“No I didn’t. I made it better.” Paul turned back to his own painting.
“No you didn’t, you ruined it,” Alice huffed. “You suck at painting.”
“No, you suck,” Paul retorted.
Alice looked at Paul’s painting. “I don’t even know what that is.”
“That’s ’cause you’re stupid. It’s a monster truck, duh.”
“I’m not stupid. Monster trucks are stupid.”
“Your dog is stupid.”
“No he’s not!”
“Is so. He’s a very dumb dog. The dumbest ’cause he’s yours.”
Alice streaked a big gob of yellow paint across Paul’s paper.
Paul scowled and splattered black all over Alice’s paper.
Both kids started to paint all over each other’s paintings, getting more and more upset and angry at each other. Eventually Alice shrieked.
Across the room, Mrs. Lou quickly excused herself from the phone and rushed over to the children. It was pretty obvious what had happened.
“He ruined Shoes!” Alice sobbed.
“She ruined my monster truck!” Paul sobbed back.
“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Mrs. Lou tried to calm the kids. “You can just paint another one. We’re having extra painting time today.”
Mrs. Lou took Alice’s and Paul’s easels (eels) and put them a good distance apart. She set up new paper for them both, and then went back to her sad phone call.
Alice was now next to Judy, which made her happy. The girls chattered, giggled, and painted colourful portraits of each other. Judy was two years older than Alice so they didn’t play together at school, or even very often at day-care, but being the only girls here today meant they had to stick together. Girls always had to stick together against the nasty boys.
Alice noticed Mrs. Lou on the phone again. “Mrs. Lou looks sad.”
“Maybe something bad happened.” Judy looked over at her as well.
“I’ll go see.” Alice put her paintbrush down and walked over to Mrs. Lou. “Mrs. Lou, what’s wrong?”
“Oh! Alice dear, I didn’t see you there,” Mrs. Lou was startled somewhat. “Nothing’s wrong.”
“Then why do you look sad?” Alice pointed out.
“I’m not sad,” Mrs. Lou told her, “I’m concerned.”
“Concerned?”
“It’s like being worried.”
“Why are you worried?” Alice continued to prod.
“There are bad things happening around the city today. I’m concerned about you children. I think you should be at home with your parents.”
“But Daddy’s working,” Alice reminded her, “he’s not at home either. Shoes is there by himself, and he can’t answer the phone.”
“I’m trying to contact him and the other parents, hoping they’ll take the day off.”
“What’s the bad thing?”
“The what?”
“The bad thing that’s happening? What is it?”
By now, the other children had wandered over and were all looking up at Mrs. Lou. She hung up the telephone with a sigh.
“Let’s sit in the carpeted area.” Mrs. Lou led them over to the one corner of the room that was covered in carpet. Usually this area was used for story time. It was weird to sit there in the painting smocks.
“Can you tell us about the bad thing before story time?” Alice asked.
Mrs. Lou didn’t answer her. The children gathered around the rocking chair and sat down cross-legged. Instead of sitting in the chair like she always did, Mrs. Lou sat down on the floor with them. Alice frowned at this. She didn’t know why anyone would sit on the floor when there was a chair you were allowed to sit in. Especially a rocking chair.
“You kids understand there are bad people in the world, right?” Mrs. Lou asked.
They nodded. Of course, Alice knew about bad people. In stories, they wore black, were ugly, and liked to kidnap the hero’s girlfriend. Strangers were also bad people unless Daddy said otherwise. Alice knew never to talk to strangers.
“Well, there are bad people in the city right now, hurting people,” Mrs. Lou tried to explain delicately.
Judy put up her hand but spoke without being called upon. “But we’re in the subbers.”
“Suburbs,” Mrs. Lou corrected her. “And I’m including them when I refer to the city right now. They seem to be all over the place.”
This made the children nervous and worried. Alice’s Daddy was someplace. What if he was someplace where there were bad people?
“I’ve managed to contact most of your parents and they’ll be coming to get you as soon as they can,” Mrs. Lou assured them.
