(4 of 10)
Everything is starting to get hot now. There has been another shake, and people are saying another plane hit the other building. Genelle is terrified. She has no idea whether to take the stairs now or wait for official orders to do so. Many of the people who remain--there are now just 15 others on 64--say they should stay put until they hear something definite from their Port Authority bosses. At least two of the senior people have been glued to the phones most of the time, trying to get an answer.
The fire alarm won't quit. Genelle keeps calling Lauren, Roger, her niece Carla Guzman and others on the outside who are watching the horror on TV. As the clock ticks, they begin to insist: LEAVE NOW JUST GO PLEASE HONEY GET OUT. But she is too frightened to depart by herself. Susan Miszkowicz, with whom she was chatting when Flight 11 hit, hugs her and says, "Genelle, don't worry. We will be all right." She will say it several more times, but there is fear in Susan's eyes. Finally, Genelle tells Roger, "O.K., I'll take the stairs." He will meet her outside Century 21, the discount-clothing emporium across the street.
But now someone says the stairwell has filled with smoke. People have taped the entrances shut, and they are wetting jackets and shoving them under doors. Everybody is worried about smoke inhalation; they are all corralled in the northwest corner of the floor because it has the least smoke. Genelle has an urge to look out the window again, but she doesn't--she is too scared the building will tip over. At one point, one of her co-workers says something about the building being unstable, and Genelle nearly loses it.
Just then the ceiling makes a loud noise, sending a fresh wave of terror through Genelle. She thinks she could die, not realizing that it is hundreds of people in the south tower who have just perished in its collapse. It is 9:59 a.m., and the north tower still has 29 minutes.
Finally, with the smoke thickening even in the northwest corner, Pasquale and a colleague remove the tape on the lobby doors and go to stairway B. They are surprised to find a reasonably bright staircase without much smoke. Genelle calls Lauren and says they are leaving. Only about half the lights on the floor are working, and everyone knows that if the power goes out, they are in serious trouble. Pasquale is at the front of the pack, at the door to the stairs. He has words with a co-worker who still wants to wait for a go order; the co-worker relents. It is just after 10 a.m.--an hour and a quarter since the first plane struck--and they all start down.
Genelle met her future husband in Trinidad, at Carnival, in 2000. Roger McMillan was tall and had enormous hands that swallowed hers. Seven years her senior, he seemed well moored, but he was also young enough to be playful in a way that Elvis was not. Roger loved seeing Genelle in her costume, dancing up the street with the crowds, but the couple didn't immediately pledge to stay together. Roger had always been "a player," as one of his friends recently said with a mischievous grin. Genelle would sometimes put on music and cry, wondering if it would all work out with him.