"Emma?" chapter 1

My name is Delia,the mother of Emma my wonderful seventeen year old. My life was relatively normal until
that day.
This is what happened.1

The rest of that day I remember in flashes, believe me I've tried to remeber more but I only get the same few minute flashes every time.2

Flash:3

Emma left for school and I made myself a piece of toast with marmalade, I've always found the fact that I remember that detail very weird.4

Flash:5

10:00, damn, time to head of to work. Since I'd had Emma I'd never been able to bring myself to go back to college so i worked two jobs, One as a checkout girl down at the local supermarket twice a week and the second one and IT technition in some sort of office that was in the inner city, 15 miles away from where I lived. It shows how interested I was in my job that I didn't know what company I worked for. This job was five times a week, it wasn't so bad; the hours were 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM and all my girlfriends worked their too, so sometimes it was pretty good fun. I arrived at work at 10:30, late as usual, and mumbled some excuse about a late bus to my boss before he could even open his mouth.6

Flash:7

I dumped my stuff at my desk, which was a complete tip, and headed over to the cafeteria to make a cup of coffee.8

Flash:9

Stacy was crying on my shoulder because she'd broken up with Eric, her boyfriend of two weeks. The silly tart had given him just what he wanted before he scarpered, The way she was with men it would be embarressing for all concerned if she ever wore white on her wedding day.10

Flash:11

It was lunchtime, I don't remember what i ate. I sat next to Richard, who was talking about some breaking news that had occured just outside the city, but I wasn't paying much attention.12

Flash:13

I kept hearing
"School"
"Tragedy"
"Confusion" in the cafeteria, and decided to ask Janey, who seemed to know everything, what I was missing.14

Flash:15

"Janey, what's everyone going on about? something about a school!"
Janey lifed her green eyed gaze from the heart doodle she was drawing on her notepad.
She shrugged.
"Some big incident at a school Dee, North Hall High School I think."
My heart stopped, I swear I went into cardiac arrest.
"Dee?" Janey sounded concerned, she cocked her blonde head to the right looking confused "are you alright?"
"That's my daughters school, I whispered.16

17

Flash:18

19

Frantically I unzipped my best blue handbag, and grabbed my phone. It took three attempts before I managed to correctly punch in Emma's number. Finally all eleven numbers were there and I stabbed the call button.20

"Bleep, Bleep, Bleep" Then the line went dead, and I went crazy; literally a second away from throwing the bloody phone through the window. However I willed myself to sit down and to take a few calming breaths.21

22

Flash:23

She was fine, Her phone was just off.24

25

Flash:26

27

She was fine, Janey had got the wrong school.28

29

Flash:30

31

She was fine32

She was fine33

Oh, God let her be fine.34

Flash: 35

I arrived home at 5:30,36

"Emma?" no answer, panic, and then relief. She'd told me she'd be late that day.37

Flash:38

39

6:00, worry began to set in again so I switched on the telly.40

The first channel41

breaking news.42

43

Flash:
A chinese reporter with a pageboy bob was reading out the headline.44

An unprovoked attack was carried out on 'North Hall High school at 11:27 AM. two consecutive bomb blasts went of just seconds after eachother in the west and south wings of the building; instantly killing an unknown number of students and teachers and maiming many more. Police are launching a full scale investigation tomorrow morning but now the main concerns of the emergency services is getting as many people out alive as possible. The cafeteria area collapsed under the blast leaving many people trapped inside. At the moment 27 people are known to have died. police and paramedics are trying to identify bodies.45

46

Flash:47

I was in a complete panic, and only one thing would help me.48

I had to get to my daughter,49

I had to find Emma,50

If she was alive.51