The interior of the condo was chilly, and she turned up the thermostat a couple of degrees and switched on the gas log fireplace before she sat down in her favorite spot on one of the reclining couches that her family had given her for a wedding present. The television control was on the coffee table in front of her, and Hannah grabbed it to switch on the giant flat-screen television.
Even though it was time for the Sunday afternoon movie, Rayne Phillips, the KCOW Television weatherman, was on the screen. The words SEVERE STORM WARNING flashed across the bottom of the screen, and the map of Minnesota displayed on the screen was covered with bands of yellow, orange, and red. The bright red color was centered over the Lake Eden area, and Hannah turned up the volume so that she could hear what Rayne had to say.
“. . . inches before morning.” Hannah caught the tail end of Rayne’s sentence. “You’d better hope your pantries are full, folks, because there’s no relief in sight until mid-afternoon on Wednesday. At that point, we may have as much as three feet of snow on the ground.”
Hannah shivered even though the living room was warming up nicely. Three feet of snow was a lot, especially if the winds continued to blow and even larger snowdrifts were formed. If Rayne’s prediction was accurate and the storm continued until Wednesday, she could forget about going in to work in the morning. It would be futile to bake when she’d have no customers to eat her cookies.
“And now we have Chuck Wilson and Dee Dee Hughes standing by in the newsroom with winter weather tips, some travel advisories from the Minnesota Highway Patrol, and a list of school closures for Monday morning.”
Hannah watched as Chuck Wilson, the chisel-faced anchor, began to talk about the storm. One glance at the weather map behind him and Hannah could see that the storm was already rolling in with the speed of a freight train.
“Currently, the winds are from the north with a velocity of thirty miles an hour and occasional gusts up to sixty miles an hour. Wind speeds are expected to increase to gale force over the course of the night, and the Minnesota Highway Patrol is advising drivers to seek shelter immediately.” Chuck stepped a bit closer to the camera and flashed his perfect smile. “I can tell you folks out there that everyone here at KCOW Television plans on hunkering down right here for the night so that we can bring you the latest news.”
Dee Dee Hughes, the anorexic blond anchor, walked onscreen to take her place behind the news desk next to Chuck. Both of them had a sheaf of papers that Hannah knew, for a fact, they’d never read and wouldn’t use during the newscast. Betty Jackson, who had moved from a temporary position to a permanent job at the television station, had told Hannah that the newsroom gave them the same sheaf of papers every day. There was nothing written on the papers and they were simply a prop. Betty also said that both Dee Dee and Chuck used the TelePrompTer during their newscast, and that neither of them had ever noticed that the papers were blank.
As Dee Dee began to read the news alert on the TelePrompTer, Hannah reached for the remote control. She turned up the volume on the television to override the noise outside her living room windows and closed her eyes again. She began to doze off, but caught the words “worst storm of the century,” followed a few seconds later by a long list of school closures. Jordan High in Lake Eden was among them, and that meant Michelle wouldn’t have to teach English and drama at their local high school in the morning.
Hannah didn’t bother to turn up the volume again, even though the drum roll of icy snow pelting against her windows was increasing in both speed and volume. A list of winter storm precautions appeared in a scrawl at the bottom of the screen, and the words MOTORISTS ARE ADVISED TO RETURN TO A PLACE OF SAFETY appeared in bold black type. DRIVE ONLY IN CASE OF EMERGENCY scrolled across the screen, followed by several other common cautions for driving on local roads and highways in hazardous conditions.
The camera switched to Chuck and he quickly put down the glass he was holding. Idly, Hannah wondered if it really was the ginger ale that it appeared