THROUGH THE EYES OF A CHILD

BY

ROGER PINE


Melanie Martin was suddenly awakened from a deep sleep by a loud noise ringing in her ears. She rolled over on her back and pulled the fluffy pink blanket up over her head. After a few more seconds of this loud racket, she realized that the annoying buzz was coming from her alarm clock. She threw the covers off of her and reached over to thenight stand beside her bed where the noisy clock sat. With her eyes still half closed, she fumbled around in the darkness for the alarm
stem. Once she found it, she pushed it in and shut off the alarm. With a sigh of relief, she picked up the clock and strained to see the time. It was twenty minutes before seven. The school bus would come in exactly forty-five minutes.

Melanie sat straight up in bed and gently rubbed her sleepy eyes. After yawning and stretching, she decided that she would rest for another five minutes. She lay back down and stared up at the ceiling.

When Melanie had first woken up, it seemed that it should have been Saturday because she had just had a dream that it was a Saturday morning and it was in the middle of Summer. In her dream, Melanie planned all of the wonderful things she was going to do on this beautiful Summer day.
But it wasn't Summer and it wasn't Saturday morning. It was Tuesday morning and it was in the middle of December. Melanie lay in bed thinking and worrying about an upcoming math test as she realized that it was just another school day.

She turned her head and looked out her bedroom window. It was beginning to get light outside. A soft morning glow trickled through the opening between the purple curtains and kissed Melanie gently on her rosy cheeks. Out of the corner of her eye, she thought she saw moving against the dark background of a large cedar tree in the backyard. She thought she knew what it was and hoped that she was right, but she couldn't be sure. She jumped out of bed and hurried over to the window. After opening the curtains wider, she rubbed her eyes and pressed her face to the glass. Her blue eyes suddenly opened wide and her mouth dropped open with a joyful combination of surprise and delight.

"It's snowing!" she exclaimed happily. She could hardly believe her eyes. It was the first snow of the season and there hadn't even been any snow in the forecast. No one had predicted it. But there it was - right before Melanie's excited eyes. It was definitely snowing. The ground was
already covered with a thick white blanket that stretched as far as the eye could see. There must have been at least six inches on the ground and it was still coming down. Melanie was so thrilled that she was jumping up and down. She loved snow and she had waited for this day a long time. But this was a total surprise!

Melanie's excitement soon turned to anticipation as she suddenly had a wonderful thought. With all of this snow, chances were very great that school would be closed for the day. She rushed around to the other side of her bed where her radio was sitting on the night stand next to
the alarm clock. She turned the small brown radio around so that it was facing her. With anxious anticipation, she took a deep breath and hoped for the best as she flipped on the radio and tuned it to the local country music station. They were right in the middle of playing her favorite song. She turned the volume of the radio down low so as not to wake up anyone else in the house. When the last few piano chords of the song faded away, the announcer came on with an important message. After giving the current weather conditions, he said those few magic words that Melanie had been waiting to hear, "Let's go over these school closings one more time."

Melanie got down on her knees and laid her arms on the night stand with her chin resting on them. She listened intently.

Then came the first school name..... "Sunshine Preschool." That wasn't the one. "Oak Valley R-1 School District, Jacksonville Elementary....." The list went on. "Johnson City Public School....." Melanie's heart was racing faster and she began to breathe harder. She raised her head and crossed her fingers. Surely her school wouldn't be in session today if all the other schools were closed. "Springfield Elementary, Junior High, and High School.....Wendell H. Ford School for the Deaf." That was where Melanie's mother worked as a bus driver and part-time teacher. "All Coon County Public Schools are closed today." It seemed like all of the schools for miles around were closed, except Melanie's school. "Clarksville, Ozark, Paris, and Russellville schools are all closed today. Those are all the school closings that we have as
of right now," the announcer said. "As soon as we get any more, we'll pass them along to you."

Melanie was very disappointed. She wanted so much to stay home and play in the snow. Then it came. The radio announcer came back on and said, "We've just gotten another school closing." Melanie held her breath. "Oakdale R-3 School District will not be in session today."

"Yes!" Melanie shouted. She ran out into the hallway and into her brother's room. Michael was sound asleep. She knelt down beside his bed and gently shook his arm. "Wake up, Mike," she said softly. After getting no response, she shook him harder. "Come on, Mike. Get up."

"Leave me alone," he said grumpily. "I don't feel like going to school today." He was lying on his back with his arm covering his eyes.

"There isn't any school today. It snowed last night," Melanie told him.