I Remember

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I Remember

I remember Rick's face as he turned away from the window and came back toward his seat that day; it had a look of horror I was to never forget. His face expressed seriousness, disbelief, and sadness. We were all terror-stricken after we knew the awful truth, but Rick had seen it. He knew before all of us. Even before his eyes began to have problems, he was visibly affected by the bomb.

I remember that day as if it were yesterday. It all started with more subtle things such as the small bomb at the World Trade Center, but then bigger disasters began to occur. When the bomb hit Idaho, everyone was devastated. . . .

"What do you mean it's not an earthquake, Rick?" I asked. Before he could answer, we heard an announcement over the intercom telling all classes to get to a television. The newscaster's words shocked us all.

"...what appears to be a bomb of nuclear origin. We are still trying to discover who dropped this bomb. All we currently know is that INEEL has gone up in flames as a result, and we have heard of no survivors so far."

Everything began to sink in slowly . . . a nuclear bomb? INEEL? No survivors? What about radiation? I began to worry about everything at once. The school called an assembly ten minutes later. Many of us wandered into the gym in a daze. Some people didn't seem to know what was going on, or else weren't affected. As I looked around the crowded gym, the sea of faces reflected their emotions. Mr. Kyrel, a science teacher, looked extremely grim. He sat on a bleacher with his head in his hands. He wasn't paying any attention to the students passing by him. When he did look up his lips formed a tight line, his hair was tousled, and every wrinkle on his brow was visible. He sat in solitude with solemness etched into his eyes. A student on the other side of the gym was crying hysterically. Several people surrounded her. Her face was contorted by her anguish and sorrow. Those around her looked distressed as well, but they were focusing on calming her down. In another area of the gym a junior boy was clowning around with a friend of his. He didn't seem to know what was happening.

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