The End is Now (20 page)

Jeff had never heard Kevin say anything like that in his life. Jeff knew Kevin was playing the part, and he couldn’t help
but be impressed that Kevin was playing it so well.

Other customers would say, “I don’t know. It’s all a little silly to me.”

And Kevin would reply, “Tell me about it! Who knew we were the test market for the rapture?” This would always get a response.
Sometimes the customer would belly laugh, other times it would get a polite chuckle, but either way Kevin stood confidently
and grinned.

Kevin told this joke so many times (and maybe it wasn’t his joke, maybe he’d just heard it from someone else) that the phrase
started to stick. That night, in the evening edition of the
Goodland Times
, there was a tongue-in-cheek piece titled
The Top 10 Great Things about Being the Test Market for the Rapture.
And Morry (of Morry’s T-Shirts) screen-printed a whole clothing line based on this phrase. Normally he only printed shirts
aimed at tourists, shirts that said things like “Kansas:
There’s No Place Like Home
.” But on that day he decided to start printing rapture T-shirts. They were a huge hit — everyone loved them. Some of the
shirts contained somber warnings like “The End Is Now” and “Repent or You Won’t Be Sent.” Others had witty phrases like “In
case of rapture I’ll be naked.” It seemed that the entire town was starting to lean towards one camp or the other. They were
either in the repent camp or the naked camp. They either believed that the rapture was extraordinarily serious and coming
soon, or they believed it was some myth to have fun with.

And Jeff’s final customer of the day must have belonged to the more serious camp because she came in wearing one of Morry’s
black T-shirts with white lettering that read “We’ll Be Gone in the Blink of an Eye.”

“Good morning,” Jeff said as he reached out to shake her hand. “Jeff Henderson?”

“Mary.”

“All right Mary, what kind of car are you looking for? Something flashy?”

“Flashy? No,” Mary said. All of Jeff’s other customers that morning seemed enthusiastic and bubbly. Mary was sour and serious
— she seemed like the type of person who would only get joy from things like sending orphan children to bed without dessert.

“Sure, something more practical,” Jeff said.

“Good. Everyone’s assuming we’re pre-trib. But what if we’re post-trib or middle-trib? No one’s talking about that, are they?”

“I guess not,” Jeff said. But he barely understood what Mary was talking about. From his understanding, post-trib meant the
rapture wouldn’t happen until after the wars and meteors and Antichrist-led tribulation. Mid-trib meant it would happen in
the middle of all that. It seemed most in Goodland had the pre-trib philosophy, assuming God would want to scoop them up before
all the pain and suffering really kicked in.

“That’s why I want a car with the best possible gas mileage,” Mary said. “I want a car that will still be running when all
these flashy SUVs are stranded without gas. And even then I will only use it for extreme emergencies. I’m going to be wise
with how I use my resources. That’s how I’m going to survive this,” Mary said.

“So, you believe the rapture is actually coming?” Jeff asked.

“What I believe, sir, are two simple rules: Plan for the worst and hope for the best, and better safe than sorry. Those two
rules have kept me alive for a long time, and they’ll keep me alive when everyone else is running around like chickens with
their heads cut off. Your son said we should prepare for the rapture and this is how I’m going to prepare.”

“Wait, my son said what?” Jeff asked.

“He said we should prepare.”

“When did he say that?”

“This morning on the Channel 4 Early Edition news.”

“Okay, hold on. He was on the news?”

“Everyone has been talking about it all day.”

“About what?”

“The interview. Nancy Palmer asked him, ‘What should we do?’ And he said we should prepare, and if we don’t, we won’t have
anyone to blame but ourselves.”

“He said that?”

“Yes.”

“This morning on the news?”

“Yes.”

“Really?”

“Aren’t you his father? Or have I confused you with someone else?”

“Yes, I’m his father. Did he predict what the next sign would be?”

“No. I thought he would, but he didn’t.”

Jeff couldn’t think straight. He yelled, “Kevin!”

“What?” Kevin Grabowski called.

“This is Mary. Can you find her a car with low gas mileage?”

