Concrete Jungle

Chapter 6

Tentatively, Sasha closed the diary as that was the last entry in there. As she had mentioned, Katya was her Chernobyl diary and therefore other than things on that matter, that were personal, she didn't use it anymore. It was late afternoon when she finished and decided to go for a walk to think more about her dilemma. Taking her iPhone and earbuds out of her bag after she had put the diary back in there, she clicked on Spotify and found her Lindsey Stirling playlist. Putting the earbuds in her ears and grabbing her bag, she searched for a garbage can to toss her empty water bottle into and clicking on her favorite song called "Crystallize," Sasha walked west.

Eventually, she ended up at the 9/11 memorial and set on a bench near the Survivor Tree. She glanced around her as people both tourists, and native New Yorkers walked all around her. Straining her neck to look up to the top of the finished 1 WTC, she inhaled as she let her mind wander to the not so distant past of the actual day. Every American regardless of where knew where they were on 9/11 and Sasha was no exception.

Sasha was a senior at Columbia University and was living in the dorms there on that day. She was just getting ready for her first class when all hell broke loose in lower Manhattan. As did every other school not only those in the tri-state area, Columbia went on lockdown almost immediately, and Sasha was told to go back to her dorm where she and her roommates stayed huddled in front of the television for the rest of the day. She was only able to call her parents in the evening as the phones were out of service. It was a horrible and scary day for the whole country.

Her parent's neighbor lost her son in the north tower. No matter what, everyone was somehow touched personally by that tragedy especially if they lived in the tri-state area. It was hard to think that so many years had passed already and that almost all of the buildings were either rebuilt or built from scratch. Yet, here she sat and looked around her at the peaceful surroundings. Nearly 3,000 people were killed in these attacks, and many miracles happened as well. Sasha sat listening to her music and knew that given her essential decision, she really needed to talk to her mother about it. Nodding to herself, she got up and started to walk back to her apartment.

She remembered when she first moved into the apartment on Gold Street, she had been working for National Geographic for a year and had been living up until that time with her old roommates from Columbia but they were moving out slowly as they got jobs in various places and she needed a place in the city that wasn't too far from work. The apartment presented itself at just the right time, and it was indeed her first time living on her own without roommates or parents. At first, she thought she would be lonely, but since she was traveling so much for work all the time, she valued her alone time so much more and treasured every moment.

After finalizing her plans with her mother the following morning, she decided that she would go to Brooklyn by 1 pm. Her mother would take a half day from work, and they would meet on the boardwalk by the Russian restaurants. Sasha took a little grocery cart with her so she could stock up on both premade food and what she could cook with. She had learned how to cook when she was still a teenager and knew all of her mother's recipes by heart so she could prepare for herself in college, and her roommates were in love with her cooking. Sasha was a very well rounded individual and didn't just concentrate on one thing; writing that she was good at.

At noon the next day, she walked from her apartment to the corner of Canal and Broadway to hop onto the Q train to take to Brighton Beach. It took an hour to get down there, and she had her music pumping into her ears. The day was beautiful, and she was dressed perfectly for the weather. Ekaterina would be waiting for her in front of Restaurant Volna right on the Boardwalk. Sasha spotted her mother almost immediately after the 4 block walk to their prearranged destination. Both women broke into broad grins upon seeing each other and squealed as they hugged. Ekaterina held on to Sasha tightly, just inhaling her scent. It had been a month since they had seen each other.