Jakarta Pandemic, The by Steven Konkoly Read Free Book Online Page B

his eyebrows, sending a clear warning to his son.
    “As long as she makes a couple practices, they don’t care. It’s a really laid-back program,” Ryan answered.
    “Thank you, Ryan. There you go, sweetie. Go ahead and sign up. We’ll get you some running shoes,” Kate said.
    “Thanks, Mom.”
    Alex realized that he was the only one at the table eating and talking. “All right, let’s get some food down, or you won’t have enough energy to walk to the school bus, let alone run any races.”
    Both kids started eating their soup, and Alex could tell by their initial response that they liked it.
    “Honey, the soup is awesome.”
    “Thanks. Whole Foods was stocked with different squashes, so I picked up a bunch,” she said.
    Alex nodded his head and finished his soup. Kate was only halfway through her bowl when he got up, walked to the kitchen island, and grabbed their dinner plates. He put them in an open space on the table and sat down to wait for everyone to finish their soup. He nodded at Kate, and she started in on their planned conversation.
    “Ryan, did you guys talk about the situation in China at school?”
    “A little bit.”
    “What did you talk about?”
    “Well, Mr. Brett asked us if we had seen it in the news or on the internet this morning. I heard some of it when you guys had the kitchen TV on, and I saw an article on CNFkids.com at school.”
    “Cool. What did you think?”
    Alex started to load Emily’s plate with rice, stir-fry and tofu. She protested the amount with her hands, trying to wave off the second heap as he hovered the wooden spoon over her plate, and he acknowledged her silent refusal by moving the spoonful to his own plate.
    “I don’t know. Everyone seems pretty mad at China. Aren’t they doing the same thing they did in 2008? Keeping everyone in the dark?”
    Kate answered, “Well, nobody really knows what’s going on over there. At least this time, the world knows something is brewing. What did Mr. Brett say?”
    “Not much. He really just wanted to get some discussion going. We spent some time talking about the 2008 pandemic and looking at some facts about China.”
    “Nice,” Alex said. “Did any of your teachers talk to you guys about pandemic flu in general, or anything like that?”
    Kate finished her soup while they talked. Emily was busy emptying her plate, clearly happy not to be the focus of attention.
    “Yep, we talked about it in science. How the flu spreads, how scientists classify strains of flu, past pandemics. It was pretty cool. Pretty scary, too. Dad, do you think we could have another pandemic? Ms. Ullman said that major pandemics usually don’t happen so close together, and that’s why the swine flu pandemic never really took off.”
    “Sounds like you guys really learn some advanced shiiii…stuff in that class. Sorry.”
    Emily laughed. “Daddy, you’re starting to talk like Mommy.”
    “Thanks a lot, Emily,” Kate said ruefully.
    “Another impartial witness to Barnacle Bill’s mouth,” Alex said.
    Kate clearly wanted to give him the middle finger as she tapped her index finger on the top of her water glass.
    “Anyway, historically speaking, your teacher would be right. However, there are a lot of experts out there that think it can happen at any time if the conditions are right. So to answer your question, I don’t think anyone can really predict these things,” Alex said.
    He looked at Kate and rubbed his chin. Kate picked up on his cue.
    “You guys really don’t have to worry about it. You know that, right? We’ve made some preparations at the house over the past few years that will get us through any major crisis. Pandemic, major storm, whatever it might be.”
    Both kids nodded their heads. They appeared to have anticipated this talk.
    “You mean all of that stuff locked up in the basement?” Emily asked.
    “Yeah, that’s part of it. We have plenty of food, water and supplies stored down there. We also have our own power