Kimmy Lost Her Sunshine

    Kimmy was drawing a bright yellow sun for her mommy when the fireworks started. At least, they sounded like fireworks. But it was snowing outside. Kimmy couldn’t think of any winter holidays that had fireworks.

    But then the principal came on the announcement speakers and said the school was locking down. The teacher locked the door and told everyone to hide. Kimmy thought this was a game and climbed into the art cabinet. Tommy tried to climb in after her, but she pushed him out, told him to find his own hiding spot. There wasn’t much room in the cabinet anyway. She wondered who was supposed to be “it”.

    Someone was banging on the door. The teacher yelled and then the fireworks went off again and then lots of people were screaming. Kimmy curled up small and hoped she wasn’t found.

    She didn’t come out when it got quiet. That would break the hide-and-seek rules. She stayed there a long time, waiting for someone to find her. Her tummy rumbled. It was probably lunch time, but she stayed where she was.

    A police officer came in and called out. Kimmy stayed where she was in case he was “it”, or if he was the one setting off fireworks. She screamed when he opened the cabinet door, but he took her hand and asked her to be brave. He was here to help. Her parents were outside, and they were very worried.

    Kimmy looked around the classroom and found that three of her friends were asleep on the floor. They had funny red stains on their shirts. Tommy was one of them. The police offier wouldn’t tell her why they were sleeping, and he wouldn’t let her wake them up.

    When they got outside, Kimmy saw policemen and ambulances and lots of crying grown-ups. Her parents ran to her and scooped her up. They kissed and hugged her and they cried and asked if Kimmy was okay. She said she was fine, and asked if she had won the game. Her parents cried harder and hugged her tight.

    As they were leaving they walked by an ambulance. Kimmy’s teacher was sitting in the back. The ambulance people had cut away his shirt and were putting a big bandage on his shoulder. Kimmy wanted to ask what had happened, but her parents were in a hurry to go home.

    There was no school for the rest of the week. Kimmy didn’t mind, except that her parents wouldn’t let her go outside. She had a lot of dreams about fireworks that made her friends go to sleep. In one dream she let Tommy share her hiding spot. Would he have still gone to sleep if she had let him in?

    The news people used words like tragedy and showed pictures of her school. They showed pictures of an angry looking man and said that he had come to Kimmy’s school and hurt lots of people. Her parents turned off the TV before she could hear more.

    When school did open back up, everyone on Kimmy’s bus was quiet. Some of them cried, and some just sat in their seats and looked scared. They drove past a group of people holding signs. They were angry and shouting. The signs said things like “lies” and “right to carry”. One of the bigger kids read the signs with bigger words like “amendment” and “conspiracy”. The big kid said that word meant that those people didn’t think that what had happened last week was real.

    Kimmy was confused. She’d been in the classroom. She had seen all her sleeping friends, friends her parents said wouldn’t be coming back to school any more. She had seen the ambulances and the police and heard the news. How could it have been fake? Why would someone want to fake it. The bigger kid didn’t know, but she looked angry about it.

    Most of the other kids were gone from class that day, but the teacher said that was because their parents were afraid, not because those kids had been hurt. The teacher said that if they needed to talk to someone about last week, there were special counselors in the cafeteria who would be happy to listen. Kimmy wasn’t sure what she would say to a counselor. She stayed in class.

    Later, when they did art, Kimmy drew a black gun and lots of red stains and Tommy sleeping on the floor.