a fabric and a style she thought would fit her mood for the day. A few more minutes, and the dressing station processed the garment that she chose – a black mini-skirt and a green top to match her green shoes. A second later a green polka-dotted bag popped out as well. Very retro twentieth century, but it tells the world that she is an individual who does not need to go with the herd.

To check her overall look, Maggie pressed a button on the mirror-camera and in a few seconds her larger-than-life three dimensional image was turning from side to side on the wall in her bed-room. She could see herself the way others viewed her: front, side and back images. Maggie liked her look today.

Proceeding downstairs, she saw her older sister Ally glued to the entertainment set.

What are you watching? Maggie asked, contemplating her breakfast. Ally was hypnotized.

No! Don’t do it John! Ally exclaimed. She’s your sister, dummy! Don’t marry her! Ally did not pay attention to Maggie at all.

Maggie rolled her eyes and knew that Ally was watching one of her morning soap operas. Ally claims that watching one of those clears her head, and prepares her mind for the new day.

Why did you go on my name without asking my permission? Maggie asked her.

What are you talking about? Ally replied not even bothering to face her when she replied.

The shower, Maggie answered. Followed by a duh.

Oh that, Ally said. Sorry. Although it didn’t look like she meant it.

Maggie angrily thought: So what if she’s older than me? That doesn’t mean she has the right to mess with my shower settings! She still treats me as if I am a baby. She does not realize that I’m growing up! Thinking about this made Maggie even angrier. Maggie thought that she deserved her sister’s attention when she was talking to her. But how can she acquire her attention? Hmmm…In an impulse move, Maggie suddenly leaped between the hologram entertainment set and her sister. Now Maggie was standing among the hologramic characters that her dear sister was watching.

Mom! Ally yelled. Maggie is bothering me! I can’t watch my show!

Their mother didn’t respond, so Maggie gestured dramatically as if she was one of the actresses in the show. The colorful characters were smeared all over her, and Ally could not see anything. At that very moment, the main character was dramatically announcing his love and devotion to the woman of his dreams, while his mouth stretched on Maggie’s shoulder. His shining eyes full of affection were displayed on Maggie’s neck. Maggie never tried this trick before and her sister was speechless. Finally, feeling sorry for Ally, Maggie walked away and the characters were visible once again.

The house communicator rang, and Ally yelled, I’ll get it!

Hello? she said, looking at her friend’s image on the screen. Oh, hi Zeeva, be out in five minutes. Zeeva’s mother was taking them to school today.

Maggie was very thankful for the invention of house communicators. When the communicator rings, you see who wants to talk to you, which is useful if you don’t want to talk to them. It was even more useful for Maggie; how else would she be able to see who was talking to her sister? And how would she be able to see how that person looked like?

Maggie was now gazing to see what Zeeva was wearing -- a red short sleeved top matched up with golden earrings. Zeeva was always talking with excitement, moving her head and hands with each word coming out of her mouth. Her friends always jokingly said that she could wake the sleepiest person up. Now on the screen, her long earrings were stirring back and forth with enthusiasm, in the same rhythm that Zeeva’s head was moving. Half of her hair, which was close to her skull, was curly and the other half was straight. That was the new in look; however, Maggie wouldn’t dream of having her hair look that way. She thought that she was more of the conservative type.

Ally realized that her younger sister was checking out Zeeva’s outfit, which annoyed her. She often claimed that Maggie invaded her privacy by watching her friends on the communicator.

As if using my name in the shower without asking me isn’t invading my privacy, Maggie thought...

Are you gonna copy Zeeva’s hairstyle again today? Maggie asked teasingly.

Mom, Ally said while gathering up her stuff and ignoring Maggie’s remark. I’m leaving. By the way, can I get one of those old styled T.V. sets? You know the type that the screen is in a box, so I can watch TV whenever I feel like it? Upon saying this, she gave Maggie an angry look and rushed out.

