Snow Day #2

There was always someone in looped jeans telling staring at a radiator. An aging principal, very likely now dead, told Alexis that her first year of teaching in Watertown, NY. The  know of the radiator hissed all winter and dripped Mars red water onto the floor. Being painfully new, Alexis asked the custodian who would come in during her lunch and stare. He had a powder blue drip pan he slid underneath the leak and said he would check. Alexis worried about slips or stains or the whole thing exploding so she told her principal who said the line. And that was that. 

25 years later, Alexis now looked at a sky with the color of a bruise and waddling snow flakes that did not stop. Her room had one of those hotel joint heaters/ACs and she saw all this just over the cusp of its beige enclosure. 

Her walkie squawked something raspy like the snow outside made audible and she nervously bit on the rubber tip of the antenna. "This is going to be a shit show," she said through clenched teeth. 

Through her door she heard a parent yell "Y'all should have closed today!"

Alexis unlocked her phone and brought up the Slack app and messaged the receptionist. "I AM not here. Please!"

There was an empty pause and then a soothing voice "I know right but important thing is you got them and can get home safe. We will see you tomorrow!"

It has been like this all day. In the morning kids compared the varying reports Snow Day Calculator vs Snow Day Predictor. That was for those that did show up. The school only had 97 students on site by first bell at 8am. 

"At what percentage do we have to legally close??! Asking for a...friend?" read one instant message from the clinic aide, a former EMT called Dawn, but who everyone called Hazelnut Kitchen due her having a coffee pot always on with the stuff. 

If Alexis had a principal mantra it would be "Do your fucking job." That is what she drafted in response to Hazelnut Kitchen and imagined the chasing ellipses of her message changing to that and just giving her a moment of satisfaction. Instead she left her on read. 

Her walkie squawked again. The custodian and bus team (Just two guys, Eddie and Leo. They drive rental car shuttles on weekends and in the summer at the airport) did not have the instant messaging apps so Alexis and the receptionist always carried radios along with "the guys." She stopped wearing dresses when she became principal because there was nowhere to clip the thing to.

"Alexis, Alexis, Leo. What was that?" The sing song walkie welcome is something a retired custodian told them all to use. He had served in the Navy and swore that is how they all talked. 

"I got the buses ready. I can take the southies. Just let me know. Ill be keeping her warm and clear. Over!"

Southies meant any kids south of I-90 which usually meant about 40 something kids but today would be even less. Kids north of I-90 had multiple short hands including "Uppers" (A name their executive director told Alexis reminded him of narcotics. Kids often jeered at the bus screaming "Upper deckers!) but also "Lakers" since it was a smaller group of kids hemmed between the highway and Lake Erie. 

Alexis put her ear to the metal door and listened for anything too out of place. That meant parents. If it was not arrival or dismissal then someone there felt alien. The school could get noisy and wild. "Transitions are hard" is something she still had to tell students going on 13 who just did not want to go to one a week yoga instead of gym. There were always announcements and the ding of Slack messages spreading info but mostly gossiping. And her radio. But, sometimes there was a quiet when everything hummed that she called the 1:45 feeling and that was wonderful. 

Outside, it was already out in the air. Early release. She learned about it with her ear pressed to the door and Jasmine Roberts coming to tell the receptionist "Ms. Rain! Did you hear!? Early release!"

"Where are you supposed to be?" responded Ms. Rain. "And why do you have your phone?"

Alexis could see this all in her mind's eye through the door and then heard the ding on her phone. An actual text from their Executive Director "No surprise but early release today. I'm working from home but let me know how I can help!"