Charles Said It Would

Short Story by Thomas Harrison Humphreys + Interview

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I experienced my first official snow day in grade school when only six years old. Supper was done and my family had gathered, as we always did, in our modest living room to view the evening news. In Lynchburg, Va., that meant tuning to channel 13 at six o’clock to watch our local celebrity, Charles Middleton, point to a very real map behind him on which he would forecast the weather ahead. It was in this moment that Charles Middleton predicted the very first snow day of my academic life. And, without the means of Doppler radar, he somehow got it right. Tomorrow was going to be a snow day. Mama said that if it snowed like Charles Middleton predicted, then I would not have to go to school tomorrow morning. I could hardly wait to see if he was right. She told me there would be, on the morning news, a list posted of area schools that would be closed. We would have to pay close attention to that list. And so, that night, I went to bed as if anticipating the coming of St. Nick himself.