Remember.

I was in the second grade, doing math problems at my desk. It was a warm, sunny afternoon in the North Carolina Sandhills. 

The principal came on the intercom and made an announcement- more to the teachers than to the students- that school was closing for the day and everyone should be sent home. It was a very small town. Most everybody could walk, and back then, kids could do things like that without giving it a second thought.

It was easy for me: my family lived around the corner.

I got home and found my mother watching the television. I watched, too, not really understanding what was going on. It was a long weekend of television, and after it, things were never quite the same somehow.