job, boys.”
Kirk asked, in his usual direct way, “Why did you cut the fence?”
“Escape hatch. If we need to get out of here, we won’t have time to cut through the fence, so we’re doing it now, while everyone is still asleep. I clipped it at the bottom so hopefully no one will notice.”
Kirk was not satisfied. “Why would we need to escape? Won’t we just drive out the way we came in?”
Dad paused for a long few seconds and replied, “That’s tough one to answer, since we really don’t know what will happen, but it’s better to play it safe, don’t you think?”
“I guess…” was Kirk’s answer. He clearly couldn’t imagine such a problem. I couldn’t either.
“Anyway, we’ve tested it, and we won’t use it again unless we need to. Ok?”
Tommy crawled out of the tent before we could answer, and immediately asked Dad where Mom had gone.
“She’ll be back in a minute, bud.”
Right on cue, Mom and Lucy showed up. Mom said, “Honey, they’ve got a TV set up in the front hall. You might want to go watch for a few minutes.”
“Ok. I’ll take Tommy for a potty break. Can you scrounge up some breakfast?”
The word “breakfast” immediately set my mouth watering, and I remembered that we hadn’t had any dinner last night. You can only go so long on convenience store hotdogs.
“Ok. I think I can find something.”
Dad and Tommy headed for the school, and Mom stood there with her finger on her lower lip, lost in thought. Then she opened the back of the car and started digging around. Kirk and Lucy and I started looking around, but Mom quickly told us to stay close. We took that as an excuse to go sit in the tent and to talk about the situation. The problem was, none of us understood any of it. On a normal Saturday morning, we would be in front of the TV, watching cartoons and thinking about how we could talk our parents out of all the cool toys we saw on the commercials. Even today, we expected to be sitting in front of our cousins’ TV, doing pretty much the same thing. Here we were, in a tent in schoolyard, half way between home and who knows where, trying to decode the mystery of the world in a whole new way.
By the time Dad made it back with Tommy, we were well into a game that involved calling each other the worst names we thought we could get away with, and Mom had come up with a breakfast of oatmeal cooked on a camp stove, bananas and some kind of granola bars. Dad shrugged and figured it was better not to comment. We munched on our breakfast as Dad told my mother his assessment of what he had seen on TV.
“…and the people in cities have figured out that they are not allowed to leave. The president has declared martial law in a bunch of them where people are rioting and looting. I never expected that to happen so fast. I guess they think they are big fat targets for whatever missiles come our way. He also publically announced the shutdown of the entire interstate system until further notice, but he said that he expected things to be back to normal in two to three days. He said that we have won the war with China already, and the surviving government has agreed to terms, so that’s good, I guess.”
“The downside is that Mexicans have taken the opportunity to pour over the border and they are fighting with people in the Southwest and Texas. I wouldn’t want to pick a fight in Texas… Anyway, FEMA says that they have mobilized shipments to the problem areas, but no one can claim that they have seen any aid arrive. It’s a mess.”
Mom asked, “Do we know what they are going to do with us here?”
“No one is saying. People were sleeping on the floor last night, and they are feeding the people with food from the cafeteria. No telling how long that will last, and no telling how long people will be that uncomfortable without getting really angry. Now that people are getting up, they are mostly
Kirk asked, in his usual direct way, “Why did you cut the fence?”
“Escape hatch. If we need to get out of here, we won’t have time to cut through the fence, so we’re doing it now, while everyone is still asleep. I clipped it at the bottom so hopefully no one will notice.”
Kirk was not satisfied. “Why would we need to escape? Won’t we just drive out the way we came in?”
Dad paused for a long few seconds and replied, “That’s tough one to answer, since we really don’t know what will happen, but it’s better to play it safe, don’t you think?”
“I guess…” was Kirk’s answer. He clearly couldn’t imagine such a problem. I couldn’t either.
“Anyway, we’ve tested it, and we won’t use it again unless we need to. Ok?”
Tommy crawled out of the tent before we could answer, and immediately asked Dad where Mom had gone.
“She’ll be back in a minute, bud.”
Right on cue, Mom and Lucy showed up. Mom said, “Honey, they’ve got a TV set up in the front hall. You might want to go watch for a few minutes.”
“Ok. I’ll take Tommy for a potty break. Can you scrounge up some breakfast?”
The word “breakfast” immediately set my mouth watering, and I remembered that we hadn’t had any dinner last night. You can only go so long on convenience store hotdogs.
“Ok. I think I can find something.”
Dad and Tommy headed for the school, and Mom stood there with her finger on her lower lip, lost in thought. Then she opened the back of the car and started digging around. Kirk and Lucy and I started looking around, but Mom quickly told us to stay close. We took that as an excuse to go sit in the tent and to talk about the situation. The problem was, none of us understood any of it. On a normal Saturday morning, we would be in front of the TV, watching cartoons and thinking about how we could talk our parents out of all the cool toys we saw on the commercials. Even today, we expected to be sitting in front of our cousins’ TV, doing pretty much the same thing. Here we were, in a tent in schoolyard, half way between home and who knows where, trying to decode the mystery of the world in a whole new way.
By the time Dad made it back with Tommy, we were well into a game that involved calling each other the worst names we thought we could get away with, and Mom had come up with a breakfast of oatmeal cooked on a camp stove, bananas and some kind of granola bars. Dad shrugged and figured it was better not to comment. We munched on our breakfast as Dad told my mother his assessment of what he had seen on TV.
“…and the people in cities have figured out that they are not allowed to leave. The president has declared martial law in a bunch of them where people are rioting and looting. I never expected that to happen so fast. I guess they think they are big fat targets for whatever missiles come our way. He also publically announced the shutdown of the entire interstate system until further notice, but he said that he expected things to be back to normal in two to three days. He said that we have won the war with China already, and the surviving government has agreed to terms, so that’s good, I guess.”
“The downside is that Mexicans have taken the opportunity to pour over the border and they are fighting with people in the Southwest and Texas. I wouldn’t want to pick a fight in Texas… Anyway, FEMA says that they have mobilized shipments to the problem areas, but no one can claim that they have seen any aid arrive. It’s a mess.”
Mom asked, “Do we know what they are going to do with us here?”
“No one is saying. People were sleeping on the floor last night, and they are feeding the people with food from the cafeteria. No telling how long that will last, and no telling how long people will be that uncomfortable without getting really angry. Now that people are getting up, they are mostly
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