Keisha held her breath and her brother’s hand.
They hadn’t heard from their Mommy since the school had sent everyone home. The ladies in the office had tried calling her, to no avail. By the time they found their Daddy’s work number, the phone lines were jammed. Too many people calling too many people, said Ms. Kowalski.
They hadn’t heard from their Mommy since the school had sent everyone home. The ladies in the office had tried calling her, to no avail. By the time they found their Daddy’s work number, the phone lines were jammed. Too many people calling too many people, said Ms. Kowalski.
Instead, Ms. Kowalski -- “Today, you can call me Jenny,” she’d said -- drove them home. After three blocks, Keisha could see the tears in Ms. Kowalski’s eyes. She turned next to her brother in the back seat and told him to close his own and plug his ears. She did the same, and shut out the horror around her until she felt the car slow to a stop.
When she’d opened her eyes, Keisha saw they were at the hardware store they lived above with their Mommy. Ms. Kowalski was helping the children out of the car when a man stepped from the shadows. The man was completely bald -- even lacking eyebrows -- and wearing a funny silver suit like a second skin. Keisha thought he looked like a lizard. He also looked very, very angry.
Ms. Kowalski had seen the man, too. She knelt down in front of the children, and turned their chins to her. “Keisha. Andre. Go straight to your door. Don’t look.”
“Yes, Ms. Kowalski,” Keisha had said.
“Please. Call me Jenny. Go.”
The strange silver man had lunged and Ms Kowalski had swung around and hit him before he reached the children. They ran to the door as she’d instructed. They heard a wet tear and an inhuman scream they knew had to be their teacher, at the same time they tried the door handle. It was locked. Keisha searched her pockets for the key, and came up empty. By accident, she looked to where her teacher had been and saw her lying on the floor, her head twisted at a funny angle. The strange man in silver was reaching into a hole in Ms. Kowalski’s abdomen.
Keisha looked around her for any sign of hope and saw the apartment building across the street. She’d grabbed her brother’s hand and hadn’t let go until they stood in front an apartment door well inside the building and heard the sound of the door latch.
When she looked into the eyes of the large, kind-looking stranger in the doorway, Keisha fell to her knees, released her brother’s hand, and wept.
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