Soe looked startled, grabbed her nose, and ran for the tissues. She locked eyes with me for a minute, scared, even though she is only in kindergarten, and we both knew why.
I heard several more deep coughs from my kindergartners and first graders, mere inches from my face. The thing was, I was already sick. I've been worn down, itchy eyes, congested and coughing since last Sunday. Monday morning coughing in my face was more of the same.
I walked by the sinks that exist outside of the bathrooms and students stood in lines, scrubbing their arms like they were preparing for surgery on Grey's Anatomy. A lot of the sinks no longer had soap and I don't know about the kids, but I only use cold water when I wash at school because lead absorption increases through the skin when the water is heated.
A child coughed, stood up, and was sent to the nurse. Her teacher randomly picked up a can of Lysol and sprayed her area. Then, he sprayed himself, on the neck.
"She coughed on me. It doesn't work unless it burns."
A video circulated of a child being released from school and a parent spraying them down with Lysol before letting them in the car.
I walked up to baby Gustavo and he held out a little tube of hand sanitizer, squirting it on both of mine before he would let me anywhere closer to him to help him with his work.
My uncontrollable coughing took over during a fifth grade class. I looked around and there wasn't any hand sanitizer left. I sprayed my cough-covered arm with Lysol, then sort of sprayed it in the air like perfume and swooshed through it.
Thursday was the day that the kids that had read the most received prizes. It's been a big endeavor. I bought them sketch books, colored pencils and everyone got to check out new books from our new classroom library. I walked up the hill and through the neighborhood with them, telling them to enjoy their three day weekend.
I was at the Housing Authority when we found out that metro-Atlanta was locking down. I told my kids not to be scared, but to be scared. There was a nervous energy in the air, an uncertainty.
"Um, I'll see you guys when school is back in session...." I announced, trying to sound cheery. Then I drove slowly through the apartments on my way out, watching them walk home.
I went to a school without children today. I posted a number of online assignments, though the online platform was crashing as every teacher in the state's third largest district tried to do the same thing. I went to weird meetings and cleaned my room with something that says it kills 99.9% of every fucking weird thing. I brought Steve home on Monday, so she was already safe. Then, I looked around, turned off the lights and locked the trailer.
I drove Alec's car across the grass that serves as our recess field and left, with the trunk full of anything of value, not really certain when we'd be back again.
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