9/11, Nine Years Ago

I was unemployed and had spent the day alone. My flatmate, Mandy, was probably working. I can't remember what I did, but probably read, smoked cigarettes out in the garden and slept. We didn't have a television, and I never listened to the radio, and though I did have access to the internet, I hadn't used it that day. I didn't leave the flat all day, but I didn't mind because it was a nice place to live, and we had a fantastic garden, often visited by cats. I seemed to see a lot of stars from the garden.
I can't remember what kind of weather it was, but I had some vague memories of greyness, rather like today actually. I finally left the flat to buy some cigarettes. I remember it was dark, and I went to the newsagents by the co-op. Was I still smoking straights then? I can't remember. I remember buying 20 silk cut though. The newsagents was small, more like an extended kiosk than a shop. At the counter, the man motioned towards a pile of papers. He said 'It's terrible isn't it'. It was The Argus, Brighton's local paper, some kind of special edition. There was a picture of a vaguely familiar building on the front. I vaguely wondered why the Argus would bring out a special edition on a plane crash, but I hadn't read the article properly. I thought a light aircraft had crashed into a building or something.
I walked back to the flat feeling vaguely uneasy. Sometime after I returned, a friend phoned and asked me if I had heard the news.