The End is Now (13 page)

And halfway through dinner Jeff noticed that Uncle Dale was starting to make some jokes about his mom. He didn’t understand
at the time what the joke was exactly, all he knew was Uncle Dale asked his mom if his father’s Snickers satisfied her. Jeff
didn’t even know his dad gave candy bars to his mother on a regular basis. But apparently he did and it was serious business,
because at the word
satisfied
Jeff’s father slammed his fist on the table and told Uncle Dale, “You need to leave. Now.”

“Come on, I was just joking around,” Uncle Dale said.

“I don’t care what you were doing. You can do it somewhere else.”

“Where am I supposed to go? It’s Christmas day.”

“Don’t make me ask you again.”

At that, Uncle Dale got up from the table. He grabbed the big red box he’d brought for Jeff and left the house without saying
another word. The house shook as Uncle Dale slammed the door.

And then Jeff and his father and mother were all sitting at the table alone on this silent, lame Christmas day. This was supposed
to be the best Christmas ever and his dad ruined it because of a candy bar joke. Seriously? Jeff knew not to question his
father, but on that day he felt like he needed some answers.

“Why did you kick him out, Dad?”

“He was drunk. He was saying things I don’t want you or your mother around.”

“So you just kicked him out? On Christmas?”

“It’s what I had to do.”

“I didn’t even get to see my present. It’s not fair.”

“This isn’t about
fair
.”

“Well, it’s not right, then, I mean.”

“This is bigger than right and wrong. This is about protecting my family.”

And this was how his father always governed their household. From the moment he was born until he got Amy pregnant and had
to leave, Jeff watched as his father led the family. He didn’t empathize. He didn’t ask everyone else how they felt. He did
what he thought was right.

Now, all of these years later, Jeff could see how many right decisions his father had made. He could see why the Uncle Dales
of this world had to be kicked out of the house. Because there are times when you stop worrying about making the popular decisions
and instead you make the right ones. And it was time for Jeff to start making those types of decisions. It was time for this
to be over. It was time to put Will, the cornfield, and the prophecies behind them. As he drifted off to sleep he looked forward
to tomorrow, to getting on with their lives, to right decisions he’d get to make.

The next morning Jeff awoke with resolve. It was time to go back to normal. Sure, normal meant Jeff would have to go back
to work, and he was growing more and more tired of his job. The work completely exhausted him; even the thought of work made
Jeff squirm. If he saw a car commercial on the television it sent him into a cold sweat, and while most people love the new
car smell, it sent shivers through his spine. He imagined it was the same way a Vietnam veteran must feel when they smell
napalm.

But he needed to get back. Today was about providing for his family. So he grabbed his work clothes and decided to complete
his outfit by wearing his maroon-colored tie with navy blue diagonal stripes. It was the tie Amy bought for him last Christmas.
When he’d opened it she’d told him, “That looks like the tie of a man in charge. A man who makes sales. That looks like the
tie of a
senior
sales rep.”

As Jeff was tying his tie he looked in the mirror and started to take stock of this whole Will situation. He needed to tell
Will no more prophecies. They were hurting the family. Hopefully yesterday would scare him off from giving any more. There
were three total, Will had told them, and Jeff didn’t want to know (or anyone else to know) what they were. Hopefully that
would make things go away. After all, Will had never delivered a prophecy or a vision. The way Will was acting over the last
four days was nothing like him. So what happened?

You saw the cornfield. There was stuff — weird stuff — going on out there. Something wasn’t right. He had a vision. It came
from somewhere. Eleven-year-old boys don’t talk like he was talking. Try all you want, but you can’t explain it.

Yes, I can, Jeff thought.

Okay, then, explain why Will was saying those things when Mike and everyone else found him?

And so Jeff did the best he could to explain his side of things to the face in the mirror.

