The End is Now Read online

  “Jessica,” Will whispered. Jessica looked towards the playground, benches, and slides, but she didn’t see anyone.

  “Jessica,” Will whispered again. She looked a bit more, and then she saw Will, crouching and peering through the fence.

  “What are you doing here?” Jessica asked.

  “I have something important to tell you,” Will said. By this time Phil and Veronica saw him and went over to the fence.

  “Why aren’t you at school today?”

  “The police wouldn’t let me come to school,” Will said.

  “The police told you to skip school? We’re seriously supposed to believe that?” Veronica said.

  “It’s the truth.”

  “The police bust people for skipping school. Not the other way around,” Veronica said.

  Will once again realized how annoying and prissy Veronica was. His mom told him that God puts all kinds of people in our lives to teach us how to get along with everybody. But Will suddenly had a horrifying thought: What if he had to marry someone like Veronica? What if God was planning on teaching him the ultimate lesson? He could imagine coming home and having everything he ever said met with a nagging, know-it-all resistance. Suddenly he was very grateful that the rapture was going to save him from such a miserable marriage.

  “Would you just listen Veronica? I don’t have very long,” Will said.

  “Fine,” she said.

  “This is going to sound weird but you have to believe me. You know the rapture everyone is talking about?”

  “Yeah,” all his classmates said. They knew about the rapture all right.

  “Well, last night someone told me that our school is going to be destroyed. It’s the first sign that the rapture is coming.”

  “Who told you that?” Jessica asked.

  “I can’t say. But I can tell you that it’s gonna happen in three days.”

  “Three days from when?” Phil asked.

  Will had never really thought about this. The face said three days. It didn’t say when the three days were starting. Why are all prophecies and visions so vague? What good does that do anybody? If the face had said, “Seventy-two hours from now the school will be destroyed,” that would be something Will could act on. He could have set his stopwatch and told everyone the exact minute the school was going to be destroyed. But three days was all he had to go on. It was up to him to interpret what that meant.

  “Three days from yesterday,” Will said.

  “And how is the school going to be destroyed?” Jessica asked.

  “I don’t know. Something big. Probably a meteor from the sky or something,” Will speculated for the second time in as many statements.

  Through the fence Will noticed the other kids on the playground were staring in his direction. Their lunches were finished — their Capri Suns empty and their Snack Packs scraped dry. They were bored, restless, and something interesting was happening by the fence. They could smell it; they were drawn to it like jackals to blood. Will watched as they whispered, pointed, congregated, and began to walk toward him. He should run. But no one was convinced of his message yet. Suddenly, he understood: This was his chance, his one shot to convince everyone of the catastrophe that would strike Jefferson Elementary in three days. He’d have to convince them quickly. Kids could tell first when something interesting like a fight or a kissing contest was happening, but teachers and principals would be soon to follow.

  Will climbed the eight-foot chain-link fence and slid down the other side. He stood in the middle of all the students of Jefferson Elementary who had “A” lunch. The students were silent and reverent. Will could almost hear their collective silence asking, What’s going on? What’s he going to say?

  Will broke the silence by exclaiming, “Tomorrow, or possibly the day after tomorrow, Jefferson Elementary will be destroyed. I’m not sure how. But I’m positive it’s going to happen. You cannot be here. If you are, then you will be destroyed along with the school. And this is happening for one reason: It will be the first sign of the rapture. It’s coming soon. Long before any of us can ever get married,” Will said.

  For a while, maybe as long as four seconds, no one said a word. Then the kids started to laugh. And they weren’t chuckling — they were belly laughing and flinging insults between breaths. The laughter punctured Will; seconds before he was a helium balloon floating proud, but now his air had been let out and he felt flimsy and wrinkled.

  “I thought you said a meteor was going to destroy the school,” Phil said.