All the kids started asking at once about their parents and when they would be there. Mrs. Lou raised her hands, and they fell silent.
“I can’t say for sure how long it will take them, but they’ll be here.” Mrs. Lou looked over at Alice after she said this. Alice didn’t like that look. It made her feel concerned. “Do you guys want to keep painting?”
They all nodded, but the enthusiasm from earlier was gone. The kids were all quiet while they painted. Alice painted a butterfly but used a lot more blue than she normally would for the bug. Butterflies would normally be red, yellow, and orange. This one even had a bit of black in it. It was a moth.
Mrs. Lou didn’t go back to the phone this time. She walked around and complimented everyone on their paintings. Soon though, painting time was over.
“What would everyone like to do now?” Mrs. Lou asked after everyone’s smocks had been removed, the paint put away, and the brushes cleaned.
Alice thought this an odd question. After painting time, they always went to the little park up the street. So she decided to voice this. “I want to go to the park.”
“Yeah, the park!” Paul chimed in. Soon every kid wanted to go to the park.
“I’m sorry, but we’re not going to the park today,” Mrs. Lou told them all.
“But it’s sunny!” Lester pointed out. The only times they didn’t go to the park was when it was raining or really cold in winter.
“Yes, but remember that your parents are coming to get you,” Mrs. Lou reminded them. “If we go to the park, they won’t be able to find you.”
The kids thought about this, weighing the love of going home with their parents against the fun times they have at the park.
“How about we have more free play instead?” Mrs. Lou suggested.
The children all agreed that this would be acceptable. Alice went back over to the pattern blocks. They were her favourite thing to play with. Mrs. Lou went into the back room for several minutes. Alice could hear the radio turned on low, but it sounded like boring old news instead of music. Eventually the muted sound of the radio was cut off and Mrs. Lou came back into the room. She didn’t look any better than she did before. She looked more concerned. It wasn’t long after that when Frances’s mom showed up. She knocked politely on the door, and when Mrs. Lou opened it, she immediately asked where he was.
“Frances,” Mrs. Lou called into the room, “your mom is here.”
Frances jumped up from where he was playing with Lester with the action figures. He ran over to his mom and wrapped his arms around her legs. His mom stroked his hair a few times and said something quietly to Mrs. Lou. Frances and his mom then left without even saying good-bye.
* * *
Sometime later, another knock came at the door. The remaining four kids looked up expectantly, all of them hoping it was their own parents. Mrs. Lou opened the door to reveal Lester’s dad. Lester went to him and his dad scooped him up in his arms. They left in a hurry.
Then came snack time. Normally, the snacks were made before snack time, but since there were so few of them, they got to help make them. They decided on milkshakes. The remaining kids walked over to the little kitchen corner and got to go behind the counter. They had never been allowed behind the counter before, so Alice was excited. Mrs. Lou picked each of them up and let them s
it on different parts of the counter. She then got out the blender and poured some milk into it.
“So what flavour of ice-cream should we put in our milkshake?” Mrs. Lou opened the freezer so that the kids could see what flavours were available.
“Chocolate!” Alice immediately cried out.
“Vanilla!” Paul shouted at the same time.
“Strawberry!” Judy yelled at that instant.
Mrs. Lou laughed. “How about we put in all of them?”
“Eww.” Judy scrunched her nose but still smiled.
Alice liked this mixture idea. She had never tried mixing different kinds of ice cream before.
Mrs. Lou got out the ice creams and handed a spoon to each of the kids. “You get to put in one scoop each.”
She let the kids put in their scoops, which were as large as they could make them, and then lick the remainder off the spoons.
“What else should we put in our milkshake?” Mrs. Lou asked after she put the rest of the ice cream away.
Alice was confused. She and her Daddy only put ice cream and milk in theirs. “What else can you put in a milkshake?”
“We put in bananas,” Judy told her.
“My mom adds chocolate sauce,” Paul also chimed in.
