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Today is the 11th day of September 2011, ten years after the terrorist attack to the Twin Tower. The lawyer Allan, just phoned the American Airlines, to confirm his flight booking. They told him that the Boston-Los Angeles flight is cancelled. Allan is desperate. He needs to be home in time, to bring his wife Catherine to hospital.
He asked to change the booking for the United Airline flight, which is due an hour later.
After ten years from the Twin Tower attack, the Bin Laden syndrome is still affecting all the Americans (and not just the Americans). For superstitious or precaution, Allan is always carrying a “The Day After" survival kit, containing many useful things: from the “nuke-pills”, necessary to limit the damages caused by the nuclear radiation to the thyroid, to the radiation meter and gas mask. He believes that the next attack from Bin Laden, would be a chemical or biological one.
Today is the anniversary of the terrible tragedy, and it is considered a high risk day for a new attacks.
He had important things to do that day, it was not in his agenda to fly, but few hours before he received a phone call from his mother in law, and she told him that Catherina was starting the labour pains.
The doctors was trying to control the contraction, to delay the labour, but they weren’t sure to succeed, and Alan wanted to be present when his first son will born. Allan also bought a digital camera, his intention was to record the event and give the cassette as a present for his son’s 15th birthday.
“My child should be unlucky to be born on September the 11th! Why he wants to be born three weeks earlier? ”
At the airport, he sought Talebans. He looked for suspicious signs of a bomb, checking below the seats and inside the bathrooms.
Once on board of the aeroplane, he noticed more CIA and Federal Agents than passengers. Andrew felt better, but he knew that if a Bin Laden’s terrorist were there, nobody could really stop him.
He sat next to a dark skin boy. But maybe it was only an optical effect of his glasses, but just to be sure, he changed seat, keeping an eye on that boy for precaution.
The aeroplane took off without problems. The federal agents searched below all seats, in the luggage carrier and the bathrooms. Allan the layer, were not able to control himself, he followed them, and trying to help in the case they missed something important. The agent began to suspect him, but Allan did not notice to be under control.
After a while, he felt that something was wrong. The agents were hunting him.
He gets off the aeroplane, trying to loose them. They could not be CIA’s agents, probably they are the terrorists he were afraid of. Out of the airport is dark and cold. He sees a taxi, on the other side of the road.
When he crosses the road, a car almost hits him, another one came in his direction with the lights off. He is afraid and he starts to run. He can not stop to think what is going on, he risks to be run over by the cars.
The car is following him and nobody else is on the road. Where are all the people? He asks himself.
Few seconds later, the car hits him, and he is hurled ten feet away. He is not able to move and the car stops few inches from his nose. Somebody get off the car, maybe to kill him. He thinks he will never be able to see his son.
He moves his head to avoid the killing shot, and he notices three names written below the car plate: NEDAL NIBA MASO.
He can not feel the legs, but he desperately wants too see his son’s birth, and this gives him the necessary strength to drag himself along the taxi. As he gets in the car, he awakes the driver and asks him to go to the hospital. The driver does not start the engine. He looks drunk, he has some unusual bandage above his head, and his face is unshaved. Maybe he is a homeless, that found an empty taxi for the night.
He has to think fast, before the Bin Laden terrorists find him. He is fainting, but his instinct helps him to survive. He hits with the elbow the driver’s head, as strong as possible. The man fainted.
He takes the taxi and he tries to go to the nearest hospital. He is loosing blood.
He can hear the police siren on his back, and he thinks to ask their help, it could be a good solution. Better than risking to be arrested by mistake by the federal agents.
He stops the car. The three names he read on the car plate are still in his mind: “NEDAL NIBA MASO… NEDAL NIBA MASss…”
Than he lost consciousness…
He waked in a hospital bed. The legs were plastered, three ribs broken. He saw the three Federal Agents that he met in the aeroplane.
“They have got me!” he thought. “I will never see my son.”
He was starting to complain, explaining that he was a respectable layer and not a jihad fanatic. For some reason the Bin Laden’s terrorist were trying to kill him. He was innocent, persecuted from both sides. He was only guilty because he left his job, just to be with his wife, in the magic moment when a new life came to the world.
“NEDAL NIBA MASO!”
Before he could say anything, the agents gave him a bank check of 25 million of dollars. The reward for Bin Laden, the number one enemy of the planet.
“What is going on?” he asked.
They told him that the homeless was… Bin Laden, and thanks to him the CIA’s agents were able to arrest him.
He finally arrived to his wife room. Sitting on a wheelchair. He had a digital camera on one hand and a paper with NEDAL NIBA MASO written on it.
That will be his child’s name. There must be a reason why he could not take the name out his mind. He was sure, his son’s guardian angel put that name in his mind.
There was a large mirror in the delivery room, he could see himself carrying the paper with the words: NEDAL NIBA MASO.
That name was sounding good, it was the name of a hero’s son, a man that became part of history.
Two weeks later, he was watching on the TV the movie he recorded. Allan was astonished, on the paper he carried in the delivery room, instead of the name given by the guardian angel, he read: OSAMA BIN LADEN. What happened? Who did it?
Than he understood.
Below the car, he read the Osama Bin Laden name. He saw the name back forward.
Now, he started a legal action to change his child's name. He is even willing to spend 25 million dollars to modify that name.
Eliude Santana - Portuguese mother tongue.