Sarah

She dug her tiny hand as far into the sand as she could manage, and used the other hand to bury it, as far down as it could go, no threat of hell because that is where she was living. It was merely a ritual, but it made her feel safe again and allowed her to think of her family, her parents laughing over Sunday morning breakfast, as her and her sister impersonated the family who sat in the pew in front of them in church. You know the kind of blasphemy that wasn’t really blasphemy. Of course, now she didn’t know right from wrong, although maybe she never did.

Before “the coming” life had logic. The patterns of weather generally followed the seasons. The sky was filled with stars at night and the universe was vast. She was comforted by its size. She mattered because she was part of it, she didn’t have to be alone and what life was or meant was mostly a mystery. Sure, she had her faith but there were other faiths and it seemed to her that they could all be true. The conflicting faiths glued the world together simply because in the faithful they inspired hope. No one was right or wrong until they were.

Before “the coming” she didn’t think much of the afterlife. Now she longed for it. She wiped the sand from her hand and decided she should go back to where she was hiding. They would have noticed she wasn’t at dinner if they hadn’t noticed her absence at the morning meal, which was generally quieter and less formal. The wind from the shore felt cool through her hair and it felt that maybe life hadn’t changed. If only, it was just a short walk to a parking lot where her mother’s blue Subaru would be parked. Filled with the beach cooler, piled with cooled plums and peaches, and cans of seltzer water she was only ever allowed at the beach. Her mother had been adamant, “Bubbles are only for celebrating, with booze or not.” The memory of the can popping open and the crisp cold seltzer on her throat was so vivid, but before now she took it for granted. Taking things for granted was the real measure of privilege, she certainly now knew.

The sky had betrayed her. The universe before so blank and unknowable had revealed itself two years prior. When in an instant most of the population had disappeared. Rapture is a word people wanted to use but the events that happened matched a niche cult religion that referred to the event that had occurred as “the coming.” Their scripture, a zine- like pdf available through a message board, described a black hole forming over the earth, cooling for mere seconds that would extinguish all who didn’t deserve to live into vapor, leaving only those made in God’s true image and life would begin again. A moment so brief and unpredictable, so final no one was prepared for it. Earth was exactly the same except now the sun never set. Darkness didn’t exist in this world.

It was a short walk back to the cave-like structure that was her new home but suddenly it felt long. Walking on the sand was making her use muscles in her feet she wasn’t used to using and she ached.. She plodded along humming to herself a song she didn’t even really know, some piece of a melody that was comforting but it was just that tiny piece of music over and over again, propelling her to go where she wasn’t in the open air. It was maybe a thousand times she hummed it before she was tucked away in the hard stones. She laid down and sleep came.

When she woke her hands were tied in white silk tightly but there would be no marks. The pdfers as she referred to them had found her. They spoke softly how they were worried and why couldn’t she accept that she was chosen. Their voices all mumbling together like a growl.

They lifted her up to her feet and she marched with them, their white robes gleaming in the sun. It may have been an hour or half a day, time didn’t really make sense to her, she was always fighting to remember, to hold on to faith, everyone wanted to assure her was wrong. She felt her gold heart locket bounce around her neck, which had a picture of her parents on their wedding day, and it affirmed her to not forget, don’t lose hope. She held back tears and ignored the ever louder growl of her keepers. She continued.

Some time passed and their destination was in sight, and she sighed knowing that she was back where she started. A new plan awaited to be formed and executed but it was unknown. Her mind swirled looking for something to grasp onto. Suddenly, the growling stopped. She looked around to see what could cause such change. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, everyone was standing, she tried to scan faces without making eye-contact, there was fear found there but she didn’t know why. Slowly she realized everyone was looking at the sky. She lifted her eyes to the eternal light, and the brightest smile enchanted her face because at long last the sun was setting.