Everything looks so beautiful this morning, covered in ice and snow. The trees look as if they are made of glass, like a beautiful Christmas tree. The grass looks like it's been sugar-coated. The world has put on it's pretty face, as if to cover up all of the drama that beauty caused last night.
Yesterday, as I was at work, my daughter was at school, and my son was at his Granny's house on the other side of town. His Granny texts me and tells me they are all sick, and when can I pick him up. I text back that I'll pick him up as soon as I get off work. That seems simple enough, right? Wrong. While I was at work, the sky started to throw down freezing rain and sleet. By the time I got off work, there was a solid sheet of ice coating everything.
Then I discover that my phone is dead (forgot to charge it). I finally get ahold of my sister-in-law, and she's busy trying to scrape ice off my car so she can pick up my younger brother and bring him to work and take me home (he's a cook at the same place I waitress). She has already fallen 3 times on the ice (her wrist and bum were hurting now), and her sister had fallen a few times too.
Finally, she picks me up and drops off my younger brother. We head toward her house. She informs me that her sister fell again, and hit her head hard on the curb (we suspected a concussion). She was sleepy and nauseated, and when I talked to her on the phone, her speech was slurred. A trip to the ER was in their plans for the evening. But first, a voicemail (on my sister-in-law's phone) from my Mom saying my daughter had not come home yet. It's 4:30, and she usually gets off the bus around 3:45. I call the school... the buses are running 40-50 minutes behind... she'll be home soon. We call my nephew's school... his bus hasn't even picked him up yet... "Pull him out of the bus line, we'll come pick him up." So we start heading for his school.
As we're driving to his school, we approach an intersection that has a slight hill to it, and a bus is stuck at the intersection. Once the bus got unstuck and on it's way, it took forever for everyone stopped on the incline to get up the incline and get going again. I actually got out of the car and pushed as my sister-in-law spun my tires (the back ones... I have rear-wheel drive). The car fish-tailed a bunch, rolled back a lot (I waved at the person behind me, and she kindly backed up so we wouldn't hit her), but finally, with my help, we got up the hill and going.
We picked up my nephew and headed to the apartment, but the road to the apartment is downhill, so we had to wait for a few spinning and stuck people. We finally got there, and my sister-in-law and nephew went in.
I headed, at this point, across town to pick up my son. I got there without event, and back again, without event. In fact, the ride home was so uneventful that my son fell asleep in the car. :)
I get home around 6pm to find that my daughter is STILL not home. I begin to panic. I borrow my mom's phone (mine is dead, remember?), and I call the school - closed. I call the After-School Care Program - no answer. I call the Education Building - closed. I call the Bus Barn - busy signal... again, and again, and again. Now I'm really panicked. Finally, I get through. The bus driver for my daughter's regular bus is already back. She never took the kids anywhere, they were just going to wait at the school for the parents. So fine, I guess I'll head for the school. However, I decide to plug in my phone first, start it charging. Ding, ding, ding... I have a voicemail. It's a call from my daughter's school, at 5:40, saying that she was getting on a different bus and heading home. It's now 6:20... where the hell was she? Full-blown panic.
I call the Bus Barn back. I want to know the number and location of the bus, now. They give me the number and location, and inform me the bus is stuck. I tell them to let the bus know that I am on my way to pick up my daughter. A few minutes later, I pull up to the intersection where the bus has hopped a curb, then been hit by a car that couldn't stop. There are two busses, all their lights going, and two cop cars, all their lights going as well. I'm still in full-blown panic mode, and crying now. I run across the ice (thank you marching band), and yell my daughter's name. They give her to me, and she's crying too (crashing on the ice in a bus is scary to an 8-year-old), and I pick her up (I'm that strong) and carry her to our car.
At home, this morning, my daughter explains to us that her regular bus driver tried to pick them up, but hopped a curb and hit another car, before she even left the school parking lot, so they unloaded the kids back into the school (so, yes, my daughter was in TWO bus crashes yesterday). I'm pissed that they never called and informed us that the kids were NOT on the bus, but waiting at the school. I would have picked her up had I known. They have my cell phone and my mom's too, as well as my sister-in-law's home phone. They could have reached us... the school should have called when she got off her regular bus.
All that really matters, I suppose, is that my children are both home safe and sound, where I can watch over them and take care of them. My son slept the rest of the night, and my daughter fell asleep watching TV with me (there's no school today, so I let her stay up). I finally went to bed when I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer (I'm off work today).
So, the layers of ice and snow that so beautifully coat our world here are really a mask to hide the dangers underneath...
15 years ago
