Alamo Wars by Ray Villareal

Author:Ray Villareal
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arte Público Press
Published: 2008-04-02T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY

People in Texas are fond of saying, “If you don’t like the weather here, wait five minutes and it’ll change.”

It took a little longer than five minutes, but not much more.

Sunday, the high had been a balmy 69 degrees, unseasonably warm weather for February.

On Monday morning, however, a blast of Arctic winds slammed into the area, packing a wintry mix of snow, sleet, and ice. It dropped temperatures to a frigid 18 degrees, with wind chills dipping into the single digits.

Izzy Peña was out of bed early. He wrapped himself in his blanket and sat on the couch in the living room with his feet tucked under his legs. He turned on the TV to Channel Eight “The News That Can’t Wait.” He crossed his fingers and waited anxiously for reports of school closings.

The night before, Dana Shackelford, the Channel Eight weather forecaster, had predicted the drastic changes in temperature. She said to expect icy drizzle and freezing rain mixed with snow by morning.

Izzy knew icy drizzle and freezing rain meant icy road conditions. And icy road conditions probably meant school buses would not be running. And no school buses running surely meant no school.

On television, Izzy watched a news reporter named Melinda Trice, dressed in a heavy, black, wool coat standing alongside a highway. She pointed to sanding trucks and explained that maintenance crews had been working all morning to cover the slippery roads with a mixture of salt and sand, giving special attention to bridges and overpasses.

The news switched to another reporter, a middle-aged man with salt-and-pepper hair named Ron Cowart. He was at the scene of a five-car pileup, describing how treacherous the driving conditions were. One of the vehicles, a green SUV, was flipped upside down with its air bags deployed. Ron Cowart urged motorists not to leave the house unless they absolutely had to.

Izzy thought the car accidents looked cool. But that wasn’t why he was watching the news. All he cared about at the moment was whether or not he would have to go to school.

The studio switched back to Melinda Trice, who repeated what she’d already stated about the sanding trucks.

It then showed another reporter flying in a helicopter. The reporter offered a bird’s-eye view of traffic conditions around the city. The sun had not risen, and the cars looked like twinkling stars against a black, patent leather highway.

The weather forecaster appeared next. Dana Shackelford gave an update on weather conditions, using words that made no sense to Izzy. Words like barometer, dew point, and Doppler radar. She pointed to a gigantic map of the United States. It was decorated with pictures of snowflakes, clouds, and giant H and L letters. The weather forecaster swept her hand across the map in a circular motion and used more words Izzy didn’t understand. High pressure system. Air mass. Humidity.

“Who cares?” Izzy said aloud. “Is there going to be school today? That’s all I want to know!”

Finally, fifteen minutes after he turned on the television, Izzy was rewarded with the news he’d been waiting to hear.

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