The End is Now Page 21

  After a while, Amy thought she should get up and peek through the fence to see how many people had gathered in the stadium. More than she’d imagined. It seemed like everyone she’d ever known was there, as well as hundreds, maybe thousands, of people she’d never seen. Goodland’s a small town, she thought. How can there be this many people I’ve never met?

  As Amy continued to look around the stadium, she saw Jeff. He was alone and shivering. And he was scanning the stadium with a cell phone pressed to his ear. Everyone else had families and friends they were talking to, but Jeff was completely alone, looking so helpless and frazzled. Amy watched as he kept dialing his phone and scanning the stadium. He’s looking for me, Amy thought. And her heart almost broke. She should run up there and save him; she should bring him down here and he could stand by Will’s side as he delivered the prophecy. He was probably ready for that now.

  Amy might have gone to him if she hadn’t heard a familiar voice say, “Mom.”

  “Emily,” Amy answered. “What are you doing here?”

  “I’m with Curtis.”

  “Curtis?”

  “I went to his house after the grocery store. He’s taking me to homecoming. I guess his dad is someone important,” Emily said as she gestured to some official governmental-looking folks. Amy recognized one of them. He was the man who was wearing a charcoal suit and asking all those uncomfortable questions the first time the mayor visited. And now Emily was dating a government man’s son? Amy suddenly remembered Pastor Colby saying that sometimes it was difficult to walk in God’s best plan because of the decisions that your parents made. That was called a generational curse. Sometimes our parents can make a decision before we are even born that can affect us. That always made Amy mad at her parents. How could they be so insensitive as to go around sinning before she was even born? But now she had done this to her own daughter. Amy had dated a heathen like Jeff. Jeff found God eventually, but when she first started dating him, he was a heathen. Of course Emily would want to date someone godless as well.

  It was in her genes.

  Amy looked over again at the man who was always with the mayor. She said, “Curtis’ dad, he’s with the — ”

  “ — mayor. Yeah, he’s been at our house before,” Emily said. “His name’s Mr. Clayton. I guess he’s one of the mayor’s right-hand men.”

  “And you’re dating his son?”

  “He’s really cute.”

  “Emily, do you really think you should be — ”

  “Mrs. Henderson,” the man with the black sunglasses said, “I’m sorry to interrupt, but it’s time.”

  “Oh,” Amy said and followed the man with sunglasses out on to the stadium floor. Even more people had arrived while she was talking with Emily. As Amy walked out behind the mayor and all of the other dignitaries, she looked up at Jeff and smiled at him. She wanted her smile to say Everything’s okay. I still love you.

  Then the mayor started to speak. He said the government was doing everything they could to protect them. He acknowledged Will as a hero. Amy could only stare at the floor. When the mayor called Will up to give his final prophecy, Amy couldn’t help but peek up and look at her husband as confusion and rage and hopelessness crawled across his face. She couldn’t blame him for those feelings. Surely Jeff still had mixed feelings as to why his son was up there delivering his prophecy. But once he again saw how many lives Will saved and what good he was doing, even Jeff wouldn’t be able to deny what was going on any longer.

  Amy was so lost in her thoughts about her husband that she missed much of what Will said at the town meeting. She refocused and listened as her son said, “And I don’t know what that means exactly. I wish the face would have been more specific — ” Amy smiled. He was doing such a great job. He wasn’t just telling people what was going to happen, he was saying things with such charm and charisma that there would be no way everyone could ignore the message. This was the first prophecy that wasn’t coming to them secondhand. It was coming straight from the messenger. And maybe now that everyone could hear it, they would stop second-guessing his motives, but rather listen to the message and get themselves ready.

  Amy continued to smile in the way only a proud mother can as her son finished his message. “Honestly, I’m still trying to understand what the power is leaving means.” And as Will finished speaking, Amy stopped smiling. Because right in front of her, the mayor had fallen down. He was twitching and grabbing at his chest. He sounded like a man who was drowning, trying to draw in deep gasps of air to stay alive. At that moment Will’s second prophecy flashed through her thoughts like neon lights on a billboard: THE POWER IS LEAVING.