“Hello, Mary,” Kevin said, putting his arm around her. Kevin was going to get Jeff’s sale, but it didn’t matter. There was
only one question that mattered at the moment — what was Amy doing? All day long people had been talking to him about Will.
But Jeff just assumed it was because of his prediction days ago. No one had come out and said Will was on the news this morning.

But it made sense now.

That’s why he was fresh on their minds. That’s why they were talking about him all day. He was their link, the spokesman for
the rapture. But what exactly had he been saying? How had Jeff not found out about it all day? Was he really running that
late this morning that he just rushed out of the house and didn’t even notice his wife and son were gone? Was he really that
self-centered? Was he that bad of a father?

Jeff saw another flash: Will standing behind a large pulpit. There was an enormous sound system behind him so he could speak
to all who’d gathered to hear him. He was screaming warnings to the masses. And the masses ate up every word he said. Jeff
could see himself trying to tell Will to stop, but neither Will nor anyone else would listen to him. And finally, when he
would try to come up to his son, two large bodyguards would carry Jeff away. Will was now a prophet, and he was too big and
much too important to listen to what his small-minded father had to say.

Jeff closed his eyes and shook his head. Stop it, he thought. Will just made a few comments on the news. You don’t even know
what happened yet. It could be nothing. Yes, that’s it, nothing. She was probably just going to get groceries at seven in
the morning, and maybe she felt that Will needed to get out of the house. Maybe she thought she could take him to the grocery
store in the early hours before anyone would notice him so he wouldn’t be hassled by lots of curious customers. And then,
maybe along the way, she got inspired and decided to drive a few miles out of the way to the news station. She’d pop her head
in to say hi, and then, somehow in a whirlwind of confusion, the news anchors tricked Will into going on the news and making
all sorts of statements on the rapture. The news anchors had convinced him to throw a bucketful of gasoline on the raging
fire that was the Armageddon paranoia in Goodland.

That’s probably what happened.

Because if that isn’t what happened, then the alternative was a little difficult to stomach. The alternative would mean Amy
deliberately snuck Will out of the house long before he even woke up. She snuck him out because she had no intention of listening
or debating or arguing about what should be done about her son. She was going to take control now. She was going to let Will
prophecy the signs of the rapture so that he could be a hero, and she didn’t care if he or the mayor or anyone else disagreed
with what she was doing. She was like the mom of a child star actor who could not see all the extreme psychological damage
that was being done. The mom of the child star actor never focused on how the experience would take a toll on the child for
the rest of his life — all the child star actor’s mother could see were the dollar signs and fame and adoration in front of
her. And that hungry parent would do anything to get her hands on the instantaneous riches and glory their child offered.

No matter what the cost.

Maybe she didn’t quite understand what the cost was; maybe if she knew she’d put on the brakes and look at the bigger picture.
So if Amy were able to step back and see just how damaging her actions were, she’d stop all of this. She’d come to her senses.

Jeff intended to explain all of this to Amy as he flew up the driveway and slammed on the brakes. He jumped out of the car,
but before he could even get in the house, Amy was outside to greet him. She gave him a hug and kissed as if they were still
teenagers and as if their kids weren’t watching.

What is she doing?

“How was work today?” she asked.

“Good. Amy — ”

“Because I heard the cars were selling off the lot.”

“Yeah, they were. I sold ten.”

“You sold ten! That’s amazing!” Amy said and flung her arms around him again.

“Yeah, I guess it is.”

“Wow, we aren’t going to have to worry anymore. Everything’s going to be okay now.”

“I don’t know if that’s true. Was Will on the news this morning?”

“You didn’t see it?”

“No, I rushed out of the house, and it was such a whirlwind today — ”

“You
have
to see it,” Amy said. “Will looks so grown up. He was so confident up there. Come watch it. Susan Jackson taped it for me,”
Amy said as she grabbed Jeff’s hand and pulled him toward the house.

“I don’t want to watch it. What I want to know is why Will was on the news in the first place. Didn’t you think you should
ask me about this?”

“Honey, you seemed so overwhelmed with everything else.”

