At approximately 8am in New York on September 11, 2001, on the 66th floor of the World Trade Center's South Tower, Jim Hime ordered a bowl of Special K cereal for breakfast.
The choice was motivated by one of three concerns on his mind that morning: his overindulgence on a recent trip to Europe, finding a publisher for his new book and the business deal he was in New York to discuss.
Those thoughts evaporated the instant he spotted American Airlines Flight 11 heading towards him.
"It was an American [Boeing] 767. I knew the body type," says Mr Hime, who was there that morning to see a business associate at Morgan Stanley, the biggest tenant in the World Trade Center, occupying 21 floors in the South Tower.
"It was flying down the island and its wings were rocking back and forth. It looked like it was in distress and of course my mind was racing. 'What's wrong? Do they have a massive hydraulic failure? Why is he so low?" he remembers.
"As we watched it get closer, I thought 'I wonder if I can look into the cockpit and see what's going on because there's really a problem here'."
Mr Hime, 58, who is now a senior officer at an investment organisation in Abu Dhabi, recalls remarking to his colleagues that if the aircraft did not pull up soon it was going to crash. They heard the roar of its engines as it flew above them and disappeared from view.
"What happened next was there was an enormous explosion, the building rocked and there was this huge … explosion of rubbish out the side of [the North Tower], which we could see. We could see an arc of trash and papers flying above it," he said.
From their vantage point, they could also clearly see fire, but not the hole that had been ripped into the side of the building.
Mr Hime's friend Bill Smith, who was in the North Tower when a bomb was detonated in the basement garage in 1993, suggested that they leave the building right away.
"He said to me weeks later that my response was 'you betcha'. I don't remember saying that. The next thing I remember was we were racing around the dining room getting our coats and bags and cell phones," says Mr Hime.
They headed for the stairs and were at about the 50th floor when Mr Hime finally managed to get through to his wife, Paulette, to tell her he was safe.
"We were moving along at a pretty good clip and occasionally we would pass an open door and you could hear the Port Authority, which owned the building, on the PA system announcing that people should stay in the building because it was safer there," says Mr Hime.
"We weren't having any of that. We wanted to be gone."
By the time they reached near the 35th floor, there was another explosion, so violent that it almost knocked them off their feet.
What they did not know then was that the impact was caused by a second plane that had just flown into the South Tower about 40 floors above them.
"My poor wife knew what had happened. She was watching on television in Houston. I think she had it worse than I did," says Mr Hime, pausing with emotion before he continues.
"Some things never go away," he adds, clearing his throat before describing how the pace of the evacuation picked up after the explosion. "It got very serious."
They arrived at the ground floor, but chaos reigned outside.
"There are these huge 20-foot tall plate-glass windows that looked out into the plaza between the two buildings," he recalls.
"There were security people lined up against those windows, and they weren't letting anyone outside because there was debris falling. It was just a mess out there."
Mr Hime was then directed towards an escalator, which led to the below-ground retail area and subway station. He felt weak in the knees for the first time as he climbed the stairs out of the subway.
"I got to the street level, and I looked back at the two buildings and they were both on fire," he says.
Then, finally, he was once again able to call his wife.
"She was so happy to hear from me," he says. "Having been through something like that together, we were tied together pretty closely already, but [now] more than ever are we bound to one another."
The relationships with the men with whom he walked out of the building that day were also strengthened as a result. "Those three guys will always be among my closest friends and confidants," he says.
For years he suffered recurring nightmares about being in an air crash. But some positives did emerge from the experience. Before 9/11, he used to worry excessively about the future. Now he takes each day as it comes.
"Whenever I think about that experience, I think it would be real easy for me not to be here any more, so this day is a gift, and if I get one tomorrow, I will be real grateful for tomorrow as well."
On a spiritual level he strove to understand the atrocity. He also read a lot about Islam.
"It was enlightening. There was this whole beautiful religion that I knew nothing about," he says.
When the chance came up two years ago to move to the Middle East to work for an investment organisation in Abu Dhabi, he jumped at it. But he has also forged a second successful career on the side.
In his pocket on 9/11 was a manuscript for a recently completed first novel, which he had started to write after being freed from the "tyranny of the billable hour" of tax law, a profession in which he worked for 20 years.
The book, The Night of the Dance, went on to receive a nomination for an Edgar award in 2003 for the best first novel by an American author.
He has now written several others, one of which, Three Thousand Bridges, was inspired by his experiences on 9/11. Writing the book helped him to deal with the experience, he says. "When I was done with it in June of 2002, I was fine."
There is one thing, however, he has still not done since that day.
"My last meal on this earth was almost a bowl of Special K. And I thought 'what a pathetic thing that would have been if it would have been my last meal on earth'," says Mr Hime, a Texan who wears a custom-made pair of cowboy boots to the office once a week with the only boot-cut suit trousers he has.
"I have never eaten it since. I have nothing against it, but I feel like one of the lessons is 'you never know which meal is going to be your last, so you might as well go for the hamburger or the Denver omelette'."
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