Downstairs Amy was making Jeff’s lunch the way she always did: Bread slightly toasted, two pieces of turkey, one single of
Kraft cheese, and enough mustard on one piece of bread to make the letter
S
. In a brown paper sack with the sandwich she’d include a baggie of Lays potato chips, a strawberry-banana yogurt, and a bottle
of water. This was his favorite lunch when he’d first gotten the job at Hansley. He couldn’t afford to go get a burger or
a steak with the other guys, so she wanted to make sure he’d have a lunch that he liked.

But since he’d started at Hansley, she hadn’t checked to see if he still liked this lunch. Maybe he didn’t. Maybe he was sick
of turkey and didn’t say anything because he had this incredible ability to deal with the lot that life dealt him — maybe
now he was dealing with a wife that made him nothing but turkey sandwiches.

This rapture, and everything that had happened with Will lately, made Amy realize how easy it was to sleepwalk through life.
She realized they’d all been living under the same roof, but maybe they hadn’t been talking about the things that needed to
be talked about. And as Amy walked upstairs she decided she’d talk with Jeff about the turkey sandwiches and whatever else
they needed to talk about.

But when she walked into the room, Jeff was staring into the mirror, his tie half-tied. She wanted to ask him what was wrong,
but that’s when he blurted out, “Okay, I don’t understand why the flashlights burned out, or why my son is acting so freaky,
or what happened in that cornfield. I don’t understand any of this! Is that what you want to hear? Are you happy now?!”

At first Amy thought he was shouting at her. But quickly she realized Jeff didn’t even know she was there. He was shouting
this to himself. Out loud. He was shouting in an unstable, mental patient sort of way. Then Jeff’s eyes caught Amy’s reflection
in the mirror. He turned around. Husband and wife stared at each other as if they were complete strangers.

At that moment, Amy didn’t know what to say. It didn’t seem like an ideal time to bring up turkey sandwiches. So she just
said, “I, um, brought you your lunch.” She held his sack lunch up for him to grab. But she kept the rest of her body away
from him. “You better go. You’re gonna be late,” she said.

“Okay.” Jeff grabbed his lunch and walked out of the room.

Amy looked down the stairs and saw Jeff standing at the doorway. The door was wide open, but Jeff wasn’t moving. It was as
if he was debating if he had the strength to leave for the day. Amy called down and asked, “Honey, are you okay?”

“I don’t know,” Jeff answered, right before he slammed the door shut and left.

Will lay flat on his bed covered in a blanket of graphic novels. For the first time in his life, he really wanted to go back
to school. But he couldn’t.

“When can I go back?” he asked his mom.

“When this whole situation is over,” she answered.

Whole situation
.

Whatever that means.

So while he was trapped at home suffering under house arrest, he read his graphic novels. He had everything, from
Batman
, to
Sin City
, to
The Greatest Adventures of the Old Testament
.

His mom had bought him the last one in hopes that he wouldn’t read so many of his other “scary books.”

For the last two days he’d been flipping through them and staring at images of Batman fighting off Two Face, and Sampson smashing
through the Philistines. He read the novels so he wouldn’t have to think about everything else. He didn’t want to think about
how everyone in town assumed he was horrible — a villain. He knew some people were saying that he was threatening the school.
And then on the news this morning they said about half the students had gone to school today. They said, “It looks like the
threat (might as well have said Will Henderson’s threat) didn’t come true.” But he wasn’t threatening the school. He was trying
to
save
it. He was trying to warn them. Why couldn’t people understand that?

Because that’s how prophets get treated
.

The thought just kind of popped into his head. And he was right. It made total sense. He’d been reading about prophets in
his Old Testament graphic novel. And they were kind of like superheroes. They were all misunderstood. Like Noah. God told
him to build an ark. It didn’t make sense, but Noah did it anyway. And then, when Noah started to tell people about the flood,
they thought he was completely out of his mind. A flood? They’d never even seen rain. They had no reason to believe him.

It was like that with all the prophets.