  Amy realized that, right before their eyes, Will’s prophecy was coming to fruition. It was nothing like they thought it would be. This was the power of God. Even when you think you know exactly what’s coming, you really have no idea. Everyone in town was foolish for thinking they could understand exactly what the prophecy meant before it happened.

  But everyone understood now. Amy watched with everyone else as all the mayor’s aides and attendants rushed around and tried to save him. It occurred to Amy at that moment that this is what had to happen. In the span of ten minutes the whole town had heard one prophecy in person and now they had witnessed another come to pass. She was amazed how people could keep hearing about miracles and prophecies and keep denying what they saw.

  Even the mayor was arrogantly ignoring the reality of this situation as he said he was going to protect everyone. But perhaps he’d just done something much greater than protect them. He’d shown them the truth. This was bigger than a power outage. This was about eternity. This was life and death. And through the mayor’s death, he’d drawn a line and shown what exactly was at stake. Now not a soul in Goodland would be able to deny the reality of what was about to happen to all of them.

  EMILY HENDERSON

  Emily lay curled against Curtis on a giant teal green beanbag in the basement in his house. As she rested her head on her new boyfriend/fiancé’s shoulder, she tuned out the MTV show about bratty, skankily dressed teenagers and instead imagined what it would be like if she married Curtis and became Emily Clayton. She thought they’d have cute kids, and he came from a well-to-do family, so they’d always have a nice house, and they’d probably be able to take really expensive vacations to the Hamptons or wherever it is that rich people vacation.

  It would be great. Life would be so different because she’d have a completely new family. A new worldview. For her whole life it seemed that every conversation always became about something religious sooner or later. Maybe not about the rapture, exactly (even though the fear of life ending like the snap of an index finger against a thumb was always there), but conversations about God, morality, church, and all other things religious seemed ever-present in the Henderson household. Emily thought it would be so nice to sit down at a Thanksgiving dinner and talk about normal things. Not that she knew exactly what normal family things were, but she couldn’t wait to find out.

  But then Emily realized something. Sure, she could hang in a normal conversation with a sophisticated family like the Clay-tons. But if they got married, their families would get together for holidays. And before long her mom would start talking all about the rapture or something crazy like that. She’d talk about it as if it were perfectly normal. As if everyone believed in it. And eventually when the Claytons would say, “We don’t believe in the rapture” (or whatever other crazy faith thing her mom was talking about), it would get really tense in the room. Insults would fly. It would get personal. Her mom would say something like, “Jeff, we’re leaving,” and they’d storm out.

  In the aftermath, Emily would help her new family do the dishes. And with her hands covered in soap she would have to say, “I’m not like that. I’m nothing like my mother. I don’t believe any of that.” Then her new mother and father would wrap their arms around her. Once she disowned her parents, she’d finally be in a family where she felt she belonged.r />
  Emily buried her face against Curtis. She tried not to think of the distant future anymore. She’d just have to worry about that day when it came. In the meantime there were plenty of other worries.

  For instance, the whole town was on lockdown. She could understand why. She’d seen the way people were biting and clawing and scratching over cans of soup and AAA batteries at the grocery store. And now she was trapped at Curtis’ house. Even if she wanted to get home, she couldn’t. Things had gotten much worse since the grocery store this morning. Anyone out on the streets for any reason would be arrested. At least that’s how Mr. Clayton had put it. He’d said, “If you are out on the streets for any reason, you will be arrested.”

  “Arrested?” Curtis asked.

  “Yes,” Mr. Clayton answered.

  “Just for being on the streets?”

  “Afraid so.”

  “Is that fair?”

