The End is Now Read online

  A few said that it was a government conspiracy and aliens caused the tornado. Of course these people always thought there was a government conspiracy involving aliens. They didn’t know why New Mexico got all of the press because they said all the real UFO activity was in Kansas. What kind of crop-circles can you find in New Mexico? Name one, they’d say. No one was really listening to this crowd. They were just whispering amongst themselves like they always did.

  Then there were those who agreed with Nancy, the newscaster, who’d said that this event was just something their intellect couldn’t grasp. They said it was just an unbelievable coincidence that all of the events had happened, but that’s all. There was no need to go reading more into it. Sometimes there are things that are unexplainable and defy logic. But if we try to decide that we know the cause for those sorts of problems, then we come up with answers like, “The world is flat,” and, “The bubonic plague was caused by witches.”

  And finally there was the growing group who were starting to believe. They were influenced by Will’s interview on the morning news and by the frightening email Amy got. They couldn’t just pass off all the events unfolding like they did as a mere coincidence. This group of people couldn’t help but consider the possibility that the rapture was actually coming. Many in this growing group of believers didn’t even know anything about the rapture, so they started to read up on it. They learned that the basic idea was that God would take all of the believers from planet Earth, and as soon as they were gone, everything would spiral into seven years of tribulation. It was hard for them to discover what all the tribulation involved, but everything they read painted a pretty unsettling picture — famines, floods, wars, hopelessness, darkness, until finally the Antichrist came up and united everyone. Then many would receive the mark of the beast and there would be one final battle before all the pagans were damned to hell.

  Everyone else would enjoy a thousand years of peace.

  And if all of this talk wasn’t bad enough, the rain started to come that night. It seemed that the tornado was just the beginning of the storm that was attacking Goodland. The rain started around nine and it didn’t let up until about three the next morning. For the first hour the rain simply drizzled, which seemed nice enough. It gave the streets a shiny coat, and the flowers and grass seemed to drink it in. But it was October in Goodland and it didn’t take long for things to freeze over. It started getting unbearably cold at about eleven. The few who went outside could feel their bodies shivering and watched as their breath escaped from their lips in tiny little clouds. Then, quickly, the shiny wet coat on the roads turned to an icy sheet, making a mockery of the brakes on every car and truck in Goodland.

  The real mess started right before the morning rush hour with a truck driver named Paul Jackson. His son, Nate, was one of Will’s best friends. But Paul didn’t get to spend much time with Nate. Instead his days were spent driving a semi-truck up and down I – 70. And to try to keep himself awake, Paul would spend his days talking on his CB. He liked CBs so much better than cell phones because they never lost service and only one person could talk at a time. “They are the purest form of communication,” Paul would always say. And on this frigid night Paul was driving a truckload of unpainted furniture and talking on the CB to some person he’d never met about his number one passion.

  “I’m telling you, this is going to make me a lot of money,” Paul said.

  “What? Trucking isn’t paying enough?”

  “Trucking is just something I’m doing until my real career can take off.”

  “Your real career?”

  “I’m an inventor,” Paul said.

  “What have you invented?”

  “Nothing yet — but I have ideas.”

  “Like what?”

  “I can’t just tell you. I don’t know you,” Paul said.

  “Come on man. It’s like five in the morning and I’ve been driving all night.”

  “Okay, but you cannot tell a soul. I’m about to get this patented and everything,” Paul said. He held the CB in his hand for a moment and then slowly clicked down the button and explained, “It’s called the Pregnant Cooler. It’s going to make me millions.”

  “The Pregnant Cooler?”

  “You know how you can never get beer or soda into baseball games or amusement parks?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Cause of security, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, you can now with my invention. It’s a cooler that a woman can fasten under her shirt. Makes her look like she’s pregnant. And there’s no way security is going to check a pregnant woman to see if she’s really pregnant. So getting beer into a ball game will never be an issue again. Once the Pregnant Cooler takes off, I’m going to launch a follow-up product for men called the Beer Belly.”

  As Paul was talking he was envisioning it all. He could see the blue, red, and yellow Pregnant Coolers with foam padding on the outside so it would even feel like the woman was pregnant. He could picture thousands of people flooding into Wal-Marts every spring and fall before football and baseball season to get their Pregnant Coolers. He could even picture marriages being healed because women would feel they were such an important part of the ball game experience, where before their husbands would just go missing for the whole day on Sundays.

  And Paul was so busy picturing all of this that he didn’t notice the brake lights up ahead. By the time he realized what was going on, he had to slam on his brakes and that was just too much for his semi to handle on the black ice. His semi jackknifed, flipped, and sprayed splinted unpainted furniture all over I – 70. Several cars behind the semi crashed and collided trying to dodge all of the dining room tables and bookshelves that were flying out of the semi truck.

  At 5:23 that morning, I – 70 was a complete mess on the eastern edge of Goodland. The eastern portion of the city was sealed off.

