The End is Now (24 page)

And even today, looking at the fairgrounds helped melt her problems away. It was beautiful. Icicles hung off the Ferris wheel,
making it look like an enormous spider web; frost covered the windows of the funhouse; and the road into the fairgrounds was
coated in ice, creating an endlessly welcoming white path. She’d never been out here after an ice storm and she wondered why
not — the fairgrounds looked so magical this time of the year, like something out of a Tim Burton movie. So she resolved that
in the future she would visit the fairgrounds whenever it got icy just so she could get a mental break and contemplate things
like family and faith and the meaning of the universe.

Curtis pulled his car up and Emily hopped outside to meet him. The two stared in the cold for a moment until Curtis said,
“Hey yourself.” Emily looked at him a little puzzled. Then Curtis stammered, “Normally I say, ‘Hey,’ and you say, ‘Hey yourself,’
so I thought I’d just preempt all of that by saying, ‘Hey yourself.’ ”

“That’s cute,” Emily said in a tone that implied it
wasn’t
cute even though she actually though it
was
cute. These are the types of mind games teenage boys and girls play when they’re attracted to each other.

“
I
thought so,” Curtis said. “So how are you doing?” His nose was already Rudolph red from the cold. It was adorable.

“My family’s crazy,” she answered.

“All families are crazy.”

“My family believes this town is about to come to its end.”

“A lot of people believe this town is about to come to its end.”

“My family caused everyone to believe that.”

“Touché.”

“Why haven’t you asked me to homecoming?” Emily asked. Then she was a little embarrassed for having asked. It was kind of
an abrupt subject change. But she could not go on any longer until she knew the answer. And besides, she shouldn’t be nearly
as embarrassed as Curtis. He
should
have asked her by now. How could he not see how lucky he was? She was willing to go with him. She was putting herself out
there. And she never put herself out there.

“Two reasons I haven’t asked. One, I thought you didn’t want to go with me,” Curtis said.

“Even if I did, I couldn’t act like I did,” Emily said.

“Okay, well then, I’ll be honest and say the second reason is that I don’t want to go with you anymore.”

“You don’t what?” Emily said. It was all she could manage. She suddenly felt like that girl in junior high again — the girl
she vowed she’d never become — the girl who was crying and alone in the bathroom. That girl was the whole reason she wanted
to become homecoming queen, so she could put all of that behind her. Only now she was morphing into that pathetic, crying
girl right in front of Curtis’ eyes. How was this happening? He was supposed to be her backup and he was rejecting her.

But it was worse than that.

She needed a boy to like her and care for her and hold her right now. Her family was falling apart. Her parents didn’t understand
who she was anymore. Her entire belief system up to this point was a sham. She’d been dodging calls from Derrick and Philip
because she thought it would be so much more adventurous to go with Curtis, only now Derrick and Philip had other cute, smiley
blonde girls who’d wear bubble-gum pink dresses to homecoming. Curtis was her last chance. And he was ditching her, which
meant she had absolutely no chance of becoming homecoming queen — and that meant since sunrise that day, every ounce of meaning
she’d attached her life to in the last seventeen years had now crumbled into nothing.

“I should probably leave,” Emily said.

She fished her keys out of her pocket. She was already picturing her ride home where she would blare love songs and cry and
scream when Curtis said, “I don’t want to ask you to homecoming, but I do want to ask you something else.”

“What? What could you possibly want to ask me right now?”

Curtis got on one knee. His designer jeans were getting ice and dirt all over them, but he didn’t seem to notice as he grabbed
Emily’s hand and asked, “Will you marry me?”

Emily ripped her hand away. “You are a jerk. You reject me and now you’re making fun of me?”

“How’s asking for someone’s hand in marriage making fun of them?”

“Let me get this straight, you won’t ask me to homecoming but you want me to marry you?”

“Why waste time with homecoming? What if everything really ends? I know it won’t, but what if it does? Wouldn’t it be nice
to be married? To have our own little place that we could decorate however we wanted, a place where we could invite friends
over for Rummy tournaments and wine parties and where we could play whatever music we wanted to play anytime, day or night.”

“I can’t tell if you’re being serious,” Emily said.

