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Show Twisters . . . 86 I had to look away. I never wanted to see Minerva dead! A little later the matron c a m e over to see if we'd like a blanket to put over the plastic. Though Stacey said yes, we soon discovered the plastic was better than a scratchy old army blanket. However, Arthur and I weren't about to complain. Besides, Mrs. Minetti had brought us a tray of food in the meantime. "It's all I could find," she apologized, "you'll have to pretend you're at the A&W." I wasn't going to do that. Didn't she know the A&W was in splinters like everything else on South Locust? We sat down on the floor under the window, behind the beds where it was cooler and more private. The other people were taking their kids to the bathroom, getting them settled. "Our midnight snack," as Stacey called it, amounted to seven graham crackers each, with one left over, and three cans of cold 7-Up. I have to admit that jail food tasted better than anything I'd ever had at the A&W. "I'm needed down below," Mrs. Minetti said before she left, "so I'm going to turn the lights off in these bedroom units. You all try to get some sleep, you'll need it," Everyone thanked her. Everyone except the baby, that is, who kept on crying, even with a graham cracker in each fist. I figured the kid must be teething, like Ryan. "I wonder why that tornado happened to us," Arthur said, sitting there beside me. "Why didn't it hit Lincoln or Kearney . . . or someplace in Iowa?" Stacey leaned forward to brush the crumbs off her shirt front, all the time watching the lady with the baby. |