  Imagine if you will being in a room, with no windows to the outside & the power goes out! Oh & add eight 9-10 year olds to that mix. Oh & some of them are afraid of the dark! Very afraid. This is the situation I was in two practices ago. I was observing as my team started a 4-on-4 intersquad scrimmage when the lights flickered & then all was dark. When something scary happens & there are young girls in the room, what the one thing that always happens?
Screaming! So my girls were screaming, hey they were scare & they couldn't see anything. The jerk of a coach that we shared the gym with on Thursdays had the nerve to yell at the girls to SHUT UP! Did I mention he was a jerk. So the lights are out & no one can see anything & my team is wondering where I was so they could grasp on to an appendage for some security. I used the Indiglo light button on my watch as a beacon to my players & immediately they grasped. Several parents used any electronic devices they had to shed some light: cell phones & laptops. So with little light we had she shuffled toward the door that leads to the stairs. SHUFFLE SHUFFLE SHUFFLE Julia was leading the way. No one saw the ladder laying down next to our feet & when Julia ran into it, more screams erupted.
At this point I have one girl crying, one girl freaking out & one boy cutting the circulation off on the arm of Mikey, the assistant coach. Me, I was laughing! Lauren, who had come to practice late & in an hurried attempt to change out of her clothes, had clothes & shoes thrown all over the place. I got to locate them. Tyler, as soon as the lights went out grabbed for Mikey's arm causing him to drop Rachel's basketball.
He also had thrown one of his gloves to the side of the court during warm-ups. So when we finally got to the top of the stairs we were already down a basketball & a glove. After shuffling up the stairs, we did a quick head count to make sure that all the kids had made it up the stairs alive. Everyone had someone there to leave the building with except for Josh, so I volunteered to stay with him, toward the front of the school, till his mom came to pick him up.
Everyone else left by way of the back door. When we got to the front of the school, I swear, I felt like I was in the movie E.T. when the NASA people come into Elliots house & find them laying on the bathroom floor. Except in this instance they weren't NASA people they were the Edgewood, Swissvale & Rankin Fire Departments! Apparently a transformer blew & as a result a live wire was down in front of the school, so no one was allowed to leave. And guess who was there: Josh's mom! ARGH! We could have snuck out the back with the others & been home by now! ARGH! Mikey was worried about food, so I presented him with a cookie, that he contemplated rationing. We listened to the firemen as they secured the situation. They were threatening arrest to anyone who attempted to leave the building!
Mikey & I were convinced we could take them on! We had at least one basketball, we could chuck it at them & then run the opposite way! Yeah, we could take them! We ended up in the auditorium of the school, where there were about 150 people there for book bingo. I at this point, did understand why I couldn't leave, my car was parked away from the live wire, but, I was a good citizen & just waited. At one point I thought for sure we were going to be put under Marshall law. There were two entrances in the back of the auditorium & I swear, at the exact same time, two firemen came & stood in the doorways.
I looked to the front of the auditorium & there was a fireman or two on stage & one blocking the side exit. I just knew we were going to be held hostage. Finally they let the people who were parked on the side street go. That was me! So we ran to my car, it was cold & Laurel didn't have any pants on. Why this girl insists on wearing shorts in single digit degree weather is beyond me. When the lights went out, my Uncle was coaching at the neighboring Deaf School & since his car was parked on the street that the live wire was on I knew he wasn't going anywhere, so we headed over to the deaf school to find him.
He wasn't there. So we went home. (I should note, that I didn't have my cell phone with me at all. The one time I forgot it! ) I called my aunts & she hadn't heard from him. I called Lauren's house, her mom had taken 4 of the players, there was no answer. I called Rachel's house, no answer. We finally met up with my uncle at his house. He apparently had snuck around & was right to his car when the fireman stopped him & yelled at him for being near a live wire. He made them wait for half an hour till they decided he could leave. It was a very interesting night! 