“We just happen to have both of those.” Mrs. Lou found the items. “You can put almost anything into it, Alice.”
“Can we put in peanut butter?” Alice loved peanut butter, but she didn’t even know if the day-care had any because one of the Joes was allergic.
“If I can find some.” Mrs. Lou handed Paul the chocolate syrup and Judy a banana and let them put in the ingredients themselves. Judy knew how to peel the bananas by herself and was very good at it. Mrs. Lou then looked through the cupboards. “You’re in luck. We still have some.” She pulled out a mostly empty container of peanut butter that sat on a really high shelf.
She gave Alice the peanut butter and Alice started emptying it into the blender. She would have to tell her Daddy all about this when he came to get her.
“None of you spontaneously got a nut allergy recently, right?” Mrs. Lou was smiling again.
“Noooo.” The kids giggled.
Mrs. Lou found some honey in a squirt bottle shaped like a bear. “I think that’s enough of your ingredients. I’m going to add one of my own to top it all off.” She squirted some honey into the mixture.
“Honey is gross.” Judy scrunched her face.
“Not when mixed into a milkshake,” Mrs. Lou told her as she put away the rest of the ingredients. “Are you ready to blend it up?”
The three kids cheered.
Mrs. Lou poured some more milk in before securing the top. The children counted down and then she pressed the blend button. They watched the mixture of treats spin and spin.
A knock sounded at the door. Mrs. Lou went to answer it and Alice looked over hoping it was her Daddy. The other two hoped as well for their own parents. Judy was the winner this time. Both her mom and her dad entered the room. Unlike the other two boys, Judy stayed where she was and let her parents come to her. Her mom rushed over and hugged Judy tightly.
“We’re making milkshakes!” Judy told her happily.
“So you are.” Her mother had a strange expression on her face that Alice couldn’t identify. It was sort of like fear, but sort of like happiness too. She saw it once before on her Daddy’s face when she was younger and had to go to the hospital because she had a very bad cough. Something the doctor had told him made him look that way.
“We’re staying long enough to have some, right?” Judy sounded fearful about the possibility of not getting to try their creation.
Judy’s mom looked back at her dad. Judy’s dad looked like he might be sick. He was pale even though it was summer.
“Sure, why not,” her dad smiled. Alice thought it was a fake smile. Adults did that sometimes. It was as if they were having their picture taken or something.
Mrs. Lou got out plastic glasses for all of them. When everything was blended, she turned off the blender, and poured an equal amount into the glasses. Alice was hesitant to try hers. It didn’t look very good. She watched the adults try theirs and they seemed to like it. Still, adult taste buds were weird. She waited until Judy and Paul also tried theirs. Paul loved it and Judy seemed to think it was okay. She said the honey made it not perfect, but Alice didn’t mind honey. She took a sip. She thought it was delicious.
After Judy and her parents finished their glasses, Judy said bye and they left. Now it was just Alice, Paul, and Mrs. Lou.
“There’s still some left.” Mrs. Lou looked into the blender. “Would you two like another glass?”
“Yes!” Paul thrust out his glass.
“Yes, please.” Alice was far more polite as she held out her own glass.
Mrs. Lou filled each of their glasses one more time, and then poured the tiny amount that was left into her own.
When they had finished, and Mrs. Lou was putting the glasses into the sink, another knock came at the door. Alice knew it had to be her Daddy this time. There was no way she would be the last one to be picked up. Mrs. Lou opened the door to reveal Paul’s mom.
“Hey, Pauly.” Paul’s mom was nearly in tears for some reason. Paul ran to her as she crouched down, and they gave each other a big hug.
Alice knew Paul’s mom. She and her Daddy worked together at the police station. Sometimes they were partners in the police car together.
Alice went and sat on the carpet. She couldn’t believe her Daddy wasn’t there yet. What was taking so long?
Mrs. Lou walked over and knelt down beside her. Paul and his mom hadn’t left yet and were standing by the door as if they were waiting for something.
“Alice?” Mrs. Lou sounded solemn. Alice didn’t like that word, solemn. She had learned it just last week.