  “Yeah, I think it’s going to be meteor, or something scary like a laser — ”

  “A laser? Who has a giant laser to destroy the school?” one of the kids said. Will couldn’t tell who was who anymore. They were just blurry laughing faces amidst the dirt, weeds, and monkey bars.

  “I said something like a laser.”

  “Didn’t you say someone told you this?” a voice asked. Maybe it was Veronica.

  “Yes,” Will answered.

  “Who told you?”

  “I can’t say.”

  “Why not?”

  Will tried to calm himself down. They wouldn’t believe him if he was flustered. But he couldn’t center his thoughts. He tried to continue. “I can’t tell you because I think maybe I saw — ” Will tried to start again, “Well last night I got lost in the cornfields for a long time. For maybe hours. And then this face came to me, it was made out of corn but it looked kind of like Moses, and it told me things — ”

  “So a cornface told you a laser is going to destroy the school tomorrow?” someone asked. At that the laughter really erupted. It was deafening. And Will didn’t quite understand why. What was happening? It wasn’t supposed to go like this. And now the teachers were noticing what was going on. They could see trouble brewing. They’d break things up in no time. Will had to explain himself quickly.

  “No, not a laser exactly,” Will said. “This is really important. You have to listen — ”

  “I think they’ve listened enough,” Vice Principal Morris said. His hand was on Will’s shoulder. “Come with me, son. Everybody else, lunch is over. Back to class.”

  The kids dispersed at the vice principal’s command. But they were still whispering and pointing as they walked. Some kids continued to laugh right at Will. The kinder kids only looked at him like he was pathetic and strange.

  “You have to listen to me,” Will shouted as he was being tugged to the principal’s office. “I’m not making this up! Do not come to school tomorrow or maybe the day after!”

  But he was out of earshot of most kids now. And the ones who could hear him acted like he wasn’t even there.

  AMY HENDERSON

  Once Will was watching The Lord of the Rings Amy knew it would be a good time to duck out of the house. That movie went on forever so she could use that time to go grocery shopping. Not that she liked grocery shopping. It was just one of her weekly chores that needed to be done. It wasn’t really the shopping Amy didn’t like — it was the compromise. There were aisles and aisles of delicious food that she could not get because most of that food was name-brand food and she was shopping on a budget. Shopping on a budget meant that things like Tide and Pepsi and Doritos were luxuries. So she’d get all the items in black and white bags that were the generic equivalents.

  Sometimes she’d tell Jeff that they should upgrade and buy some name-brand groceries and household items. But Jeff would always say, “Amy, you’re paying for the packaging and advertising. Do you know how much those Superbowl commercials cost? Millions, that’s how much. And that’s all you’re getting with name brands. A fancy ad. It’s not like the chips taste any different.”

  But that’s where Jeff was wrong. Doritos did taste better than Mr. Cheesy’s Chips. Tide did protect the color in their clothes much better than the generic black and white laundry detergent. They were saving a couple of pennies, and for that, the price they had to pay was high — stale tasting chips and faded, colorless clothes. />
  Every time Amy checked out at the register, she couldn’t help but think that the groceries she was buying were simply helping her to sustain life rather than groceries that would allow them to celebrate life and enjoy their food. And that’s why on that day Amy broke down and bought the name-brand ice cream. Not just any name-brand ice cream — she bought Ben and Jerry’s. For the price of a tiny pint of Ben and Jerry’s, Amy knew she could buy a giant gallon of the generic ice cream that comes in the big plastic tub. But she didn’t care. She wanted to buy something for her son to celebrate his bravery. She wasn’t willing to do that with the ice cream in the cheap plastic tub.

  As Amy was standing in the checkout line with her Ben and Jerry’s and the rest of her groceries, her cell phone rang.

  “Excuse me,” Amy told the cashier. “Hello.”

  “Mrs. Henderson, we need you to come to Jefferson. There’s been an incident with your son.”

  “My son isn’t at school.”

  “Actually he is. I’m staring at him right now. He’s right outside the principal’s office.”