  “This has nothing to do with fair. Fair flew out the window once Goodland citizens started destroying their town. This is about order,” Mr. Clayton said. He went on to explain that there was looting, fighting, fires, car wrecks, and all other sorts of lawlessness that needed to be squelched in the streets of Good-land. That’s why they had to deputize so many citizens. He said, “Every soul in the city of Goodland has to know the strong hand of the law is nearby. They have the right to believe whatever they want. But once their actions start damaging lives and property, that’s another thing. That has to stop. That has to be met with consequences.”

  Then he went back to the phone. Mr. Clayton had answered one call after another as soon as Emily had arrived. She overheard some of his conversations. He kept insisting that he was the mayor’s right-hand man and it was his duty to make sure order was restored. His last conversation ended with him saying, “I’ll be right over.”

  As Mr. Clayton was putting on his jacket, he looked at Emily. “I’m going over to your house.”

  “My house?”

  “The mayor wants to talk with your brother over a fried chicken dinner. He wants Will to give him the next sign.”

  “Oh,” Emily said.

  “Do you want to come with me?”

  Emily thought about it for a moment. It was a ride back to her family’s house. She could be with them. When they needed her. But they were about to have the mayor over. She would just be shoved into a corner. Will was the important one right now. He’d become the most influential and powerful member of the Henderson family. And maybe that was okay. Deep down somewhere, she still loved her parents, and if they had Will to focus on they wouldn’t miss her so much. So she told Mr. Clayton, “No, I think I’ll hang out with Curtis for a while.”

  “Okay,” Mr. Clayton said. Then he looked at Curtis, “Stay in the house. There’s a town meeting tonight at six. You should be ready to go by five.”

  “Yes sir,” Curtis said. And Mr. Clayton left the house.

  Before long she and Curtis had to get ready for the meeting and they had to really bundle up because it was so cold outside. He let her wear one of his coats and she thought it was a nice gesture, but the coat smelled like boy and it was so not cute on her. She thought she looked frumpy in it but Curtis insisted she bring it just in case. She really didn’t want to, but Curtis said, “It’s gonna get really cold out there.” Emily and Curtis went back and forth like this for a while, and then once they stopped talking Emily realized that they’d had their first fight. Maybe marriage wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.

  But she couldn’t stay mad at him for very long, because they got to ride to the town meeting in a really nice car, and once they were inside they were taken to a very fancy room where a bunch of politician-type people were. They were talking about policies and a bunch of other things that were boring to Emily. She just wanted to eat all of the tasty food. She poured herself a glass of wine but she noticed one of the gray-haired men staring at her as if to say, “I know how old you are,” and so she handed it to one of the politicians.

  Then, before Emily knew it, she ran into her mother. She felt guilty seeing her there. Her dad wasn’t even around and she knew her family was falling apart. Emily could tell that her mom wanted to get into some sort of intense conversation. Luckily, it didn’t go on for very long. Quickly, all of the mayor’s people said it was time and then she and her old family and her new family were standing in front of all of Goodland. The mayor started to talk. And then he introduced Will to give his prophecy to the whole town. He was talking about a rooster crowing and a harvest coming and Emily couldn’t help but think this is all so crazy; his last prophecy hasn’t come true, and they’re all still clinging to every word he says like he’s Abraham Lincoln or Jesus or someone like that.

  And that’s when the mayor fell down. There was a soft thud as he hit the ground. And then he started gasping for air like he was drowning. And this was all happening in front of Emily. She couldn’t have been more than ten feet away from him.

  “He’s dead,” one of the assistants said.

  “What do you mean he’s dead?” another assistant asked.

  “I mean he’s not breathing, he’s not moving and he doesn’t have a heartbeat or any other signs of life that alive people normally have.”

  “So he’s dead.”

  Emily looked up from the mayor. She looked at all of the people in the arena. Nearly every person she’d ever known was there. She could see them all bundled up with scarves, hats, and mittens. She could see her teachers, neighbors, parents’ friends, the paperboy, the milkman, and every student who had hopefully elected her homecoming queen huddled together.

  And now they were all staring at the dead mayor.

