Rapture

• Science
• Science fiction
• Short story
• Drama

								
I don’t know what I expected.
Jamie says he always thought the world would end like they say  in the Bible. Swarms of locusts, angels coming down from the heavens. His mom is a Christian—not him so much, though—and she still thinks it’s gonna be like that. All she’s been doing for the past few days is praying. Still trying to ascend, I guess. 
Georgina figured it would happen because of climate change. I guess she was the closest.
When NASA told everyone about the meteor heading towards earth, I couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed. Like, is that really the end of the world? 4 billion years, and one measly meteor is gonna mess it all up? It just didn’t seem right. 
But I guess I don’t know how I pictured the world ending before all this. Maybe I tried not to picture it at all. It’s not so bad, though. There are worse ways to die. 
Georgina is crying again. She’s been crying a lot since everything started. I have been too, I guess. Right now it’s about the bluebird that just flew by. 
“I’m gonna miss birds.” she says.
“You’re not gonna miss anything,” Jamie tells her. “You’re gonna be dead.”
“Shut up.” She sniffs, wiping her eyes. Everyone has been crying a lot recently. I can see why. Everytime  I see a friend, eat a meal, take a walk, I think to myself, “this might be the last time I see that person, or eat that particular meal, or walk in that particular direction ever again.”  And then I get all weepy. It’s like we’re all extra nostalgic, but we’re nostalgic for everything in the world.
We’re sitting on the roof of her house, which I used to be scared to do, except now it doesn’t really matter. (I’m still scared actually, but I just tell myself it doesn’t matter.)
  “Well, what about heaven?” I say this not because I believe in it strongly but because it might instigate a fun argument. 
Jamie studies his nails, dragging the thumb of his right hand over the palm of his left. “I dunno. It’s a nice idea, I guess. Not sure if any of us are getting up there, though.”
Sniffling, Georgina says, “Angie always says that she thinks none of the religions got the whole heaven/hell part exactly right. Like, they all got bits of it, but none of them put the entire picture together because they fought instead of cooperating with each other,” Gina shrugs. “It’s the exact sort of stupid hippie crap my sister is always into, but I don’t know. Maybe she’s right. It would be cool if she was, anyway. Don’t tell her I said that, though.” 
We laugh, and then we stop laughing, because it’s not like we’re ever gonna get a chance to tell Gina’s sister anything ever again. She’s stuck up at NYU. There’s no trains or planes or taxis available anymore. They saw her at Christmas, though. But that was before. 
It’s getting dark. We watch the sunset and I think we’re all realizing this is the last sunset we’ll ever see, but none of us say it out loud. It doesn’t need to be said.
So instead, Jamie says, “Do you think it’s gonna start over?”
“What d’you mean?” I ask.
“You know. Like God is doing an etcha sketch move. Clean slate. There’s gonna be new dinosaurs and cavemen and civilization. We went south somewhere and he’s trying to fix his mistakes with this last one.”
“You’re asking me if God is doing an etcha sketch move? Man, I don’t know.” I’m laughing now. I don’t know if anything is really funny, but I’m glad to be laughing.
“I think there’s probably gonna be survivors. I mean, someone must have, like, a really good underground bunker.” Georgina pipes up. It’s a very Georgina thing to say, really. Hopeful in a cynical way.
“I doubt it,” I say. “They say it’s gonna be the whole planet.”
“Meteors don’t usually work that way.” 
“Maybe.” She’s right. Scientifically, it’s not supposed to be possible. So maybe god is involved.
I guess we’ll find out.
“I mean, maybe they got it all wrong,” Jamie says, tapping his fingers against his thighs. “You know? Maybe the meteor isn’t coming tonight, and it’s gonna miss earth by accident, and we’ll all be okay.”
Georgina and I look at each other, and then back at him.
“I know I’m wrong,” he snaps. “But it would be nice.”
“Yeah, it would.” I say
Georgina’s mom calls her for dinner, and I numbly think that it  feels like a weird time for a family dinner, but it also feels like a weird time for everything. We make our way back through her window and downstairs. She would usually ask us to stay, but tonight she doesn’t. It’s ok. We know why.
We walk outside together, and then she hugs us both around the neck, standing on her tiptoes. 
“I love you, idiots.” She’s crying now.
I’m crying too. “Love you too.” 
Jamie mumbles it under his breath. He runs his bangs over his face on purpose, I think, cause he’s also crying. We both want to tease him so, so, bad. We don’t. 
Georgina waves at us until we’ve walked so far from her house that she looks tiny in the distance. 
We’re silent for a few minutes, me and Jamie, which is ok because that’s how it always is.
And just like always, I’m the first to talk. “You’ve been calm.”
He shrugs. “I’m always calm.”
“Well yeah, but now would be a good time to start getting really freaked out. That’s what I’ve been doing.”
“You do you, then.”
“What’s your secret? To being calm, I mean.”
He smiles, just a little bit. “I’m ready, I think. I’ve been ready.”
“To die?”
“Yeah.”
“Bleak.”
He laughs. And he says, in the fancy voice he uses when he’s done being serious, “Who could be bleak on a beautiful night like this?”
It is a beautiful night. The perfect weather that’s cold enough you’re not sweating, but warm enough that you don’t need a sweater. The sun is still just setting and it’s not completely dark out, but I can see the moon faintly as it starts to appear.  Someone is setting off fireworks nearby, but I’m not close enough to see them yet. I just hear the ear piercing shot as they go off. 
We’re at Jamie’s house.
“You can come to my place, if you want.” I know, for once, he’s going to say no, but I offer anyway.
He shakes his head. “I shouldn’t. Me and them don’t get along too well, but they’re not so bad. They deserve a goodbye, at least.”
I don’t know if I agree with all that. I know the stories about his parents.  But still, I understand. “Yeah, I figured.”
We hug.
Jamie says, “See you on the other side, then?”
I say, “And if not, nice to meet you.”
He laughs. I do too, but it’s weak. 
“Nice to meet you too.”

My mom is waiting on the porch when I get back. She’s sitting on the stoop, watching the fireworks.
“That’s illegal.” I tell her, pointing at the sky. “You need a license to set those off.”
She pats the spot next to her and I join her on the step. “Police don’t care about that right now. No one really cares about anything.”
“It’s a little like the Purge.” I say.
“Are those movies the ones with that Jason guy? I hated that.”
“That’s Friday the 13th.”
“Similar premise.”
“Not really, though.”
We sit for a minute. Then she says,
“Are you nervous?”
To die? I don’t know. “A little.”

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