Steel

*authors note: Steel isn't about the steel that was in the towers. My mother used to have a strong stapler made out metal that I used to call our steel stapler. When I combined the image of the stapler with the thought of those couples who always say their love was strong as steel, the backdrop of <em>Steel</em> was born. And yes, I know there is no shore for anything to wash up upon at any of the docks, I just needed to create one for the story.

         Walking along the beach I found something unusual. Truth be told it wasn't a actual beach but a bit of mud between the docks along the Jersey shore. I bent over and pulled a lump out of the mud. Big and lopsided it certainly wasn't worth keeping.

         But I didn't drop it.

         Ahead of me Sally McKnight stood facing across the water. I looked at her but decided that she was looking at wasn't any more interesting than this. Instead I laid down across the dock and stuck the lump into the water. I was at a lost as to why we were there. As I rubbing the caked mud off I looked over at Sally who never moved.

         For reasons unknown to me Sally had asked me to take the vacation with her. She hadn't want to be alone. but insisted it was vital, just not why. In my foolishness I believed she had a long distance lover she wanted me to meet. This morning when she dragged me out of the hotel I looked forward to meeting this mystery man.

         Only instead of a man, we just met a quiet dock.

         As I took the lump out of the water I saw that she was crying. Open eyed, clear tears. Sitting up it was clear something she saw bothered her. "Ok Sally. Spill it."

         "He died here." She said facing me. "Well over there."

         "Who."

         "My husband."

         I was so shocked I almost dropped the lump. "What?! What husband?!"

         She kneeled beside me. I absentmindedly began drying the lump off with my shirt. A partly smooth rock like lump. As I did this Sally reached down her blouse and pulled up a locket. "I havn't told anyone the real reason I left New York. Yes it is true I left in 2002 because I needed to see some place new. Truth is I couldn't handle being so close to here."

         We had met right after she had moved to California. She was introduced in a meeting. We had bonded right away. Both of us disliked the way some things are handled by management. Yet with all of our time together she never once dated, or discussed her past love life before the move. I had thought it was something abusive. I never thought it was more horrifying than that.

         I had also forgotten today was the 6th anniversary of the events of that day.

         "I had begged for the reason for the transfer to be kept secret. I didn't want the same pity in the new office like I had in the old. After that day I wasn't able to work anywhere close to how I used too. To save my sanity I asked for the transfer. To get as far away as possible. To stay sane."

         She opened the locket that had been hidden away. In it I saw a picture of the worlds' most handsome man. "Ben was in his office that morning. He was talking to me on the phone when he saw the plane. He didn't know it was a plane. His last words... I can't say them."

         She closed the locket back up and stood. She walked off. Given her a moment I stood carrying the lump in my shirt. "Where were you?"

         "Working in the Jersey branch of our bank." When I was next to her she went on as if speaking was ebbing the pain. She looked at me. Her eyes said it all. "When I put events together as the morning unfolded I lost it at my desk. If the day hadn't been so tragic they might have fired me." She paused again. "The crash took out the phone but not the news. Once someone put me in the presidents office I used his computer to watch the news. I wouldn't let them comfort me till I knew for sure." She paused again, then spoke was certainty. "He wasn't dead. The phones were gone but he wasn't dead."

         I held her.

         "I saw Ben climbing out his window. I knew it was Ben. I had dressed him, bathed with him that morning. I knew that body. He looked at the camera. I swear he was looking at me. He then - he then said goodbye. I know it was goodbye and he jumped."

         Sally then didn't speak for five more minutes. I looked across the water and cold see in my minds eye the towers and the flames.

         "I ran all the way here from the bank. Ten blocks. Maybe twelve. I ran the whole damn way. I had to be here when the boats arrived. At the time I didn't want to believe he did that. That he had done that but after a while some people from his floor arrived. I was so happy to see people I knew. One woman who knew me, handed me a metal stapler from his office. She said she didn't know why she grabbed it. She said the office had been empty but she knew what he had done. He thought he couldn't make it past the flames. Some might say he took the chicken way out but it me he was braver than anyone. Because he died loving me."

         She then bowed her head. "I lost the stapler. In the haste and confusion of that day I dropped it or it was knocked out of my arms. I saw it fall into the water. It was like my last tie to him broke. I broke inside. That morning he had held it, touched it and I lost it."

         Sally walked to the edge of the dock and sat. I then looked down at the lump. As the tears cleared from my eyes I noticed what I held. It was a sediment covered object. A stapler. An old fashion metal stapler.

         "Sally."

         "What." She then turned and looked. "Oh my god!"

         "Ben is saying he loves you still."