“All I’m saying is there’s some weird stuff going on in this town. It’s got me thinking that I don’t want to watch it end
all alone. I mean, two days ago I was scared about asking you to homecoming. I was actually scared that you would say no.
Now today, there are much bigger fears like the town being sealed off, storms ripping buildings apart, and the apocalypse
taking us or killing us or doing something to us all. That should scare the freaking daylights out of me. But it doesn’t.
Because do you know what actually scares me? This could all end and I could have wasted all my time being so worried about
being rejected that I didn’t ask you out. It scares me that things could come to an end, which would mean I’d never get a
chance to get to know this amazing girl that I’m staring at right now.”

This is going to end badly, Emily thought. She just wanted a nice boy to take her to homecoming. She didn’t want to actually
fall in love with him. She didn’t want to start caring about him and thinking about him for every waking moment. That was
the last thing she needed. And getting married? Did she really want that? No, but then again, Curtis was right. Everyone was
doing whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted to. It might as well have become the mantra of Goodland: If it feels good,
do it because we’re all just going to be raptured anyway.

If my family’s going to act crazy, I might as well join them, she thought.

Emily looked at Curtis and smiled. He smiled back, waiting for her to say something. She didn’t say a word — she just lunged
at Curtis, wrapped her arms around him, and kissed him. She could feel his ice-cold Rudolph nose mashed against her face,
but she didn’t care. She was feeling warmer already.

Glenn Davis hated being cold. Even in the dead of summer he liked to have his heater blaring. He liked to walk around his
house in shorts, flip-flops, and a Hawaiian shirt in the middle of January because it felt like he was beating nature. He
felt almost godlike when he set his house at whatever temperature he wanted despite what was going on outside.

He wasn’t sure what he thought about all this rapture stuff; he didn’t know if he should side with the Realists, the Prepared,
or if there was some other third party he could side with.

But he’d been standing in the freezer aisle with everyone else just trying to get some TV dinners when that Henderson boy
walked in and proclaimed that the power was leaving. As soon as that boy left, everyone was yammering away about what “the
power is leaving” meant. Everyone in the grocery aisle quickly decided the boy was talking about electricity, running water,
and natural gas.

All of that would soon be gone.

And Glenn thought that even if it didn’t go out, one of the fanatics would make sure it went out just to prove a point. The
thought of no power petrified Glenn. It was freezing outside. He wasn’t ready for winter and now ice was everywhere. Having
to face that without a heater was nearly enough to drive him insane.

So while everyone else was debating the nuances of what the boy’s prophecy meant, saying things like, “Why did he say, ‘The
power is leaving’ instead of, ‘The power will leave’? Does that mean it’s leaving right now?” Glenn darted out the door of
the Super Mart.

He jumped in his car and sped down the road thinking of everything that was suddenly at stake. Soon microwaves, hair dryers,
televisions, iPods, toaster ovens, laptop and desktop computers, coffee makers, lamps, electric razors, Crock-Pots, and cell
phones would be rendered useless things of the past.

He realized how used to technology the people of Goodland had become. He’d been around Goodland for forty-seven years, and
it was always a town that prided itself on resisting the change that technology imposes on all of us. They wanted to be old-fashioned.
They wanted to churn their own butter and farm their own vegetables and slaughter their own organic chickens.

When he was a boy, everyone hung their laundry outside with clothespins even though everyone else in the country had a device
cleverly called “a dryer” that would dry their laundry for them. And when technology finally crow-barred its way into their
lives, Glenn watched as everyone tried to cling to the old technology even when new and better technology was in its place.
They clung to Beta tapes long after it was clear that VHS had won the war, and right after they switched to VHS, DVDs appeared
on the scene. They tried to avoid the digital age like the plague.

But they lost every battle.

Glenn didn’t care about all of that. He wasn’t much for gadgets. But living without heat was unthinkable. So he knew he needed
to get a generator as soon as possible. And besides, he realized that once the power went out, all those who had generators
would become kings. They’d be like cavemen who’d discovered the secret of fire.

