It was the dream again, wasn’t it?
“Jen—are you there?”
“This isn’t really happening, is it, Diana. It’s some kind of joke, right?”
“Jesus Christ, Jen! Are you listening to me? This is very, very real. The schools were called a half an hour ago and told to evacuate.”
“Will they take the kids to the reception centers?”
“Yes. If the buses get here before the parents. Turn the radio on; you’ll hear for yourself. There was a radioactive release, and they can’t contain it. It’s very likely airborne. If you’re headed over, just be careful.
“Wait!”
But Diana was gone. Jen stared at the phone. She grabbed her bag. No, take your emergency “go bag.” Where is it? Do I have everything? Are the batteries charged? No—just go. No—get the bag. Get Ricky’s teddy—one of Kaylee’s favorites. No—just get him. Go. Now.
She whisked around in a panic, found her pocketbook, ran out the door, and tumbled into the car. Jen lived about five miles from school, which was reachable by a two-lane road. She tore out of the driveway and turned the radio on.
It was all over the airwaves.
“ALLPower executives are saying the plume is not a threat, but just to be safe, people within ten miles of the plant need to evacuate or shut their doors and windows and stay home.”
A radio reporter was interviewing Bob, who tried to sound like an expert nuclear physicist.
“We believe the release will escape in a column of steam and then simply dissipate. No one should be alarmed. The evacuation is just a precaution.”
“But what about the wind? Won’t that spread the radioactive steam to different places?” the news person quizzed him.
“We really don’t know, but we think the steam will shoot up, oh, maybe a thousand feet and not be affected by the wind at all. We are keeping an eye on it.”
“Really? Okay. Well, folks, let’s hear from our meteorologist about that wind,” said the announcer.
The radio voices pounded a verbal duet with Jen’s inner panic. Was this her dreaded nightmare come true? What if I can’t get Ricky out of that school?
Get a grip. You’re doing okay, said her sane voice.
She took a deep breath and realized she had been riding the brakes more and more. Traffic was slowing to a crawl.
Diana looked at the principal’s list of teachers. Jane would check in with the first floor teachers who taught the youngest kids, and Diana would do the same on the second floor for the older classes. Students and teachers had to be ready for the evacuation buses. When she got upstairs, Diana knocked on the door of a fourth grade class and walked in.
“Hi, Tammy. I’m here to make sure all your kids will be ready to get on the bus once they arrive, okay?”
“Is it really too dangerous to go outside?” the teacher asked in a low voice, facing away from the children.
“They don’t really know. The evacuation may just be a precaution. You will need to be with them on the bus and in the reception center. You okay with that?”
“Sure. I guess so. What happens at the reception center?”
“It’s just a safe holding place. You’ll be fine.”
That’s not altogether true, thought Diana. She slipped out the door and headed for Gail Aron’s fifth-grade room—Ricky’s class.
She opened the door and saw the kids reading quietly. Sitting at her desk in the front of the room was a very pregnant Mrs. Aron. Her face taut, the teacher glared at Diana anxiously. She got up and headed over to her, blocking Diana’s entry.
“I’ve got to speak to you, Diana,” she said, easing out to the hall and closing the door behind her.
“I can’t go with these kids on the bus. They can’t make me. I have to get out of here, get to my husband. Can you go with my class on the bus for me?”
Her hands held her large belly, fingers splayed as if fortifying the protective wall between the now toxic, outside world and her unborn child.
“Take it easy, Gail. I know this is upsetting, but it may only be a precaution.”
It troubled Diana to keep saying this, with the rest of the day a great unknown. The teacher shook her head.
“I won’t go. I won’t. There is nothing in my teacher’s contract that says I have to go, and you know that.”
“Yes, I do know that. But these kids need you now. They know you, trust you, and they need to be with you until the buses come. Won’t you go with them? Please?”
“What about the radiation out there, Diana? You known as well as I do that being pregnant puts me at high risk. Puts my baby at high risk. I read about you in the news and your involvement with the anti-nuke movement. Please, I just want to get out of here, protect my baby. I want to drive far away from here with my husband.”
Her voice had worked up to a shrill, and she started to sob.
“Please, Diana… please take my class for me?”
Diana took a deep breath. It was true. If there was radiation out there, the baby might be born with any one of a number of birth defects. Studies showed a rise in breast cancer in women, and thyroid cancer in an area around the plant. As far as she knew, no research had been done on fetuses.
“Let me see what I can do. I can’t promise anything, and it wouldn’t be fair to the other teachers. I have to finish checking the other classes on this floor. Don’t leave until I come back—promise?”
The young teacher put her arms around Diana.
“Thank you. I’ll never forget this!”
Diana smiled at her and watched her put on her teacher face and go back to her students.
As she made her rounds, Diana found that the rest of the teachers were just as scared, but they were committed to be with their students on the bus and in the reception centers. Diana wasn’t sure just how Mrs. Aron was going to exit the building without being seen by the other teachers.
“This is the principal,” Jane’s voice boomed over the loudspeaker.
“Teachers, if you haven’t closed all your windows, please do so now. We expect the buses shortly, so make sure you and your students have all their things so they can exit the building quickly.”
Diana glanced out the window, wondering where Jen was and if traffic was getting bogged down. There had to be panic out there. Would the buses even get here in time? Worse, would the buses get here at all?
Police car sirens could be heard from a distance. Diana’s heart sank. She walked out of her office and poked her head out the front door. Two patrol cars were already parked behind police barricades, blocking the school’s driveway. Another patrol car pulled up. Two cops approached the school.
What are they doing? Are they going to stop parents from getting their kids?
The officers came into the office and asked for Jane, who waved Diana to join her.
“What’s happening out there, officers?” Jane was always official but friendly.
“We have to barricade the school, Mrs. Bigley. According to the evacuation plan, our orders are to see that the children get on the buses that will take then safely to the reception center.
“What if the parents get here first?”
“They need to be directed to the reception centers to get their kids. We’re just following the plan.”
Diana couldn’t hold back. “The plan is ridiculous—what if your kid was in this school, would you let him or her go twenty miles away if you could take them with you?”
“Diana. Please. They’re just doing their job. But she does have a point, officer. What if parents get here before the bus and demand to take their children? How does the plan suggest you actually stop them?”
“I guess if worse came to worst, we’d use force.”