  Emily had to back away quickly as paramedics, EMTs, and other professional-looking-type personnel were rushing around the mayor. They were shouting orders and pulling out all kinds of medical equipment. But if the mayor’s assistants were right, then all of this work was in vain — there was nothing for the trained professionals to do other than put the mayor in a body bag and zip it shut. Maybe the paramedics were putting on a little show because they didn’t want the town to worry.

  This was all so unbelievable.

  Just moments ago everything seemed so calm. Emily had watched the mayor explain what was happening and what had to be done. His words were so great that she wondered if Mr. Clayton had written them himself — they were the words of a seasoned politician and she’d never seen the mayor talk that way, but Mr. Clayton talked that way all the time. He probably wrote everything the mayor said that night. He probably wrote all of the mayor’s speeches. She felt powerful that her father-in-law-to-be could write such great speeches, and because his words were working. They made her feel like everything was going to be all right.

  But then the unthinkable happened. It almost seemed like God struck the mayor dead. Does God still do that? Does he still strike people dead? Isn’t that a little Old Testament? It seemed a little unkind and erratic of God if he did strike the mayor dead. What did the mayor ever do to God?

  Emily got frustrated with herself for thinking this way. Thinking everything has to do with God is how her mother would think.

  As Emily watched the medical staff wheel the mayor on a gurney through the dirt on the rodeo floor, suddenly some man darted out of the stands and started running towards the stage. He was bundled up and he looked crazy. He was screaming. He was waving his hands. Emily feared that maybe he was coming to assassinate her new father-in-law. As the crazy man got closer, Emily could hear what he was screaming. He was screaming, “We’ll! We’ll! We’ll! ”

  We’ll?

  We’ll what?

  It seemed like this crazy man thought of himself like some sort of prophet. Doesn’t everybody these days? He was trying to tell the town of something “we’ll” soon be doing. But Emily had no idea what they’d be doing. We’ll be dead by morning? We’ll know the truth soon? We’ll be raptured at any moment?

  As Emily thought this, the crazy man was suddenly very clos
e. And that was when she realized two things: One, the man wasn’t screaming “We’ll!” he was screaming “Will!” and two, that crazy man was her father. She didn’t know whether to be completely mortified or if she should go out to help him. While she was trying to decide, two of the mayor’s secret service agents in black suits ran out and tackled him. Emily’s dad actually landed a couple of punches on the secret service agents, which kind of impressed Emily because she’d never seen her dad stand up to anyone, let alone punch them. But he didn’t last long. Quickly, they had her dad on the ground and the whole scene looked like the calf tying at the rodeo in the summer, with the secret service agents playing the part of the cowboys and her father playing the part of the helpless calf. The agents handcuffed her father, and as they were carrying him out of the stadium, he looked at Will and said, “I understand now, Will. I saw the face in the TV. It told me everything.” Then Jeff looked at Emily. “Hey honey, I love you. We’ll talk soon.”

  At that moment Emily thought maybe she’d picked the perfect time to join a new family.

  After her father’s outburst, the stadium was starting to stir like spooked cattle. It started with whispers, but quickly the whispers turned to murmurs, which turned into a few people standing up and shouting. Emily could hear them crying out, “There’s nothing we can do. We can’t stop this with nice plans and government systems!” “They’re going to take us all!” “I’m sorry. Whoever you are. I’m sorry for everything! Take me too!”

  Emily took a deep breath and clutched Curtis’ hand. She’d seen those soccer games in Europe where the whole stadium went wild, where flares flew onto the field and police with riot gear and shields threw tear gas into the crowd. Usually in those scenes someone got trampled near a fence and a whole bunch of people got hurt. Emily didn’t want to get trampled near a fence. She wished the whole town would just calm down. And that’s when Mr. Clayton stepped up to the microphone, and in a commanding voice, said, “The mayor is receiving medical attention right now. We are doing everything we can to take care of him. But in the meantime, these outbursts have to stop! If we’re going to survive — ”