Miss. Jenny started reading slowly, her voice softly reciting the words that made up our daily afternoon story time book. We were listening closely, taking every word in, not making a single sound. Suddenly, as if the school was playing a prank on us, the lights went out in the classroom and in the whole school. I looked around, turning my head nervously. Miss. Jenny calmly stepped out of the classroom and as soon as she did, the power came back and so did the lights. We waited for her; us second graders, while we wondered what could possibly be taking her so long that it was more important than our afternoon story time. After what seemed to have been much more than ten minutes, she came back no longer looking happy. She firmly ordered us to line up at the door, but she wouldn’t say why.
As we marched through the halls, we heard the principal’s voice coming from the speakers. She told us to remain calm and informed that a tornado warning had been issued. The most important thing we had to remember was to keep calm and listen to our teachers. The announcement was cut off by another black-out just as we met up with schoolmates from other grades: some were bigger, some looked scared, some were just closing their eyes shut so tight I thought they’d never open them again. I just stood there, trying to listen to my teacher. I couldn’t understand the gravity of the situation and what exactly was going on. All I could see were faces of grown-ups trying to keep an expression of serenity that clearly wasn’t there.
We were led into one of the corridors and told to kneel facing the walls, heads covered by our arms and faces looking down. It was all new and scary to me and I wondered why they made us assume that position. I couldn’t see anything. I shut my eyes tight just like the rest of the kids I had seen before. All I could do was listen. Silence surrounded us and at that moment, images started pouring in my head: my mother smiling and playing with me, my dad holding my hand, my grandmother hugging me. I breathed heavily and prayed. I was only six and I had never actually prayed for anything serious before. All I wanted was for all that to end. “Okay children. You can stand up now. We’ll take you to your classrooms and you’ll be told when your bus is here. There has been a delay due to the situation, so the buses will get here a bit later.”-one slender blonde teacher told us. Slowly but surely, my eyes opened and everything was blurry at first but as I got to my feet I saw Miss Jenny and started to make my way back to class.
“All those on bus 064, come with me!”-the secretary asked, popping her head through the classroom door. I ran up to her, followed by a group of third, fourth and fifth graders. She opened the front doors and that’s when I saw it. All around me, where houses had lay just a few hours before, there were now pieces of wood and trees. The houses were nowhere to be found. Reporters were standing all around the school which had mysteriously survived the tornado and was intact. My eyes couldn’t keep up with everything but I still managed to smile. I was going home and that’s all that mattered.