On the day the missiles fell in Dallas, my family and I went about our daily lives only a few hundred short miles away in Sa0n Antonio. The news came to us when we were at a frozen yogurt shop, nearly finished with our cups.

A blaring breaking news alert and grainy footage of smoldering buildings crackled onto the screen. An old bloke started on about how the news is all negative in these days, and insisted the pimply worker turned it off.

The worker obliged. At that time Helen and I assumed a factory exploded or some such nonsense.

We discovered otherwise later that evening, yet the air still oddly did not change.

The next day, Helen and I went to our respective jobs. Almost everyone did in a kind of stupor, moving as if controlled by puppets. I think we were all in shock, really, in those early days. We just needed to occupy our hands with some bleeding task.

Anyway, that evening, after a long day of productive faffing about, Helen and I cuddled up at home with the little ones in front of the tube.

Texas' Governor instituted a preemptive, "extra-cautious", lockdown throughout the entire state after sundown. This was winter, my friends, so by six in the afternoon the roads would be bleeding empty.

It didn't matter, my friends.

There we were: me and Helen and our two tykes, Garret and Sophia. Frozen was just beginning in the background, the gents were still sawing their lovely blocks of ice.

Then our beige apartment walls crumpled inward with extreme rapidity. Darkness swallowed.

I have a lot of respect for the men and women in the recovery effort, I must tell you. My apartment was one of thousands in a sprawling, enormous maze of buildings. Yet, I saw the light of day within a month, despite being on one of the lowest floors.

Unfortunately, my survival was noticed. And what I guess you'd call bigwigs were on the scene when they pulled me out of the rubble.

Yet, they got the wrong idea, my friends. The military men were horrified, certain I was an imposter from another land. They learned quickly that though physical means did not puncture me, chemical damage could.

And, my friends, they had many, many means of inflicting chemical harm.