For the past 25 years, Janice Brooks has been reliving the same recurring nightmare.
asserted
Brooks → relive → nightmare
She is standing in a building in the middle of New York’s Hudson River looking across at the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.
asserted
She → stand → Center
There are no buildings in the middle of the Hudson River – this is how she knows she’s dreaming.
asserted
she → be → River
Halfway up one of the towers she sees a man standing in the huge void left in the building by a plane.
asserted
man → see → plane
He has curly black hair and is wearing a blue shirt and a tie.
asserted
He → have → shirt
The man cannot stop looking over his shoulder at a wall of flames inching towards him.
asserted
man → stop → him
Ms Brooks can see the sweat forming on the man’s brow as he edges towards the drop.
asserted
he → see → drop
The man looks down, bends his knees as if about to jump, and then, “Boom,” Brooks claps, “I wake up.”
asserted
I → look → knees
She is one of the few people who walked away from the 11 September terror attack, making a miraculous escape from the 84th floor of the south tower.
asserted
who → walk → tower
Aged 41 at the time, she had moved to New York just three weeks earlier, accepting her dream job as an executive assistant at Euro Brokers at Two World Trade Center.
asserted
she → age → Center
She had already spent a decade in London working for the brokerage firm and had built up close relationships with many of her colleagues.
asserted
She → spend → colleagues
On the previous Friday night, four days before the attack, Ms Brooks climbed to the top of her 110-storey office building – once the world’s tallest building – to take in the view of the city she now called home.
asserted
she → climb → city
Wind ruffled through her short-cropped hair as she looked down onto the Brooklyn Bridge, turning to see the sunset glinting off the Empire State Building.
asserted
sunset → ruffle → Building
Her new adventure was just getting underway and she smiled to herself.
asserted
she → get → herself
On 11 September at 8.46am, when American Airlines Flight 11 struck the north tower, all passengers aboard were killed instantly.
asserted
passengers → strike → tower
The plane severed all three staircases in the skyscraper, trapping an estimated 1,400 people above the 91st floor.
asserted
plane → sever → floor
None of them survived.
asserted
None → survive → them
Ms Brooks had been at her desk in the adjacent tower when the first plane struck.
asserted
plane → strike → tower
Her 84th-floor office faced away from the north tower so she did not see the Boeing 767 aircraft but she heard the explosion.
asserted
she → face → explosion
“I could see paper and dust swirling in the air through the windows,” she remembers.
uncertain
she → see → windows
Lower Manhattan was filled with construction sites at the time and she initially thought that was where the noise had come from.
asserted
noise → fill → where
This seemed to happen all the time in New York and nobody paid much attention, she says.
asserted
she → seem → attention
But this bang was much louder than anything she had heard before.
asserted
she → hear → anything
She went to check with her colleague, Brian Clark, who told her not to panic and promised to investigate.
asserted
who → go → her
Ms Brooks went back to her desk but soon heard a man’s voice shout, “Everybody out.”
asserted
voice → go → desk
She grabbed her things to go but, before leaving, she hesitated.
asserted
she → grab → things
“Better call the London office to keep them in the loop,” she thought.
asserted
she → call → loop
When the receptionist put her through to the managing director in London, Brooks was casual over the phone, “ Not really too sure what's happening, but I'm getting ready to leave,” she said.
asserted
she → put → phone
A plane's gone into the building, get the f*** out of there!” her boss shouted down the line.
asserted
boss → go → line
The London team over 3,500 miles away already knew more about what was going on 200 yards away from where Ms Brooks was sitting.
asserted
Brooks → know → more
They had been watching in horror as the news was unfolding on TV.
asserted
news → watch → TV
“I don't remember hanging up.
asserted
I → remember → ?
I just remember grabbing my bag and running,” Ms Brooks says.
asserted
Brooks → remember → bag
She ran through the dealing area to the main corridor where the designated fire marshals, Steve Chucknick and Jose Marrero, were ferrying people towards the staircase.
asserted
marshals → run → staircase
Both men lost their lives that day.
asserted
men → lose → lives
In the stairwell the chatter was amiable, as if they were simply taking part in a fire drill.
asserted
they → take → drill
People were swapping stories from the weekend, what restaurant they’d tried, or the play they had seen on Broadway.
asserted
they → swap → Broadway
Ms Brooks fell in with a colleague from the dealing floor, a man she recognised but whose name had not stuck yet.
asserted
name → fall → floor
He recommended Ms Brooks might want to remove her high heels, which she promptly did.
uncertain
she → recommend → which
They made it down to the 72nd floor when the first announcement came over the PA system from a Port Authority official.
asserted
announcement → make → official
…and 64 more, not listed.
The Aporia
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