Miracles happen.

Faith in miracles has kept Tahira Khan from losing her mind.  Her 29-year-old son has been missing since 9:00 a.m. September 11.  Taimour Khan worked as a trader at Carr Futures on the 97th floor of 1 World Trade Center.

Rudely awakened by a near-hysterical call from her daughter, Zara, who was at work in her midtown office that morning, Tahira's first instinct was to rush out to find her son, but she says she sank into a state of shock and was immobilized.  She hung up on anyone who called, even Zara.  She wanted to hear Taimour's voice.  He never called.

What Tahira did hear, from her fourth-floor Westview balcony overlooking the Queensboro bridge, was the constant wail of sirens from fire trucks and ambulances.  She sank to the floor and waited for Zara to return, praying.

Two hours later, Zara arrived with no news.  She had walked home, hoping Taimour would have contacted their mother by then, but no such thing happened.

Tahira's brothers arrived from Long Island with their families in tow.  The clan got to work.  "We called every help-line we heard about," said Zara, 31, who works for KPMG.  Zara's sleep-deprived eyes were swollen.  "They were of no use.  They just gave us more numbers to call.  Carr Futures knew nothing.  We had to do everything on our own."

Everything included combing the hospitals they could access in the downtown area, plus hospitals on Staten Island and in Brooklyn and New Jersey, where Taimour could have been taken.  It included putting up posters and distributing fliers.  It included contacting every single friend of "Tai," as Taimour is lovingly called, and marshaling them to contact more hospitals.  It included organizing vigils every night since September 12.

"It seems like it has been two long days ever since he went missing," said Joe Richards, Taimour's friend of ten years.  "The first day was September 11, followed by a night when we kept the first vigil at Union Square and, since then, a long day when we have put up posters and made hundreds of calls."

Rallying behind the Khans are friends who have known the family for decades, since the time they lived in Pakistan.  "I see positive energy all around me," said Tahira Khan, a petite woman who asks family and friends alike to pray for her "precious one."

"Don't cry.  He will come back," said Khan to a group of more than 150 people gathered by the Meditation Steps last Saturday night.  They were there to light candles and pray.  Khan has decided to keep this vigil every night until Taimour is returned to her.  "Her conviction is our biggest strength," said Shaan Khan, Taimour's cousin.  "I feel it in my bones and in my heart that he will come back to us."

One of several nightly vigils, overlooking Meditation Steps, awaiting the return of Taimour Kahn.

Mike Kaplan and Jarrod Neuman, Taimour's childhood friends, said Taimour's  energy and zest for life always inspired them.  Now, Tahira's strength gives them strength.  "She has responded with more grace than anybody," said Kaplan.  "She seems to be the strongest person around and I am sure she will be devastated if she does not hear good news."

Taimour's maternal uncle, Arshad Khan, has co-ordinated search efforts:  "We have set up websites and sent Carr Futures a proposal to help all their missing employees' families, but we have not heard anything positive yet."

For now, Tahira is not even entertaining the thought of a loss.  "No news is good news," she says to the stream of visitors coming to her apartment.  They feel awkward talking to her, not sure what might upset her.  They sit nervously on carved chairs, gazing sometimes at the multicolored rugs on the floor and sometimes at the mirror-work, hand-embroidered tapestries on the walls.

"Taimour's mother is such a positive woman," said Joe Richards, who has vowed to become an extension of the family.  "She has an old soul.  She understands a lot and I am hoping she remains positive.  I am going to be there for her, whatever the news."