  On the northern entrance of Highway 27, a man named Steve Parker got in his car to make his daily two-hour commute to Colby, Kansas. He’d been fighting with his wife all night long about her going over the maximum minutes and texts in their cell phone plan. He was asking himself, Who needs to send that many texts? and Why would she spend her time jabbering away on her cell phone when there’s a land line right next to her? as his Honda Accord swerved out of control and slammed into a power line. The power line was knocked over and its lines danced, spitting sparks all over the icy highway. And with a power line down on one highway and a semi across the other, the people of Goodland woke up the next morning to hear the news that the only two highways out of town were completely closed down.

  They were all trapped.

  WILL HENDERSON

  Will was still a little groggy that morning when he walked downstairs and saw that the news was on. His sister was watching it so he thought it must be about him or the rapture or something. But it wasn’t. Instead it was showing pictures of car accidents all over the place. The caption underneath said “Goodland Sealed Off.” There were accidents all over I – 70. Nancy Palmer was reporting live from the scene. Then the news cut to her talking to Officer Mike as she asked, “How long do you think until we can get this cleaned up?”

  “I don’t know. It could be days. It’s a real mess out here, and from what we’ve heard, it’s like this up and down I – 70 for at least fifty miles in each direction. So it could be hard to get clean-up crews out here. We need them to get something like this cleaned up. But we’re working on it.”

  Will sat on the couch next to his sister and saw his mom walk in. She was talking on the phone.

  “Yeah, okay, we will. Yes, right away. Okay,” his mom said and hung up the phone. She looked at her children and said, “We need to go to the store.”

  “Why?” Emily asked.

  “They’re running low on food.”

  “Stores don’t run low on food,” Emily said.

  “They do now. I just talked to Mary Beth. She said she just got back from the supermarket and
she’d never seen it like that. She said if we want groceries for the next week we better go now.”

  “What? How does that even happen?” Emily asked.

  “Honey, we’re about to see a whole bunch of stuff happen that doesn’t normally happen. Now go get dressed. We’re leaving in ten minutes.”

  Will was the first one dressed. He was excited and kind of scared to see what all the stores would look like when they were running low on food. He sat in the entryway and waited for his mom and sister. This was nothing new. He was always waiting for them. And while he was waiting he heard someone twisting the doorknob on the front door.

  Out of habit he opened the door.

  His dad was standing there. He was unshaven and his eyes were bloodshot. And when he looked at Will he smiled from ear to ear. Will even thought his dad’s eyes might be getting watery. But he couldn’t tell if his dad was sad or happy or just really tired.

  “Hi son,” his dad said.

  “Dad.”

  “You all right?”

  Will thought about this question. He didn’t feel all right. It was weird having his dad standing there looking like he was a stranger in his own home. It was weird for Will to feel uncomfortable around his own dad. He didn’t know what to make of that. He’d never felt uncomfortable around his dad unless he’d done something wrong. But ever since the cornfields, whenever he was around his dad, he felt as if he was always doing something wrong. Still, he didn’t want to say that. It didn’t seem polite. So he just said, “Yeah, I’m fine.”

  “Where’s your mom?”

  “She’s getting ready. We’re going to stores before they all run out of food.”

  “Before they what?”

  “I don’t know, it’s just what Mom said. The stores are running out of food.”

  “So she’s going to drive you to the store?”

  “Yeah.”

  “You know the roads are pretty icy out there?”

  “Yeah, I saw the furniture on them.”

  And that’s when the conversation stopped because Will’s mom walked into the room.

  “Jeff,” his mom said.

  “You’re going to the store?” his dad countered. Will didn’t like his dad’s tone of voice. He knew they were about to get angry at each other.

  “Yes, as a matter of fact, we are,” his mom answered. “And who let you in?”

  “Will.”

  “Will, why’d you let him in?”

  “It was just out of habit. I heard the doorknob twist so I opened it,” Will said.

  “It doesn’t matter. We’re leaving,” his mom said.

  “Honey, have you been watching the news this morning?” his dad asked. “The roads are ridiculous out there and everyone is really panicked.”

  “I know. I was just talking with Mary Beth. She says everyone’s buying up all the groceries in town. To get ready for the rapture.”

  “That’s ridiculous.”

  “Why? Don’t you think it’s possible the rapture is coming after all that’s happened?”

  “When you think about it, Amy, what’s really happened? There are some icy roads and a tornado hit in the middle of Kansas.”

  “Yeah, a tornado that your son predicted,” his mom said.

  “I actually didn’t predict it. The face did,” Will said.

  “If you take him out there, everyone’s going to ask what else the face predicted,” his dad continued. “That’s why I think maybe we should all just wait here for a while. Why are you in such a hurry?”

  “Because we’re going to need groceries.”

  “But after everything that just happened — ”

  “Okay, wait. This all didn’t just happen. We’ve been trapped here for three days. Don’t you think it’s time he got out?” Will’s mom said, pointing at him.