Bye, sweetie, their mother said. She was recording the last orders to the robot house manager, so she wasn’t listening to Ally’s request.

See ya, Maggie said to the slamming door.

We’ve got to go, too, Maggie’s mom said, turning the house robot monitor on. You ready?

Almost, was the quick reply. Actually, Maggie had spent so much time teasing Ally that she had just started eating.

Her mom went out to the helipad.

This was the first time she would fly Maggie to school on her brand new heliscooter. The family recently gave their old heliscooter to charity. It was a good thing they got a new one, because the old scoot was constantly down. It was ten years old, model year 2025.

Maggie could hardly wait to get a scoot of her own; it will be a used one though, because she won’t have enough savings to buy a brand new one. Although her parents have the money to pay for what the girls buy, they have a rule of thumb: each daughter’s first motor vehicle will be purchased with her own funds. They claimed that the girls would appreciate it more this way. What’s a kid to do? Parents are always right!

Ally had her license to fly a heliscooter, but for her seventeenth birthday she chose not to buy one. Instead, she decided to use her savings for a sub orbital flight along with a few friends of hers. Before taking this tour, she went to the Urban Medical and Biological Institute and underwent compulsory medical examinations, which she passed. Then she took a space satellite to the end of the earth’s atmosphere and back. The fun of this short trip was the sense of weightlessness when the satellite returned to earth. It gave Ally an appetite. Ally’s big dream was to travel in space. Maggie on the other hand, believed that she would do this on her honeymoon. Of course, her trip would be a longer one; she was hoping to have a long trip to space. Not as short as her sister’s.

Apparently, their love for space and traveling came from their father’s side of the family. Since their father was a space scientist, they grew up with his traveling back and forth. So far, he had not been home for over five months. He’d just recently returned to earth and landed with his crew members. From what he told her mother before leaving, Maggie understood that his mission this time was to extend and update the lab that he was in charge of on planet Mars which was called Mars Research Lab. Although there already were some astronauts on the red planet, there was still much work to be done before humans could survive there. They needed both oxygen and energy, which were produced through solar power.

Artificial black holes sucked in sun rays and condensed them to save storage space. When power was needed, the stored energy was slowly released from these manmade black holes. Maggie’s dad maintained the precious laboratory that produced the oxygen and energy and he also performed important research. Even though this was not his first mission in space, the family was very excited that he had returned safely, although they knew it would be some time before he would be released to come home.

Maggie looked at the clock, and suddenly remembered her mom on the helipad. Boy, was she a day dreamer!

She joined her mother, who was already losing her patience waiting for Maggie. Unlike her daughter, Mrs. Carson was a perfectionist; she was very organized, and set a time for every function. No wonder she has accomplished so much in her life.

For once the solar batteries of the flying vehicle were full. Sometimes Ally, who was in charge of them, forgot to get new batteries. At times like these, the family has to wait on a long line to purchase them. As usual, Maggie asked her mother to let her drive a little, and as usual, her mother gently refused and explained to her that a space traffic officer could stop them, and she would get fined for letting Maggie drive without a license. Maggie knew this, but she couldn’t blame herself for trying.

Suddenly the heliscooter’s communicator rang. It was Edna! Maggie’s newlywed cousin; and she was so excited to speak to her!

Who is that, honey? her mom asked. She couldn’t see who was calling. Maggie turned on the speakers, and now her mother was able to take part in the conversation. The vehicle was designed in a way that the screen showing the caller was on the passenger’s side.

It’s Edna! She’s back from her honeymoon! Maggie called out in a thrilled voice. It was exciting to talk to her cousin and find out about the space cruise she took with her new husband, Meyr.

Hi, Edna, how are you? the two voices asked at once. Even though she could put the scoot on automatic drive. Maggie’s mother preferred to be in control and concentrate on her driving.

Great!

When did you get back? Mrs. Carson asked.

"A few hours ago. So how are you guys? What have you done here