The End

Dad and I were sitting on the couch when a loud beeping sound came from the TV grabbing both of our attentions and pulling us away from our phone screens.

“What’s going on?” I asked, turning to my dad as the television screen turned bright red and displayed the words ‘Breaking News.’

“I don’t know honey. It’s probably just something to do with politics,” he soothed. I studied his face and noticed that his eyes showed that he was more concerned than his words had let on. “Elizabeth, come in here a minute.”

My mother came rushing in from the kitchen, where she had been busy at work making dinner for us.

“What’s going on?” she asked, obviously confused about the sudden interruption.

“They are about to tell us,” Dad responded, trying to keep his worried tone to a minimum.

The news broadcaster popped up on the screen and shared news that changed everything. “It has just been discovered that the Mayans had another calendar. This one was used to predict the end of the world. We interrupted normal programming to bring you this information because this calendar says that the end of the world is May twenty-eighth. That is just two days away. Of course this isn’t the first time that people have thought the world would end, but this is the first time a calendar that supposedly predicts the end of the world has been found. Mayan studies experts are looking at the information and we will give an update as soon as we receive any new information in the studio. If you want to follow the story as it unfolds, you can watch a live broadcast of the information coming in on our website. Now back to regular programming.”

Both my parents looked shocked and slightly scared. My dad had studied anthropology in college and specialized in ancient civilizations.

“Dad, is there any truth to what they are saying?” I asked wearily. Before he even answered, I already knew what his answer was going to be.

Dad looked nervous and it took him a moment longer than usual to respond, “I think I need to go back to work. I need to look over some documents and see if this has any validity. Don’t worry yet. I’ll call once I know more.” He immediately got up and headed to the front door where his briefcase and keys were stored on an antique table that he had received when he got a promotion at work. The solid dark wood base sat directly up against the wall under a painting of an elephant that my mother had bought from one of my friends a year ago. The back panel of the table sat just an inch from the wall. The front of the table had two wooden beams that slanted outward slightly as they went from the base to the top. The top of the table was a slab of black marble, as was the small shelf that sat halfway between the base and the top. The table came up just past my waist and held the bowl of keys which my family was prone to losing if they did not have a designated spot to be placed in as soon as we entered the house. My dad’s briefcase always sat on the bottom shelf as it was too big to fit anywhere else on the table.

Mom followed Dad out onto the porch as I remained standing in the foyer. I opened the door just a crack so I could hear what they were talking about.

“Is the end really happening?” Mom asked, her voice wavering.

“I don’t know yet, Honey. I think there is a chance this is really it though. You may want to call your parents and talk about visiting. I’m going to call mine after I look over a few things. If I find enough evidence that I think this is really it, we should spend today as a family and then spend tomorrow with our parents. I’ll call you in a little bit. I love you Elizabeth,” Dad said as he made his way down the steps towards the driveway.

“I love you too Edward,” Mom called as I saw a tear roll down her cheek. I stepped back from the door as she entered the house and went straight to the kitchen to finish preparing dinner.

Mom loved to cook in general, but whenever she was sad or stressed she turned to cooking as a way to let it out. I knew we were going to be eating a feast tonight because I could tell she was both sad and stressed.

I would have gone to help her, but when she gets into her cooking zone, she likes being alone. Instead, I went to my room to call my best friend. I pushed my door open and took in the ocean blue walls that we had only redone a few months ago. For my birthday, I asked to have my room redone rather than presents. I decided to make my room beach themed because I like the idea of the beach much more than the actual beach. I hate sand in general, but I love the relaxing elements of the beach, so I made my room into a relaxing space. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and dialed the number I had memorized as soon as I had gotten a phone.

“I was just going to call you,” Shane said into the phone.

“Oh really? Were you really, or are you just saying that?” I joked.

“Seriously. I was really going to call you. Did you see the news?”

“Yeah. My dad rushed off to work to see if it was true or not, but I’m pretty sure he thinks it is. I heard him talking to my mom and he seemed really scared. Then my mom got really stressed and started cooking again, so if you want to come over for dinner there will be plenty of food.”

“So your dad thinks this is real?”

“Yeah. I can’t believe we could only have two days left on this planet. It just doesn’t seem right. Like, shouldn’t there have been signs that the end was coming?”

“I was thinking about that and weren’t there sort of? Warmer temperatures, rising sea levels, Donald Trump becoming president?”

“That’s true. Definitely Trump. Why did he think that was ever a good idea?”

“I don’t know. Does that dinner offer still stand because my mom just decided to buy sardine pizza for dinner? She apparently read online that eating sardines can save you from the end of the world and there’s no way that I’m eating that.”

“Yeah. I don’t know what my mom is making, but it’s usually good whenever she goes on a cooking spree.”