“So, what, you didn’t think I could handle it?”

“Why are you so upset?”

“You took our son on the news without even asking me. I thought I made it clear yesterday that I didn’t want him to give any
more prophecies.”

“He didn’t give any more prophecies. Weren’t you just waiting for the time to be right?”

“The time will never be right. Ever. Our son is now the center of all of this. If anything goes wrong we will be blamed. Those
fanatics are going to be at our house. And one of those groups is not going to be happy. And do you know who they’ll go after
first?”

“You were never going to have him give the prophecy?”

“No, I wasn’t.”

“Even after the tornado?”

“Especially after the tornado. Whatever’s going to happen is going to happen. Why should Will have to talk about it?”

“Will saved all of those lives. What if something like that is going to happen again? What if Will can save all of those people
again?”

“That’s not our problem. End of discussion.”

That’s when Jeff saw Amy’s eyes go cold. It seemed that all the love she ever had for him drained out of them. She spun around,
went inside, slammed the door, and dead-bolted it shut behind her.

Jeff twisted the knob and it wouldn’t open. He pounded on the door. “Come on, Amy, let me in.” Jeff had the deadbolt installed
after one of his paranoid flashes about a burglary. He never thought the bolt would be used to lock him out.

Then above him it started raining down clothes. T-shirts and slacks and his toiletry bag hit the ground with a thud. Amy was
throwing his clothes out the window.

“Do you need anything else?” Amy asked.

“Anything else for what?”

“You need to stay at a hotel tonight, Jeff.”

“I do?”

“Yeah, and probably for a while.”

“Come on, Amy.”

“You cannot be at this house until you’re ready to support what is going on with Will. I can’t believe you just want to let
people die because you’re scared, Jeff.”

“This is ridiculous. Let’s talk about this. I’m not staying in a hotel.”

Amy slammed the window shut.

“Amy!” Jeff shouted, but she didn’t answer.

And after about a half hour of knocking on the door, calling inside, and trying to get someone to let him in, Jeff decided
that Amy was serious. So he gathered his stuff and hopped back in the car with nothing left to do but see what vacancies Goodland
hotels had to offer.

It was the black ice that made things really spiral out of control. Even without it, Goodland was in a frenzied state. Sure,
a lot of people were throwing parties, buying cars and houses, and acting ready to meet the end with a rather cavalier attitude.
Nonetheless, it was tough to say at first how many people were really feeling all that carefree, because the day after a tornado
seemed like a giant snow day in Goodland. Life felt crazy and carefree simply because there were enough people acting that
way, so everyone else just followed.

But by that night, as the adrenaline of the daytime frenzy wore off, a lot of the townspeople of Goodland were sitting around
in their living rooms — or in bars, diners, or coffee shops — discussing what the tornado really meant.

There was a lot of debate.

Some said they thought the Henderson boy must have had some sort of operation that made him sensitive to weather patterns.
They said they’d heard stories about men who’d come home from Vietnam and had metal plates put in their heads. These men could
tell when a thunderstorm was coming
days
before there were any clouds. Maybe it was the same with Will Henderson. Maybe some unnatural thing like a metal plate in
his head or knee or arm was there helping him sense when tornados were coming. If he’d lived in Florida he could have predicted
a hurricane. If he’d lived in Thailand he could have predicted a tsunami.

A few said that it was a government conspiracy and aliens caused the tornado. Of course these people always thought there
was a government conspiracy involving aliens. They didn’t know why New Mexico got all of the press because they said all the
real UFO activity was in Kansas. What kind of crop-circles can you find in New Mexico? Name one, they’d say. No one was really
listening to this crowd. They were just whispering amongst themselves like they always did.

Then there were those who agreed with Nancy, the newscaster, who’d said that this event was just something their intellect
couldn’t grasp. They said it was just an unbelievable coincidence that all of the events had happened, but that’s all. There
was no need to go reading more into it. Sometimes there are things that are unexplainable and defy logic. But if we try to
decide that we know the cause for those sorts of problems, then we come up with answers like, “The world is flat,” and, “The
bubonic plague was caused by witches.”