  “Last time you took him out you sent the whole town into chaos!”

  Will was a little startled. His mom and dad didn’t shout at each other very often. And Will knew he was lucky in that respect. On the playground, he’d heard stories of nasty fights between his friends’ parents. Jane Thompson always told stories about how her parents got into violent shouting matches. They would throw dishes at each other and break furniture. Will always got sad when he heard these stories because that probably meant Jane didn’t want to get married. Why would she if she saw marriage as such a horrible thing? Someday, Will thought, he could show Jane how a boy was really supposed to treat a girl. He’d bring her flowers and poems and sing her nice songs. Then maybe she’d warm up to the idea of marriage. But when he told his mom about this, she said Jane probably would rather have a boy that treated her mean. Will asked why. His mom said because that’s what she’s used to. But that just didn’t make sense. Why would a pretty girl pick a mean guy instead of a nice one? His mom probably didn’t know what she was talking about. This was just another example of her old-fashioned thinking.

  “So, what are we supposed to do — keep him locked up forever? How long does he have to pay a price for being right?” his mom asked.

  “Can we talk in the other room?”

  Will watched as his dad brought his mom into the room to talk. They had to know that he would lean against the door and listen anyway. Maybe it just made them feel better if they couldn’t see him.

  “Do you know what it’s like out there? People are really unsettled about all of this. They may try to blame him.”

  “Blame him? He tried to save them. Every parent who kept their children home from school that day should be kissing the ground he walks on. They should be awestruck to have a prophet in their midst.”

  “Amy, don’t call him a prophet.”

  “Why?”

  “Because it sounds weird.”

  “Jeff, what does a prophet do?”

  “I know what a prophet does. That’s not what I’m talking about here — ”

  “He prophesies. And wouldn’t you say that’s what our son is doing?”

  “Sort of.”

  “What does ‘sort of’ mean?”

  “Amy, we don’t know what’s happening. This could all be a coincidence.”

  “Come on, honey, are you really that naïve?”

  “I’m not being naïve here. I’m just not reading whatever I want to into this event. I’m trying to be rational. It appears someone in this family has to be.”

  “This isn’t one event, Jeff. It’s a whole string of events. And I expect everyone else to be skeptical about it. But the reality is, most people think our son is special. Then there’s you. You think something’s wrong with him. Something is happening with our son and you should be excited about it — ”

  “You think this is exciting?”

  “God is working through our son.”

  Will heard the clicking of feet coming towards him. “Where are you going?”

  “I told you, I’m going to the store!”

  “Fine, but you’re going without Will. I’m staying here with him.”

  “No, I’m taking Will.”

  “No, you’re not,” his dad said. He almost snarled it. And then there was silence. Will wondered what was happening on the other side of the door. Were his parents kissing? Gross. He hoped not. That wouldn’t make any sense. But sometimes grown-ups didn’t make sense. Sometimes they would just be fighting and screaming at each other, and then all of a sudden, they would start kissing in the rain. At least that’s the way it happened in movies.

  Will listened closely, but he couldn’t hear any kissing sounds. He didn’t hear anything until his father finally said, “I forbid you from taking Will.”

  Will was a little startled. He’d never heard his father say something like “forbid.” It seemed like a King Arthur sort of thing to say.

  His mom must have been equally surprised. Because she replied, “You forbid me?”

  “Yes.”

  “Who even says ‘forbid’ anymore?”

  “I’m saying ‘forbid’ right now because you are not taking my
son anywhere.”

  “Your son? Okay then, I forbid you from sleeping in my bed with me. I banish you to the hotel. Again. I thought maybe you’d get the message yesterday, Jeff. But now I’m not letting you in this house anymore until you can act like a caring father and husband.”

  “Amy, would you just — ”

  “I’m not finished. I also forbid you from forbidding me to do anything ever again!” And then she pushed open the door. Will jumped back. “Come on. We’re going,” she said.

  “Do I have to come?” Emily asked.

  “Yes,” Will’s mother snapped. “Go get in the car!”

  “I’m coming with you,” his father said as he followed his mom through the door. “You can’t drive on the ice.”

  “Fine. You can be our chauffeur. Then back to the hotel,” she said, snatching her purse and keys.

  “Great!” Will’s dad shouted back.

  Then both parents stared at Will. And he suddenly didn’t want to go to the store with either of them. He was afraid both of his parents might be crazy.

  As the Hendersons drove to the supermarket, Will sat in the back next to Emily and stared out the window. He thought the icy roads made Goodland feel a little bit like Mars. It seemed uninhabitable, as if it were never intended for human life. It was just an icy wasteland. Tree branches that normally reached towards the heavens were now frozen and pointing towards the ground under the weight of the ice. Jagged icicles hung off the roofs of every house. Drainage pipes had large frozen blocks of ice in front of them. Will wondered how anyone could have ever stayed alive in such a climate before there were things like central heating and cars and houses.