The sound made her hand tighten around the marker she held. Twenty sets of eyes widened, waiting for her reaction.

“Miss Emily,” Lexi said, “what was that?” Tears began to stream down the child’s face. “It’s too loud!”

A little boy’s eyes darted around the room. “What--is--dat?”

Emily tightened and relaxed her hands, the sound of her heart pumping echoing in her ears. As her eyes scanned the room, the sound make her jump again. The muffled screams of the second graders escaped from the walls surrounding them.

“Okay, everyone follow me,” she whispered to her children, “I need you all to be very quiet,” she began escorting children into the small bathroom connected to their classroom.

“What’s happening?” Lexi sobbed.

“Shh. Follow me into the bathroom,”

“We can’t all fit!”

“Just follow me,” She reached out and yanked a small arm into the group. She lifted two children on to the toilet and one on to the sink. They were pressed against each other when she closed the door, clutching the lockless knob in her palm.

“Why do we have to be here, Miss Emily? There’s no room!”

“I want my Mommy…!” Lexi clutched a chunk of her blonde hair.

The sound came again and tears flowed from the children’s eyes. A boy clung to Emily’s pants and screamed.

“Don’t scream,” Emily grabbed his shoulder, “don’t...”

“I want to go home!” Lexi looked up at her teacher. She buried her tiny fingers into her blonde hair again.

Emily leaned back against the wall, causing the chart with reminders about flushing and washing your hands to fall.

“It’s okay,” she assured the children, “It’s okay,”

* * *

“I don’t want to go to school, Mommy,” Lexi said.

“Come on, we’re going to be late,” Stray pieces of Melissa’s hair escaped from her bun as she shoved Lexi’s tiny feet into her rain boots. “I’ve got to go to work, and you have to go to school. Come on.”

Lexi clung to the bench in the mud room, stray blonde hairs flying around her now flushed face. Melissa grabbed Lexi’s hands and slid them into the sleeves of her pink jacket.

“No!” Lexi cried, digging her feet into the ground, “I’m not going. I hate kindergarten!”

“I don’t have time for this today,” Melissa yanked Lexi’s arm toward the door. “Time to go, now.”

“No!” Lexi turned a splotchy red cheek toward her mother. “I hate school!”

“Lex. We have to go. Come on,” Melissa lifted Lexi her off the bench and out into the driveway. Lexi kicked her mother’s sides with her floppy pink rain boots.

“No!”




* * *

He entered her office without knocking, the smell of tuna fish seeping in with him. “Melissa, your daughter doesn't go to the elementary school downtown, does she?”

She kept her eyes glued to the computer screen. “She does, Dan, but I’m really trying to work right now. I can’t chat,”

His grip on the doorknob tightened.

“Dan?” She frowned.

He twisted the doorknob.

She rose from her chair. “What--is something wrong?”

“We’ve got the TV on in the break room.”


* * *

The condensation from their breath fogged up the bathroom mirror.

“Miss Emily?” Lexi raised her bloodshot eyes. “It’s quiet now.”

The children jolted upright as they heard their classroom door swing open. Emily pressed her palm against the wall and exhaled.

A man in uniform opened the bathroom door. He looked into Emily’s eyes and nodded. “Anyone hurt?”

“No.”

“File out to the parking lot. Have them hold hands in a line,”

He squeezed Emily’s shoulder as she led the children out.

“Everyone close your eyes and follow the person in front of you,” the officer instructed. Several new men wearing uniforms grouped around them.

Emily glanced back at the children’s wet puffy faces, then to the hall in front of her.

She froze as she realized she had forgotten to close her own eyes.

* * *

Melissa whipped into the lot and parked her car sideways across two spots.

The men in uniform strode with purpose around the lot, talking to parents and checking off their lists.

“Miss Emily,” Lexi reached up and tugged on her teacher’s shirt, “I see my mommy,” as she leaned forward to run to her mother, Emily grabbed the child’s shirt.

“Wait--stop. Wait. We’ve all got to stay together until someone tells us you can go home with your mom.”

Melissa ducked violently under the yellow tape as an officer grabbed her arm.

“Ma’am, wait. We’re going to be matching up children and parents as soon as we can, but we need to do that systematically,” he paused, “I’m so sorry.”

The wrinkles around Melissa’s eyes became pronounced as mascara and eyeliner stained her face. She turned to the small group of children outside the school, and then to the far larger group of mothers behind the yellow tape. The numbers didn’t add up.





* * *

Lexi’s sweaty body stuck to her sheets. She was screaming as Melissa stumbled into the bedroom. Lexi’s small stomach expanded and collapsed as she gasped for air. Melissa shook while she ran her fingers through Lexi’s tangled hair. “It’s okay… Lex.”

“No!” Lexi’s tiny fingers clenched her comforter.

“Shh, it’s okay. You had a bad dream--”

“No I didn’t!”


* * *

Emily stared up into the darkness. John rolled over.

“You asleep?” he mumbled.

“No.”

“You okay?”

She squinted and tried to make out the lines of the ceiling through the blackness.

“I don’t think I can go back to work tomorrow.”

“Em, you have to—those kids need you.”

“Stop.” She turned over on her side to face him. “Stop saying that.”

“It’s true.”

She traced her finger along the lining of her pillow.

“John?”

“Hm?”

“I’m not going to work tomorrow.”