Glenn smiled as he realized how important he was about to become. For once in his life he wouldn’t be inferior. He had no
idea what it would feel like to be important. He wasn’t smart enough, so he didn’t get into the right college. He wasn’t good-looking
or charming enough, so he could never find the right girl to like him, and by the time he was ready for any girl to like him,
it was too late. He was too old and never got married. He didn’t have any of the things that society thought were valuable.
The only thing that he could control was how hot it was in his house during the winter or how cool it was during the summer.

But things were about to be different.

He would have power when everyone else did not. He could hire bodyguards to watch his generator and supermodels to hang around
his house and the best chefs to cook him meals. And they’d all be willing to because he’d be the only one with a working TV.
Not to mention that the only alternative would be hanging around a bonfire in the middle of some street trying to stay warm
and cook a meager amount of food.

Throughout history there were always equalizers in society. The printing press, the first handgun, Model T cars, the television,
and internet stock trading all changed who was powerful in society. With all electricity leaving, the totem pole was about
to once again get reshuffled and I’m going to end up on top, Glenn thought as he walked into the supply store.

“I need a generator,” Glenn said.

“Wow,” the store manager said. “These sure are a hot item today. I only have one left.”

“How many did you have?”

“Three. But they’ve just been sitting on the back shelf all year. Nobody has wanted one until today.”

“Well today is a different day,” Glenn said. He wondered what his face looked like at that moment. It probably had some sort
of diabolical smile on it.

“I guess it is. I’ll be right back,” the manager said as he walked to the back room to get his last generator. The last generator
in town. And Glenn was about to own it. Now he could hardly wait for the power to go out.

Mike finally got to Main Street just as a gang of men — grown, well-groomed men who’d look perfectly natural in suits — picked
up a large metal trash can and flung it through the window of Bob’s Electronic Superstore. Bob’s was a staple on Main Street,
but these men didn’t seem to notice or care as they watched the glass shatter, jumped through the window, and emerged with
armfuls of loot. Mike screamed at them to stop and even fired a shot in the air, but the men just ran as fast as they could,
dropping any merchandise that became too cumbersome to run away with.

When the men were gone, Mike surveyed downtown Good-land. It was only a little before noon and already many of the stores
on Main Street had been wrecked, looted, vandalized, and picked clean. Tiny fires burned in metal garbage cans; glass, brick,
chunks of sheet rock, and trash littered the street that was normally bustling with friendly Kansas folk. Mike had never seen
anything like it.

Not in Goodland anyway.

Mike got in his car and clicked the handheld police radio. “Hey Earl,” Mike said.

“Yeah, Sarge,” Earl said.

“Have you seen downtown?”

“No, I’ve been out here on I – 70 for at least eight hours now,” Earl said.

“How’s it going out there?”

“Not good. We’re trying to keep this roadblock, but people keep trying to get around the thing. Then a couple of miles down
the road they end up in a ditch and I’ve got to send a squad car and a tow truck to get them out.”

“Well, downtown’s a mess too. We need some men down here.”

“I can’t spare anyone.”

“Well, I’m gonna need you to,” Mike said.

“Okay Sergeant, let me get this straight. You want me to keep the roadblock on both ends of town and tell people to stay home
because the highway patrol has shut down 70?” Earl asked.

“Yes, I want that, and I need some men to stop the looting and violence down here.”

“Well, there ain’t enough men for that,” Earl said. He was shouting now. For all the years on the force, Earl was the level-headed
one. Nothing rattled him. And from the sound of his voice, he was coming off the hinges.

“Well, figure something out,” Mike shouted back and slammed down the radio.

He sat in his car and continued to stare at the damage downtown. How did this happen so quickly? What was going on in the
hearts and minds of people in this town? This was a friendly place. A safe place. This was nothing like the big cities of
Kansas: Salina, Manhattan, and Kansas City, which, of course, was only partly in Kansas — half the city was is in Missouri
— and that was probably why it had so much lawlessness and evil. Goodland, on the other hand, was the type of place where
you borrowed a cup of sugar from your neighbor, where the bagger kid at the checkout line of the grocery store knew you by
your first name, where you never had to lock your front door. And now, after a couple of rough storms, it seemed that everyone
was willing to throw all of that away.