End of Days

I never believed. Not in something like this. It’s ridiculous.

Religious kooks have been getting hard ons for the apocalypse every few years since I’ve been alive. A little reading tells me that’s been the way of things since antiquity. For each of the prophecies and predictions, the big day comes, nothing happens, and we go on as we’ve always done. Today turned out differently.

In a strange way, I think the idea of an apocalypse brings religious people comfort. For the world to be destroyed according to a prophecy, that would mean that there is something outside of ourselves making decisions about our species. It would mean there is actually something out there that’s in charge and it’s not just chance that I happen to be here, watching the world end with my family.

We’re in the basement now. The kids are crying. My wife is crying. I am too. We’re hungry and the power is out. It’s not safe outside, so we’re waiting. If there’s enough time, we’re waiting until it’s late enough to cry ourselves to sleep.

We’ll all sleep together in a heap. It makes me think about Pompeii and those people burned to ash doing whatever they happened to doing when their time came. If there are survivors that come after, this is how I’d like to be found, my arms around the people that mattered most.

If there is a tomorrow, we’ll see what can be done then. Maybe things will have settled down. For now, I need to make peace with my creator. I’ve always wanted to see tangible proof of a god, to really know it wasn’t just a bunch of stories made up by scared cavemen, and now here it is. God finally decided to show up and answer some questions. It’s probably a little late, but now that I know there’s someone to hear them, we’ll see if prayers are still being answered.

Now I lay me down to sleep…