ID Crisis

My dad always told me: Carry your identification on your person! I would respond with a whole barrage of agreements and distracting what ifs while not-so-stealthily maneuvering my way to the escape route--I mean door.

One day in grade 10, during my religion class an alarm went off. We were all herded to the far side of the back of the school. There was no explanation--nor was one created until the next day. We weren't allowed to take anything from the school with us. We couldn't go back inside to retrieve anything either, and that was how we stayed, milling around in confusion with no sense of time.

Eventually the administration cryptically told us to go home, classes were cancelled. No one was allowed near the school still. I looked around, so many were without any ID, left in backpacks trapped in a suddenly dangerous school. No phones either, following suit to most ID.

I patted my pocket and smiled. Then I began my trek to the bus terminal taking out my student ID card and bus pass. Maybe my old man knew something about the world, but I wasn't about to admit to anything.