Hurricane Gregory

H U R R I C A N E G R E G O R Y� Part 19

“I’m bored! Why don’t we sing a song that I learned in school?” Carrie suggested.

“Oh, please…” Greg protested, as he rolled his eyes upward. “Don’t start singing again… You’ll shatter all the windows!”

Carrie just ignored Greg’s remark.

“Let’s sing this song. Normally, you sing this when riding the school bus. Mom and dad are in the front, and we’re in the back! So, we are the back of the bus…” Carrie explained to the boys.

“This isn’t a bus, Carrie” Greg pointed out. “This is a van!”

“Well, we can always pretend that this is a bus!” she added, hoping that she could persuade everyone to sing along anyway.

Carrie began to sing her part:

“We are the back of the bus,
The back of the bus,
The back of the bus,
We are the back of the bus,
So where is the front?”

Herb and Amy sang their verse of the song:

“We are the front of the bus,
The front of the bus,
The front of the bus,
We are the front of the bus,
So where is the back?”

Jamie and Gregory joined in, and they sang the verse for the back of the bus. Herb and Amy sang the part for the “front of the bus”.

“Oh my, oh my, oh my…” Esther chided Gregory. “Why do you have to sing so loudly?”

Esther covered her ears while Herb, Amy, and the three kids continued to alternate singing their verses out loud for almost ten minutes, until Herb and Amy finally got tired.

“We’re here!” Herb announced, as he pulled off the highway and crossed the intersection on to the road leading to the school. “This will be our home for a few days…”

“I can’t believe I’m spending three days at a school, while I’m still supposed to be enjoying the last week of my summer vacation on the beach.” Greg groused, as he prepared to hop out of the van.

“Oh, stop complaining, Greggy” Jamie laughed. “Better a school for shelter than outside in a hurricane! Trust me!”

Herb stopped the van right before the entrance to the school. It was pouring rain, and they wanted to be able to get out of the van so that they could run towards the big main door to the school.

All three kids got off the van, carrying their bags with them. They dashed from the van to the front door of the school so they could get in out of the rain as quickly as possible. Amy left the van to join the kids. Herb finally took his umbrella, and helped walk Esther to the building. Once she was inside, he returned to park the van. When he joined Amy, Esther and the kids a few minutes later, they proceeded to the registration table. This table was staffed by volunteers from the Red Cross.

Herb and Amy registered first and then Esther. Once they were done, Greg and Carrie gave their names and answered some questions. When it was Jamie’s turn, Herb and Amy had gone to one of the classrooms at the school. Carrie followed them, while Greg stayed with Jamie.

A young lady, who was dressed in white, was sitting at the table. She was sitting next to the representative of the Red Cross. Another man was sitting at the other end of the table. The man was big and stocky, and he was wearing the uniform of a security guard.

“Alright, young man… First of all, can you tell me whether you had your flu shot this year?” the nurse asked Jamie.

“Uhh… No…” Jamie responded, not knowing why the lady was asking this.

“If you can’t provide proof that you’ve received your shots, then I’ll give it to you tonight.” The nurse said. “So, have you had your flu shot this year? Yes or no?”

“No…” Jamie said first. Then he realized that she was going to give him a shot! “I mean, yes… I had my shot already… I had it at school!”

“Oh? Where do you go to school?” the nurse wondered.

“I’m from out-of-state. I’m from Metropolis… I’m visiting Florida with friends…”

“Oh… Hummm… What’s your name?”

“I… Uh… Alex… My name is Alex” Jamie responded.

The nurse stared at him with a very suspicious look on her face. She stood up, and placed both hands on the table, while holding her arms extended.

“Young man…” she explained. “If you cannot provide a form from your school, saying that you have received your flu shot, then I will give you the shot myself. There’s a hurricane coming this way, and we’ll be housing over three-hundred evacuees. The last thing we need is everybody getting sick just because you didn’t have your flu shot. You won’t get out of receiving the shot from me. I will ask Jake, my partner, to remind you that you must get your shot. I’ll let you off tonight. But, I expect you here, first thing in the morning; is that understood?”

“Yes, ma’am…” Jamie replied. He realized that the nurse meant business. He noticed the name ‘Jennifer Cooper’ on a black name tag, which was pinned to her white uniform.

The security guard stood up as well. He was a big, heavy-set man, with a bald head, a short beard and a trimmed, dark mustache.

“My name is Jake” he boomed, in a baritone voice. “When I tap you on your shoulder, then you’ll come with me to the nurse’s station. And you won’t give me any trouble, is that clear?”

“Yes, sir.”

“I will be expecting you in the morning… Alex…” the nurse said in such a way, that it sounded like a threat.

Jamie slowly made his way down the hall, pulling his soft bag behind him, while it rolled across the floor on the two plastic wheels attached to the bottom. Greg walked behind him, before catching up to his buddy.

“Since when is your name ‘Alex’?” he asked Jamie.

“That’s my middle name! I didn’t lie!”

“It is not! Liar!”

“Is, too! My real middle name is Alejandro, which means ‘Alex’ in Spanish! So there!” Jamie argued.

“That nurse sounded pretty insistent about that flu shot!” Greg asked him.

“Yeah…” he replied with consternation.

“She can’t poke a needle in your arm! You’re invulnerable!” Greg whispered back to Jamie. “How are you going to handle that?”

“I don’t know, but I’ll think of something…”

The boys entered a classroom, joining Carrie, Herb and Amy. They were watching TV. Several cots and sleeping bags were set up in the small classroom.

“Well… I guess this will be our home for the next few days…” Greg said, as he dropped his bag to the floor, in the corner of the room. “Boy, this is going to be so much fun…”

Jamie set his bag down beside Greg’s. He then walked up to Herb, and asked him if it would be OK for him to walk around for a few minutes. Herb nodded, and the two boys left the classroom and strolled down the halls of the small high school.

As the boys were walking past other classrooms, Jamie suddenly froze, as he gazed intently at the wooden door.

“What is it?” Greg wondered. “Jamie?”

“Hold on… I see something…” Jamie responded quietly, while, with his x-ray vision, he was staring through the solid wooden door at the TV set in the room.

To be continued


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