“Yes, Mrs. Lou?”
“You’re going to go over to Ms. Weston’s house for a little while, okay?” Mrs. Lou sounded too nice. It sounded fake, like their fake smiles.
“Why? My Daddy’s coming here, isn’t he?” Alice had been to Paul’s house before. Ms. Weston, Paul’s mom, had babysat her a few times just as her Daddy babysat Paul sometimes.
“I wasn’t able to reach your dad.”
“You reached Ms. Weston,” Alice pointed out. Ms. Weston was still in her uniform and everything.
“She happened to be at the station when I called, but your dad was out providing security for a concert,” Mrs. Lou tried to explain.
“But they have radios. They can radio him.”
“Because of all the bad people, they’ve been having trouble finding anyone on the radios.”
“No!” Alice’s eyebrows came together. She could have a seriously hard set face for such a little girl. “My Daddy is coming to get me here.”
“Ms. Carter.” Ms. Weston had walked over and sat down next to Alice. “Your dad is fine. We just haven’t been able to get through to him yet. He’s helping a lot of people right now. I’m sure we’ll be able to contact him soon and he’ll come right away. Besides, I have my own radio and know people at the station. We can reach him much quicker than Mrs. Lou can.”
Ms. Weston often called Alice, Ms. Carter. It made her feel grown-up and reminded her of her mom, even though she only had a tiny smattering of memories of the woman and most of those were because of photos.
“We can play Connect Four.” Paul had also walked over.
Paul hated Connect Four. He liked Battleship, which Alice didn’t like. This was the nicest he had ever been to her.
“Okay,” Alice finally agreed to go with Ms. Weston, “but I get to be the red pieces.”
Ms. Weston smiled and stood up. She took Alice’s hand in one of her hands, and Paul’s in the other. They stopped at the door and waited for Mrs. Lou to grab her bag. She was going home as well. Mrs. Lou turned out the lights, locked the door, and they all headed to the parking lot together. Mrs. Lou said good-bye as she headed toward the back of the buildi
ng, and Alice and the Westons got into the car parked right near the door. Alice climbed into the backseat while Paul got into the front. Ms. Weston got into the driver’s seat, put the keys in the car, and started the engine.
Mrs. Lou screamed from the other side of the building.
* * *
“Stay put.” Ms. Weston was out of the car in a flash. She was Officer Weston now.
Paul and Alice watched through the windshield as she drew her gun and ran around the edge of the building. They didn’t hear anything for what seemed like a long time, although the clock proved it a very short span of time. Then came the pops, like fireworks. Alice huddled lower into her seat while Paul leaned more towards the glass.
“Judy!” Paul leaned over to the driver’s door and opened it.
Judy had come running around the corner toward the car. Her beautiful red hair had darker red, clumpy stuff in it, and her nice clothes were torn and dirty. She jumped into the car and slammed the door. She was babbling and crying, and Alice couldn’t make out what she was saying. Something about her dad.
“Where’s my mom?” Paul asked her. When Judy didn’t answer, he asked again.
Judy’s dad then came running around the corner. Judy screamed and screamed as he ran at the car. He was covered in the red gunky stuff too, and he had several holes in his clothes. He was bleeding from them. Alice then realized the red stuff was blood. Judy’s dad jumped on the hood of the car and started banging on the glass.
“Make him go away!” Judy screamed. “Make him go away!”
Paul leaned over and started hitting switches around the steering wheel. The windshield wipers came on and a moment of triumph crossed his face. It vanished when he realized they swept only once and barely did anything.
“Make them go faster!” Alice suggested from the back seat.
“I don’t know what I hit!” Paul panicked.
Judy, still terrified, climbed into the foot well. She was sobbing and shaking. Paul took her place in the driver’s seat and hit more levers. He hit a particular one and the car jolted forward. They were moving.
“Stop the car!” Alice cried in the back. She grabbed her seat belt and put it on.
“Judy! Hit the brake pedal!” Paul called down.
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