  “He’s what?”

  “He made quite the bold statement today at school. He said it was a prophecy, but we’re having to treat it like a bomb threat.”

  “I don’t understand how prophesying and a bomb threat are even in the same category.”

  “They’re in the same category, Mrs. Henderson, because any threat towards students, teachers, or school property must be treated with the utmost severity.”

  Amy didn’t even think about what she was doing as she left the store with her phone pressed against her ear. But before she knew it, she was in her car driving toward Jefferson. As she drove she tried to explain, “He wasn’t threatening. He was prophesying. He saw something last night in the cornfield.”

  “I’m sure he did,” the receptionist said. “You can discuss that with the principal. And he’s ready to discuss all of that whenever you get here.”

  “Fine. I’m ready to discuss a few things with him too. I’m almost there.”

  The first person she saw at the school was Will. Where should she start? Should she lay into him because of his irresponsibility, lying, manipulating, and recklessness? He had told her, “I’ll stay right here.” He said, “I promise.” And she leaves the house for a few minutes to get some groceries and expensive ice cream, and he’s sitting in the principal’s office for making threats to the school? Amy was in shock that Will would do this. She was TNT dynamite, her fuse was lit, and right before she was about to explode — she looked closely at her son.

  His face was splotchy and his eyes were puffy. Her anger evaporated. Suddenly it was clear her boy was hurt and needed his mother. She gently grabbed his face and asked, “What happened?”

  “They — ” Will said and then trailed off. It seemed to be all he could manage.

  “They what? Interrogated you? Accused you of making a bomb threat? Said you were going to jail? What did they say honey?”

  “They laughed at me. They wouldn’t even listen. I was just trying to save them,” Will said.

  “The principals laughed at you?”

  “The kids at lunch. They called him cornface and then said a bunch of stuff about me. But that’s not even what bothered me. They wouldn’t listen, Mom. They thought I was crazy. And so now they’re still going to be here when the school gets destroyed. Everyone is going to die.”

  Principal Morris cracked open the door. Behind the principal was the guidance counselor Mrs. Heller, Sergeant Mike, and two other police officers. Amy suddenly wasn’t sure what was going on. Things were more serious than she suspected.

  “May we speak in private, Mrs. Henderson?” Principal Morris asked.

  “I’ll be right back, honey,” Amy said, kissing him on the cheek, and walked into the office.

  As Amy sat down, she felt unprepared to deal with the principal and all those people in his office. Not that this was a new feeling. For most of her parental life Amy had felt unprepared. She felt that she didn’t have the right advice, she hadn’t gone to college, and she couldn’t afford the fancy school supplies that all the other parents seemed to buy their kids.

  But when her kids came home with good grades — no, make that great grades — Amy smiled. She felt vindicated. She felt proud her kids had risen above adversity and bad circumstances to succeed. That is, until one day, she started realizing what sort of adversity her kids had overcome.

  Will and Emily had come from a (lower) middle class home. They had young parents who’d never been to college. Parents who were just kids themselves — who weren’t prepared to be parents when this whole thing started. Will and Emily were succeeding in spite of her and Jeff’s faults. This revelation was bittersweet. Amy realized her kids were doing what she couldn’t. They were walking in God’s best plan for their lives. They had the perfect balance of work and play and spirituality in their lives. They were both walking towards a bright future.

  Unfortunately, Amy had long ago abandoned God’s best plan.

  She actually didn’t even know God had a best plan until she turned fourteen. Once she turned fourteen she was allowed to go to youth group. It was the most exciting thing she’d ever experienced. Youth Group was nothing like Kids Church. It was so much better. From the second she walked in she heard Christian rock music blaring on the speakers and there were cool lights and they gave her a WWJD bracelet.

  Then when the service started, Pastor Colby started to speak. He was so cool. He had ripped up jeans, a flannel shirt, and a goatee. His sermon talked about “God’s best plan for your life,” and he used a lot of funny stories to make his points. He also talked relevant pop culture types of things like when he said, “If you take all the words to every Boyz II Men song ever written, that only begins to describe God’s love for us.”

