Author’s Note

 

 

This story was started on December 12, 2012 (yes, 12/12/12), and the college where I teach under “lockdown” with armed suspects somewhere on campus. Nine hours of being held in the library—the same library where a campus custodian killed seven people and injured two in 1976. While trying not to think of those elements too much, the experience of being “sheltered in place” inspired this tale.