Scary Things

I heard my first Amber Alert today. In the car on the way home from work. All of a sudden, a voice said "This is an Amber Alert," and then there were beeps, like those tests they used to do on the radio when I was a kid (maybe they still do? I don't listen to the radio so much, only in the car on the way to and from work). Then a scratchy voice like on a police scanner said the names of two kids, 3 and 5, who were believed to be with the name of a woman (I'm not protecting anyone's privacy, I just don't remember the names) in a white Cadillac, and then they gave the license plate number, twice. It was pretty gripping. I started looking for a white Cadillac with those plates, even though the kids were from a town pretty far away and it was highly unlikely that I'd see the white Cadillac in Main Street rush hour traffic. I wonder if they found them.

These days E is scared of hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes. They learned about hurricanes in school, over a month ago, and she was very excited at the time. For the last few days, though, she's been saying that she can't stop thinking about hurricanes, especially at bedtime. She is very worried, especially about people dying. We've had lots of conversations about where hurricanes and tornadoes and earthquakes happen (in the south near the ocean, in the middle of the country where it's flat, in California). I've assured her that they won't happen here. Tonight she asked me what the worst storm we could have here was. I told her a nor'easter and we'd already had one and we were fine. She asked if people die in a nor'easter. I said no, curbing my natural instinct toward honesty and not telling her about stupid people who go surfing and drown.

I know I didn't convince her. I know she's still worried. I don't know what I'd do if we lived in the south near the ocean, or in the middle of the country where it's flat, or in California, places we could easily live, have in fact lived.

At least she doesn't know about Amber Alerts yet.