The snow fell like fading memories. Fast flakes. Then… gone. Brumpumpum bumps. The struggling motor moaned like a ghost in the dark. Dark? Why was the sky not dark? Where was the moon… the stars? My blinking eyes were hazy against the orange sky.
It was not yet golden – not yet gone.
Me, lonely in my broken-down car – the orange sky – and the snow. Every crystal – a spit on my windshield.
A strange woman stood on my porch. She played with her keys.
Was she a real estate agent? My door opened. Creaking. Cracking.
“They’re gone. Kids’r with her,” she hollered from the porch. She kept playing with her keys.
She was chewing gum. Smug look. My face. I shook my head. “You ‘er friend?”
“Something like that,” she said, swinging her keys.
“You mind?” She said, gesturing.
“Be my guest.”
Strange woman. Afro puff. She has a ‘70s style and a ‘70s strut, a flower silk shirt, and a clay-colored skirt. The door opened.
“Set me free,” I said.
“What?”
“Nothing,” I muttered. I motioned out the window. “It’s daylight!”
The woman scoffed. She grabbed a few things and threw them in a box.
“Ain’t you never seen the light before, Champ?”
I glanced down at my watch. “But… it’s past midnight!”
Her high heels clacked as she walked towards the door. “I think you’re halfpast crazy, Champ,” she said over her shoulder. She closed the door. I sunk deeper into my couch. I slept through the shadows of the sunlight at midnight. When I awoke, a crowd was standing in my living room. Old friends. Lovers. All of them – a reflection of my past. It was a party. I checked my watch. 2AM. But there was still that sun. That light. And that snow. It kept falling like ash. I turned to my old friend, Christopher.
“What is this?” I asked. “You’ve been gone for 20 years!”
“I’m home now,” he said. “You are too.” He turned towards the window.
“Watch the show.”
“The what?” Then I saw it. In the haze of the nighttime sun was a streak. White. Thin. It looked like a comet of a million distant memories. It arched across the sky and dropped on a city building miles away. We all sat. Calm. Then it came. A wave of rubble and ruin – coming toward us – coming for us! We ran for shelter – but there was none. Souls fizzled like matches in the rain. I turned and saw the strange lady again, “What is this?”
“It’s you, Champ.”
“What?” I asked. “How? Where’s my family?”
“They’re gone,” she said.
“Where… Where?” I asked. Grabbing. Shaking. Demanding.
Her keys – still jangling. “Where we all go, sweetie… Where we all go.” •
