Small Town Survival - One

This is the very first story I ever wrote. I am polishing it up a bit but would love any corrections needed pointed out or helpful suggestions. And now.....

Small Town Survival

1

Gracie was reading "Little Red Riding Hood" to about a dozen kids in the "Special Room" at the library, when the EMP hit.

At first, she thought that one of the Baxter Brothers had hit another pole, since they average one a month, so she got out the oil lamps and kept on reading.

When she finished, she glanced at her watch and noticed that it wasn't working. She had the two oldest kids pass out the cookies and punch and decided to see if she could find out what was up with the loss of power.

As she stepped out the library door, she glanced across the street and saw her friend Maggie on the court house steps.

"Hey, Maggie; what's going on? Do you know?"

"Not sure yet, Gracie. It looks bad though. This could be that doomsday you're always talking about." Maggied joked.

Gracie laughed and walked back into the library.

The kids were getting very restless, so she took them outside into the gardens so they could check on "their" babies.

"Look, Miss Gracie, my Marygoldie has two new flowers!" said little Samantha, or Sammie to her bestest friends.

"They are lovely, Sammie" replied Gracie. She watched as Maggie crossed the street and come sit on the low wall that enclosed the Kid's Garden Courtyard.

"Really looks bad, Gracie. Nobody’s cars are starting and there's no electric anywhere. The phones aren't even working" stated Maggie.

"Well, I doubt if even BOTH the Baxter brothers could cause this kind of mess" said Gracie "Does Tucker still have that old radio he uses to talk to everyone in the world on?"

Maggie and Tucker have been married forever it seems, although in real time, it's only been 15 years. They go together like peanut butter and jelly. They started dating in Kindergarten. Maggie would bring peanut butter sandwiches and Tucker would bring jelly ones and they would pull them apart and trade a slice with each other. This went on everyday all through school.

Gracie was married for about 5 years; but, her husband was killed in the line of duty 4 years ago. She is happy even if she does miss him a lot.

"Tucker will never get rid of that old thing! I think I'm going to be very happy that he never listened to me about it." said Maggie.

Just then a couple of the kid’s parents walked up. Maggie began to tell them to come back into town tomorrow because she was sure there would be an emergency town meeting called. "If it was just the electric we would not be worried; but the lack of phones and the fact nothing electronic is working makes us think this is big and could last for longer than a few days. So use common sense and bring lists of things you'll need and what you have to donate. Again we think this could very well last awhile and the whole town needs to pull together and work things out."

After the parents left with their children, Maggie and Gracie continued talking over a few things, such as how glad they were that they had stocked up on things last month when Tucker told them to. Plus, they discussed how good their gardens were doing this year.

As the next hour past, all the kids were picked up and all the parents given the information that was to be had; except for Sammie's parents. No one showed up to pick her up.