Falling Man

Poker tournaments provide Keith with an escape from the traumatic memories of the September 11 attacks. He spends most of this time robotically playing cards, losing himself in the game’s routines and structures. Keith no longer sees Terry Cheng, but he actively tries to avoid him, spending more time in the gym when he is not at the card table or in his hotel room. Despite the long hours Keith spends in the gym, he cannot explain why he feels the need to work out so often. He feels himself getting lost among the constant swirl of poker games and hotel rooms. He knows that he does not make enough money to justify living like this, but he does not care.

As she remembers her father, Lianne’s thoughts become increasingly religious. As well as her own thoughts about the nature of God, she realizes that many people around her are increasingly interested in the Koran and Islam. Lianne joins a Catholic church and attends every few days. Though she still considers herself someone who does not believe in God, she cannot deny that she is beginning to believe in “something, half fearing it would take her over” (133). Her newfound belief is partly influenced by her father, a devout Christian. As her hair begins to turn gray, she often thinks about the final days of her mother’s life. She thinks about running a marathon and assumes that Keith sleeps with prostitutes. Still avoiding the subway, she takes buses and cabs home from the church.

Now fully healed, Keith still performs his physical therapy routines. He repeats the phrases from the instruction manual as though they were religious doctrine. Lianne attends Mass and thinks about the unknowable nature of God. One day, while removing a sweaty t-shirt, she realizes that she is ready to be with her son “the way they were before the planes appear that day” (135)

Hammad and his fellow religious devotees hijack several passenger aircraft on September 11, 2001. With the aircraft secure and the air still tinged with the smell of mace, Hammad sits in the cockpit with a box cutter in his hand. He thinks about the religious meaning of what he is about to do and wonders “how could any death be better” (136). The aircraft shakes, and he hears shouting, feeling the throbbing pain in his open wound. Hammad fastens his seatbelt as the plane smashes into the tower at the World Trade Center.

Keith feels the plane hit the tower when he is knocked to the ground. He feels the tower lurching all around him and understands that something is terribly wrong as dust and smoke fill the air. He sees people he knows falling around, blood staining their shirts. Keith takes his jacket from its hook and leaves his office. Going to Rumsey’s office, smelling the streaming fuel, he discovers that his friend is mortally wounded. He talks to Rumsey and tries to lift him out of his chair. At that moment, he feels the falling debris outside his window. He sees a man falling past, someone who jumped from the burning upper floors. Walls collapse, and windows shatter. As he tries to lift Rumsey, Rumsey dies. Keith makes his way out of the building, joining the thousands of other shocked people. He sees other falling bodies through the windows and finds an abandoned briefcase in the hallway, which he collects. Fire fighters pass him on the stairs in the opposite direction, and Keith convinces himself that they will save Rumsey. Eventually, he emerges out of the building into a world of dust, smoke, and chaos. When the towers collapse, the force of the blast knocks Keith to the floor. He tries to make sense of the rubble, dust, and screaming. He sees a shirt falling out of the sky, “arms waving like nothing in this life” (140).