| My son Timmy and I were walking along a cracked, worn sidewalk one Saturday afternoon. It was very cold. We felt a wind blow through us like the one that blew down the first piggy's house. My son kept squeezing my hand tighter and tighter until I could barely feel my fingers. "mommy?" Timmy asked, " Are they going to have a gun fight like we saw this summer in Dodge City?" "no." I told Timmy, "I believe most people must be out of town for the weekend." Timmy looked perplexed and asked me" Mommy, do you think this could be like 'children of the corn' where all the parents were taken away and no one ever came out into the open? I'm very scared mommy!" " I'm scared too." I agreed, and I was too! This was the most eerie sensation I have ever experienced. Timmy was getting very worked up and screamed" Mommy, I think they must have had a nuclear explosion here! That would explain why there are no people anywhere, and why it is so cold in September, and why that smell is in the air! Mommy, that smell is so strong that it burns the back of my throat when I breathe in." I tried to calm my son down but I started to believe he might be right. Could we have stumbled on to an area that had been hit by a nuclear bomb? It was possible because we had been out of the country for a couple of weeks. Finally we found our car and as I turned on the key Timmy said to me" Mommy, where are we again? I want to remember so that I never come here again!!!" I told him," Son, we are in Cloquet, downtown Cloquet" |