  That’s a lot of love, Amy thought.

  And then Pastor Colby talked about how God loved her so much that he had a perfect plan for her. God knew what we were supposed to do even before we were born.

  And as Pastor Colby was talking, Amy realized what God wanted her to do with her life: He wanted her to be a missionary. It was the special thing God had placed in her heart so she could change the world. She would build huts and hold those crying, perfect-looking African babies. She’d dig wells and give people fresh water. She’d give shots and medicine to the sick, and at the end of the day she’d teach the Bible lessons to the villagers while the sun set. As she taught she’d look into the African people’s faces and their bright eyes would be smiling and grateful to Amy for bringing the truth. And then, after Amy finished her lesson, she’d lead everyone in a final song and she’d glance just beyond the village as the zebras and elephants and lions gathered around to hear the sweet music.

  For the next three years she studied all about being a missionary, she learned about various organizations she could join to do overseas work, and she went on trips to Mexico with the Youth Group every summer. Mexico missions were okay — just not as glamorous as missions to Africa — but that was fine because she was just in training anyway.

  Then one night after prom, things with Jeff went way too far. And that was all it took for Amy to walk out of God’s plan for her life. She felt guilty for how things went with Jeff, but guilt apparently wasn’t enough. Amy had to pay a price, and nine months later Emily was born.

  Still, it wasn’t like God had shunned her or banished her for her mistake, it’s just she was no longer walking in God’s best for her. It was like God had the name-brand plan for her life and because of her sin she had picked the generic plan. Pastor Colby had explained it that night, “If you walk out of God’s plan, it’s okay, he’ll still rescue you and love you, it’s just you’ll be living outside of what he wants for you.”

  And Pastor Colby was right.

  Amy had been in God’s Plan B since that night of her junior year. It wasn’t that she didn’t love Jeff and the kids — she adored them all very much, they were everything to her
— it’s just things had always been so difficult for all of them from that moment forward. And today, in the principal’s office, was just another example of her trials.

  “Mrs. Henderson,” the principal said. “We saw that you excused your son from school today.”

  “That’s right,” Amy said.

  “Well then, let me tell you how your son trespassed onto school property and caused a lot of needless fear and panic,” the principal said.

  “He didn’t trespass,” Amy said.

  “Being on school grounds during an excused absence is trespassing.”

  “Oh. I didn’t know that,” she said.

  Amy sat in there for what seemed like an hour, listening to the principal and the police officers go back and forth, scolding her and telling her their concerns about Will.

  She tried to explain, but they wouldn’t listen. They said he had to be suspended. They said they had to take dramatic measures to make sure he didn’t leave the house for the next couple of days. She was trying to carefully listen to everything they were saying, but the whole time she couldn’t stop wondering if she could ever get out of the path that she’d made for herself — she wondered if she could ever get back into God’s Plan A for her life.

  Two hours after Amy had taken Will home, the phones were still ringing. She didn’t know if they’d ever stop. Cell phones, home phones, and text messages all chimed and blipped and beeped, and on the other end was some parent asking, “What is your son doing?” They wanted to know why Will had freaked out their kids. They wanted to know where he got off saying the school was going to be destroyed. They wanted to know how he knew this, or, if he was making it up, they wanted to know what his problem was. Did he think it was fun? Was it amusing to needlessly worry other children and parents?

  Amy stopped answering after the fifth call.

  What was there to say? Why answer when every conversation went the same? She tried to explain herself initially, she tried to let the other parents know that she was freaked out too, that she didn’t understand this either, that as they were speaking, her son was being put on house arrest. She asked if they knew what it felt like to watch the police put a tracking device on your son. They said they had no idea what that was like because their children were well behaved. Their children weren’t crazy prophets creating mass hysteria.