#208 waiting for "The Big One"

I knew something was wrong when T came around the corner. Usually he's pulling the bells, looking up and smiling at me as I wait for him in the car, but not today. He walked slowly, and sounded kind of sad when he said hello. I asked him how his day was and he said it was fine. He didn't talk much on the way home, also a little unusual.

When we got home, I went inside with him and as I was leaving, he sort of clung to me. He looked up at me with big, sad, brown eyes. "There's going to be an earthquake any day now," he told me.

"Who told you that?" I asked.

"My science teacher. She said it's going to be a big one, a 6, 7, or 8."

I'm thinking, "Darn that science teacher!" I say, "Well, the scientists have been talking about it for many years. There is a possibility that there will be an earthquake because we do live on a big fault. I think you have to be aware of the danger, and we should talk about how we would handle that situation as a family. There are some things we can do to prepare ourselves, but we shouldn't change the way we live."

He nodded gravely. Then he added, "And if the earthquake doesn't come first, there's the meteor that will smash into the earth in 2012 and destroy us all."

GRRR! WTF?

"Well then, " I said. "We better have as much fun as we can in the next three years, right?"

He sighed and went to play with his video games. I did get a really great hug before I went back to work, though.