I don't know why I came today, after watching the news. It was scary to think of it, it'd been heading this way for the last two or three days but today was when it was supposed to hit...the next ice age they were calling it and it was supposed to hit our little town today sometime, by mid afternoon.
As I continued down the road, which was basically empty except a car coming here and there I thought. "Surely no one was bringing their kid to school today."
I was wrong, to a certain extent, roughly ten percent of the kids were dropped off...I was the only worker who showed up. Just a few days ago I'd been given more responsibilities and opening up the school happened to be one of them. I found it funny they gave me a promotion even though we knew what was coming, I guess we'd hoped it wouldn't and just stuck around when we should've taken the last airliner to the Texas/Mexico border...I missed the last one, but that was ok, these kids needed me."
I ushered the kids into one of the classrooms there were four two year olds and one kid that was about a year and a half once we entered the room they all rushed to play with the toys lining the shelves as if it was jut another day. Didn't their parents watch the news? Or they did and the kids just didn't understand, it wouldn't surprise me as they ARE only one and two year olds.
I watched them for a little while before getting up and going over to the radio sitting on the counter and turned it on, just loud enough for me to hear so the kids wouldn't hear it...not that they would notice because as per the usual they were running round the room, some of them screaming while playing along. I would've stopped them, reminded them that they weren't supposed to run in the classroom but it seemed beside the point...besides they wouldn't get to go outside today...
I turned my attention back to the radio. "We are live here from the Texas/Mexico border to report on what experts are calling the next ice age. The phenomenon has been making its way across the globe since the last month only just recently hitting the coasts of the US about two weeks ago starting at the coast of California."
I had some relatives in California, they got the first airline out of there, leaving behind an ocean side beach house, I turned my attention back to the radio.
"While it took a while for it to move past the west coast states it quickly gained momentum as it began approaching the Midwest, it is expected to hit the midwestern states sometime later this afternoon at best scientists claim."
My attention was suddenly pulled away from the radio by a light tug on my jeans, I looked down at one of our one year olds, the only one year old in the room today. "Ms Jamie?" He asked, I kneeled down to his level. "Yes Bentley?" I asked, swiping some of his blond hair out of his face.
"Ouside today?" He asked as he pointed towards the other door in the room that led to the playground. Even though I knew the answer I looked up at the windows to act like I was checking the weather...I had to try very hard to keep my eyes from widening as I watched the light snow that had begun falling, probably sometime while I was listening to the radio.
"uh, no I'm sorry Bentley not to-" I was cut off as Kimi, one of the two year olds, screamed and shouted "SNOWWW" dragging out the "W" Bentley turned around to face the window and smiled ear to ear. "SNOW! SNOW!" He joined in as he spun around and around.
I looked at the time, it was only 9am! Looks like it may be moving faster than the scientists predicted. Suddenly I felt nauseous, I swallowed hard and turned back to the kids. "Ok guys! Who wants to paint?" All heads turned towards me, they paused for a second then, ran towards the table."
All five of them sat in their usual spots. I would've put Bentley in the high chair like usual but what was the point? It was usually just to keep him from getting up during mealtimes but today we were throwing all rules out the window today. I looked at all of them.
Bentley
Raleigh
And Chase
The boys
Moxie
And Kimi
The only two girls
I grabbed the paints and brushes from the cabinets and just sat them on the table along with a bowl of water, not that they'd clean the brushes off anyway, normally I would make sure they did but today there were no rules.
As they continued painting I looked outside again, the snow had started falling faster, the thermometer outside showed it was only 30 degrees...it was 70 when I left work this morning. I looked at the time 10:30...at least it had slowed down a little bit...although i was sure by now some of the parents would have come for their kids, while they still had a chance...where were they? I wondered.
Once again I felt a tug on my sleeve. "I make this for you!" One of our girls, Moxie, exclaimed holding up a sheet of paper with three different colors of paint smeared all over the place in no particular shape. I fought the tears as I took the paper from her and cleared my throat. "Thank you Moxie!" I exclaimed.
"Ms Jamie I'm hungry!" Kimi whined. Of course, we'd missed breakfast! Normally the cook brought in the food...but of course...I was the only adult here.
Suddenly the lights flickered