“Okay. Can I come over now? The smell of sardines is emanating from the kitchen and has made it to my room. I don’t want the last thing I smell to be sardines.”

“Sure. Are you walking or riding your bike?”

“Probably just going to walk so we can keep talking. It doesn’t take that long to walk. You literally live just down the street.”

“Okay. What do you want to talk about?”

“I’ve always wanted to know what you thought about me the first time that we met,” Shane asked as I heard a door shut on his end of the phone.

“Honestly? I hated you when I first met you. I thought you were annoying. You kept trying to talk to me and I wanted nothing to do with you. Eventually you wore me down and now we are going on thirteen years of friendship. So, I told you my first impressions of you. Now it’s your turn. What did you think of me when we first met?”

“I thought that you were pretty cool and I really wanted to get to know you. I thought that you were never going to give me a chance and I was devastated. I didn’t know what I was going to do. I was overjoyed when you started talking to me. I literally jumped up and down, once. Although if you ever tell anyone that, I will deny it and tell everyone that you belong in an insane asylum.”

“Fair enough,” I said though my laughter. That is how our relationship had always been. There has always been just as much joking and goofing off as there are sincere honest conversations. I believe that is part of the reason that I developed a crush on him a few years ago. I’ve never really known if he actually has feelings for me or not, so I just never told him how I felt. Now that the world is potentially ending in two days, I don’t know if I should tell him or not. What if the world doesn’t end and I tell him and he doesn’t feel the same way. I don’t want anything to challenge our friendship because it means more to me than anything. I honestly would rather never tell him and have our friendship as strong as ever than tell him and lose him.

“Can you let me in? I’m at your window.”

I looked over and sure enough I saw his smiling face staring in my window. I got up from where I was seated on my bed and raised the window just enough that he could slide in.

“Why don’t you use the door like a normal person?”

“Because the window is so much easier. So I guess we can hang up now?”

“That would make sense,” I laughed as I attempted to locate my phone that had managed to get tangled in a blanket on my bed.

“Have I told you that I love your room. It looks so good. I wish it was my own.”

“Sure you do,” I joked as I flopped across my bed. Shane followed suit causing me to bounce a few inches into the air. “Why must you abuse my bed every time you are here?”

“It’s not abuse. It’s tough love.”

“Okay. Whatever you say.”

“Do you think school will be cancelled tomorrow? Because I really don’t want to have to go to school on one of the last days of my existence. That would just suck all around.”

“That would really suck. That is not how I want this all to end.”

“Alyssa, dinner is ready. Your dad isn’t back yet so it’s just you and me,” Mom called from the kitchen just down the hall from my room.

“Shane is here too,” I yelled back as Shane and I got off my bed and made our way to the dining room.

“Oh. I didn’t know that. When did you get here?” Mom asked as we took our seats.

“Maybe a half hour ago,” he replied politely, knowing my mother was in a fragile state.

“Oh. I must have been so busy cooking that I missed you walk by, or did you go through the window again?” Mom asked with a hint of a laughter in her voice. Shane had a similar effect on my mother that he had on me. He could make both of us feel better just by having a simple conversation. No matter how bad I was feeling or how terrible a day I had, Shane could make me smile by just saying hi.

“The window,” Shane replied sheepishly.

“Oh well. Let’s eat,” Mom smiled as she motioned to the table full of food in front of us.

I looked at the table that held everything from lasagna to cheeseburgers. I didn’t know where to start, everything looked so good. I am thankful I grew up with a mother that was an excellent cook. Everything she ever tried to make turned out tasting great. Shane loved coming over because my mom would always make cookies when he was here.

I scooped some of her hash brown casserole onto my plate along with a piece of grilled chicken. I spooned some of her caramelized carrots and sauteed corn onto my plate as well and then began eating.

After eating in silence for a few moments, the phone rang and Mom got up to answer it. When she didn’t come back, I knew that it was Dad calling with bad news.

My phone buzzed, just as Shane’s did.

“School is closed tomorrow. We just have to return our textbooks. If the world is really ending tomorrow, why do we have to return our books? How does that make sense?” Shane laughed.

“What time are you going to go by with your books?”

“Probably first thing in the morning. I’m not sure I’m going to sleep tonight. If the world is really going to end, then I don’t want to waste the small amount of time I have left. What about you?”

“Probably the same as you. We should do something tonight.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know. We could hang out at our spot?”

“I can ask my mom. I heard her talking to my dad before he left for work and it sounded like they wanted to spend today as a family and tomorrow with their parents. Maybe we can spend tomorrow together?”

“That sounds good. We can meet up tomorrow at six?”

“In the morning?” I whined.

“Yes. I thought you said you weren’t sleeping,” he joked.

“I’m not planning to, but it’s just weird to think about being awake at six in the morning. I haven’t been awake at that hour in years.”