Moses predicted plagues and Pharaoh thought he was bluffing. They thought Joseph was just having crazy dreams about fat cows
eating skinny cows and stars bowing to moons. After nearly every single prophecy in the Bible, there was doubt. No one believed
the prophet until
after
things came true. Maybe that was just the way God designed it. Maybe that was part of what the prophet had to go through.
Maybe Will should feel honored that everyone thought he was crazy. After all, no one had any reason to believe him.

But that didn’t mean he wasn’t telling the truth.

Then Will stopped thinking about himself. His thoughts went in circles and he was tired of them. He didn’t want to think anymore.
So instead he once again went back to reading his graphic novel about Superman outsmarting Lex Luther and tried not to worry
about all of his friends who were trapped inside Jefferson Elementary.

***

Emily was relieved things had gone back to normal. It was nice just to sit in trig class today and not have to worry about
raptures and news media and her misguided baby brother. Even the weather seemed to reflect her feelings — it had been overcast
for the last few days, but today it was sunny and bright and warm and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.

The day seemed so bright because yesterday was such a success. It was a test. She knew there would be hurdles on her way to
becoming homecoming queen. And it seemed like Will’s incident was her final test. And she leapt over that hurdle — and she’d
leapt over it heroically and with relative ease, to be honest. She’d passed her final test with flying colors.

She was a shoo-in for homecoming queen now.

She only had to worry about the little things like what color and type of dress she would wear. It had to be something daring
but not
too
daring. No way was she going to wear that orange creamsicle gown her mom had insisted on.

She had been TiVoing every
Red Carpet Special
and every
After the Red Carpet
show where pretty girls and fashion guys in tight shirts debate which celebrities looked daring and chic and which ones looked
like train wrecks. She kept these shows on file so she could study them, so she wouldn’t have to listen to the uneducated
opinions of her mother and her friends when it came to the issue of evening gown fashion.

And now the time was right to start watching these specials and seriously considering what she would wear on the greatest
night of her life. She could picture it. She could taste it — it was that close.

Things couldn’t be better.

Amy took the laundry from the washer and threw it into the dryer. She remembered once upon a time, when she had first been
married, she had to go to the Laundromat to do all the whites and darks. It was actually kind of fun. She and Jeff would go
together on Sunday afternoons. They’d bring novels, crossword puzzles, board games, and six loads of laundry, and they’d spend
the whole afternoon talking and laughing and hanging out. She liked her life now, but sometimes she missed those days. They
were so much simpler. There was so much less to worry about.

Today she couldn’t leave the house even if she wanted to. She hadn’t left in days — since Will had been placed on house arrest.
How could she? She was afraid that if she left to pick up groceries or dry cleaning, she’d be interrupted by a phone call
telling her Will had caused another incident that rocked the town to its core.

But that was only one reason she couldn’t leave.

She was more afraid
for
Will.

There were still those nasty phone calls.

Some people weren’t threatening. Some people called to give their support. They’d even sent gift baskets with fruit and cheese
and chocolate. They said they appreciated Will’s bravery. Maybe one of those people would know how to council Will through
this. Because he needed counsel, didn’t he? And not counsel telling him he was wrong or crazy; there were plenty of people
saying that. He needed counsel on what to do with these prophecies. He needed a mentor. Jeff couldn’t be that for him. Jeff
didn’t even believe him. Jeff didn’t think anything was going to happen. As if this was just some sort of phase. As if the
stages of development included potty training, the rebellious teenage years, and the false prophet phase.

For the rest of the morning and into the afternoon this is how things went. The Hendersons kept themselves busy hoping that
if they worked hard enough — if they thought about other things — the day would end without incident. Jeff was completely
focused. He was on the verge of a sale, but he couldn’t let the sweat show. He couldn’t let this couple know how much he needed
this. He tried to think of calming things like baseball and Emily’s first steps and their vacation on Lake Powell eight years
ago. He thought of those things so he could keep the smile. The smile that made him look confident. The smile that said, “Hey,
I’ve got a whole line of people waiting to buy this car. If you don’t want it, quit wasting my time.”