The Dust Cloud

Arshia Ramesh, 10

There was no possibility of taking a walk that day. The air quality from the Sahara Desert dust cloud was rated over 350 in Kansas. Which was twice as bad as it was last time. I feel like we are prisoners in our own home, not able to go out or open any doors and windows. We have not had a breath of fresh air in exactly one month and 27 days. I feel as if the days have all blurred into one. I want to push open our front door and run outside. The only contact with the outside world was when our groceries were delivered by a man wearing a gas-proof mask. Also, Kansas’ crops have been dying since the air quality is so dangerously low. I have not felt this bored in my entire life. My older sister, Shasha, and I have been doing our nails and putting on a fashion show to pass the time. I don’t know how much longer we are gonna be stuck at home, but I hope it will be over soon.

It’s the next day. Mom said that school is starting in September, but this year is going to be an online school. I felt like I was gonna cry. I did not want online school I wanted to meet people I wanted to learn in a classroom, but then again I was not surprised.  Even school was going to be taken away from me. Last year school was cut short because of  COVID-19. Now it was like there was not going to be any school at all.

I ran to Dad: he always has a habit of making me feel better.

“Dad,” I said, “Mom said that there is gonna be online school, but I just really want to go to school and sit in a classroom and learn there.”

“I know sweetheart, but we don’t have a choice, we have to keep you safe” Dad told me.

There was that word that meant so much but always seemed unfair.

I have been reading the news. The experts say that they have got control of the dust cloud and soon they are going to move it,  but that also has a bad side: the cloud would just go to one of the states around us and make other people suffer. I don’t know which one is better. I hope the government chooses the right decision.