“You were awake that early last week when we had to get to school early for that meeting. Only you would forget that so quickly.”

“I hadn’t so much as forgotten about that, as I had blocked the memory because it was a traumatic experience.”

“Sure it was.”

Both of us had finished eating and since my mom had not returned, we decided to clean up the table and put away all of the extra food.

After filling the fridge to its maximum capacity, Shane and I retreated to my room to hang out until he had to go home.

“We should do something,” Shane suggested.

“Like what?”

“I don’t know. After eating all that food, I feel like running. I know you hate all physical activity, and if the world is really going to end, is there really a point to exercise at this point?”

“The only exercise I’ll ever participate in is running to the kitchen for food, or running from a zombie that already ate you during the apocalypse.”

“Why did I already have to be eaten?” Shane asked as his lips turned into the fakest pouty face I’ve ever seen.

“Because, if you hadn’t been eaten, then there would be no reason for me to run. You would be carrying me. It was in the friendship agreement that we agreed to the day we became friends. It was the understanding we reached.”

“I don’t remember having any say in that.”

“Well, I guess you were just too blinded by the prospect of my friendship to actually care about the specifics of the friendship agreement.”

“Sure. That’s what happened,” he laughed sarcastically.

“It was,” I insisted, struggling to keep a serious expression on my face.

Neither of us could keep it in anymore, so we burst into a laughing fit that lasted until we both fell off the bed.

“How? Did? That? Even? Happen?” I huffed as I tried to catch my breath.

“”I. Don’t. Know,” coughed Shane.

We both sat up and propped ourselves against the edge of my bed.

“I wonder if my dad is even going to come home tonight, or if he is going to be stuck at work all night. Like, what can they even do at this point? The world is either going to end or it’s not.”

As if to answer my question, Mom called, “Alyssa, your dad is going to be home in about twenty minutes. Shane, you are welcome to stay if you want, but I bet your parents would want you home before it gets too late.”

“Okay,” Shane and I replied in unison.

“I better get going soon,” Shane said as he stood up.

“You don’t have to leave yet. You can stay at least until my dad gets home.”

“Okay. Fine. I’ll stay until your dad gets home.” Shane hopped onto the bed, landing with his head on the pillow and his feet hanging off the end.

“It still amazes me that you don’t fit on my bed.”

“You say that every time that I’m here and I’m literally here six times a week, minimum.”

“So?”

“Just saying. But I think your bed is just made for shorter people and that’s why I don’t fit.”

“I’m only four inches shorter than you. It’s not that much of a difference.”

“More like six to eight depending on your shoes.”

“Whatever.” I joined Shane on the bed and pushed him over enough that I could lay my head on my giant, fluffy green pillow that I had gotten for my birthday two years earlier.

We laid there for a minute, just staring at the ceiling before Shane reached over me to grab the remote that I kept tucked into a pouch on the post of my headboard. He turned on the TV and the first thing that came on was the news. We both paused and listened to the latest developments.

“We have now gotten enough proof to say that there is a ninety percent chance the world will come to an abrupt end at twelve noon on May twenty-eighth. Leading anthropologist, Edward Moon, has analyzed the recent findings and has shared his belief that this is ‘something that people should not take lightly. This is more likely than not going to happen.’ Because of the threat, many things are changing worldwide. All wars have stopped,” the news anchor paused for a minute as he seemed to be getting new information fed into his earpiece. “I have just been informed that the President has issued a statement that is likely to cause some anger from business owners. He has ordered that everything be free from now until May twenty-eighth at twelve noon. If the world does not end, prices will be restored and everyone will be expected to pay the full value of anything they got during the free time period.”

The television cut to a commercial as soon as the anchor was done delivering the President’s statement.

“Do you believe that this is real? There have been so many false alarms in recent years and nothing has ever come of any of them.”

“Even though my father was just on the news and said he was ninety percent sure this is really going to be it, I still have my doubts. I think there is a chance, but I don’t think everything can go from being perfectly functional to the end in two days. It seems just a little abrupt. What do you think?”

“I sort of agree with you, but I also trust your dad and if he thinks this is real, I don’t know. It’s just a little scary to think there could only be two days left.”

“I know. The idea keeps going through my head. How is it going to happen? Is it going to hurt? Is anyone going to survive?”

“You could ask your dad when he gets home. He might have some insight about that,” Shane said as he pushed himself up into a sitting position. “I should get going. Your dad will be home any minute and I think you should spend tonight with your family. I’ll pick you up tomorrow at six and we can take our books to school and then spend the rest of the day doing whatever you want to do.”

“Okay. I’ll see you then.”

Shane walked over to the window he had entered through only three hours earlier, and threw his legs over the windowsill, sliding out into the darkness that had descended.