Chapter 5, Stop the Game!

Hi readers! If you are just joining us on Day 5 of National Novel Writing Month, go to the sidebar on the right, and begin reading the chapters from the beginning. “It Began as a Normal Day” is the first chapter, and so on. . . thank you for reading.

Chapter Five

(Author’s note to self. Please go to bed by 10:30 PM if I want to get up by 6:30 AM to write for two hours before the Household wakes up with a snort and wants my total attention for twelve hours. Got it.)

            Stop action. Let's take a look at where we are. Charlotte Fox is passed out, her neighbor Frieda is screaming into two phones simultaneously about a fire at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, John Fox is steaming across Cape Cod Bay from Provincetown on the Mary Lynn- heading for the mouth of the canal with a hold of fish to off load, and the kids (Darlene, 14, and Jason, 12) are not home from school yet. The nuclear reactor has spewed out enough radiation to set off all radiation detectors up the line in Plymouth, and fire stations in all of eastern Massachusetts are sounding off their own warning sirens. The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency has swung into action with its emergency plan for Cape Cod, which is to close the bridges, and not let anyone off the cape until Plymouth and the South Shore have evacuated. There are cruisers up on the Sagamore and Bourne Bridges with their blue lights flashing, and officers inside the cars are thinking of all that they are losing, from jobs to homes to communities to health, because they have been told that as soon as the Plymouth area clears out, Cape Cod will be evacuated, and residents will be probably be relocated, never to return to their homes. Most Cape Codders do not know what is happening yet. They listen to their own downloaded music on their mobile devices, they do not listen to the radio. Many are involved with solitary pursuits, such as fishing, dog walking, cooking up a new recipe or gardening in the bright sunshine. Retirees are out shopping, walking, late lunching or early bird dining, and raking leaves.

            Students are still in school, or on buses heading for home, depending on whether they are in elementary, middle or high school. Nursing homes are filled to capacity with patients, rehab facilities are retraining patients with life skills, hotels are half full, it’s bus tour season, and it’s been a wonderful October, weather wise. Restaurants are busy gearing up for the evening’s clientele, moms are thinking about what to make for dinner, construction workers and landscapers are thinking about their first beer of the evening.

            Football games are underway at high schools, and that is where we unfreeze the stop action. Darlene has not jumped on the bus home, she has decided to stay after school with her girlfriends and watch the home game. It’s always exciting watching the boys bashing heads with their opponents, and the excitement is never so intense in her so called life as when the whole home bleacher section is screaming because a Sandwich Blue Knight has broken free and is running as fast as he can down the field towards the goal line with the football. Americans don’t seem to get excited about anything besides sports these days. Presidential election? Who cares. Binge watch on Netflix so you don’t have to see the commercials.  Mom and Dad are canceling out each other’s votes, as is everyone else in America. Red Sox on a winning streak? Big Papi hitting his final home runs? Brady back on the field with the Patriots?   Everyone cares, everyone watches, the stadiums are stuffed with caring people. 

Darlene is showing her team spirit, she has on blue lipstick, blue nail polish, blue skirt and blue socks; she is a new convert to football fanhood. She loves it. She’s never screamed with such abandon. She loves the school band that is out there in uniform tooting up the afternoon with all kinds of drumming and brass. And now there is a cop coming out onto the field with a bullhorn? What’s this? Is this a normal part of the game, is this some kind of team spirit routine?

            No. It’s not. Darlene scoffs at first, and then gets up and runs with the herd into the school gymnasium, as instructed. Everyone is there together. The football players from both teams,  the spirit band,  the fans, the geeks who were working on after-school projects, the teachers who haven’t left yet, the principal, the janitors, the visiting team bus driver. They all listen together as they hear from the principal.

 “No, there is not a shooting. There is no loose convict, there is not a crazed wild animal out there, there is no tornado coming this way. 
"But right now, there is an emergency situation up in Plymouth at the nuclear power station. The air is full of an invisible danger, ray-dee-ation, and we are following state emergency protocol for this specific situation. No, you can’t see the radiation, and no, we do not have a radiation detector here in Sandwich, we have to take their word for it, but we are to stay here and not open the doors. We are to seal ourselves in with duct tape if that is possible, and await further instructions. That’s the plan. It will be awhile.  I’ll be here with you. We’ll do this together. Blue Knight spirit prevails! They can’t keep us down!”

            No one cheered. The air has gone out Darlene’s lungs, and everyone else’s in the school gym,  as quickly as a pin pricks a balloon.

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