The End of The World

The world ended when I was fifteen. It didn't end with a bang. It didn't end with a whimper. It ended with a. A sigh.

The kind of sigh that says contentment. That says I have done what I came to do. And now I'm leaving.

The sigh my father used to make when he finished yard-work and looked back at the house, knowing there was beer cooling in the icebox, and maybe football on TV.

It had been coming for a while I guess, the End of The World. It was waiting for us. Just as we, in our own way, were waiting for it.

I still remember the day the world ended. We all do. It was the defining point of our generation. Just as one generation had Where Were You When Kennedy Was Shot?, we have Where Were You When The World Ended?

So where was I? Looking out, watching the world end. I had been the Watcher all my life, and I felt no need to change that just because the world was ending. You could see the world end. And you could see it best in peoples' faces. Some of them were waiting for it. Some with fear, some with anticipation.

Every religion in the world had something to say about The End of The World. Thousands had died in the riots. Hundreds more had committed suicide in acts of penitence. Governments had toppled, confessions were made. Some people gathered food. Others weapons. Many were determined to survive The End.

The media had a field day. With The End nigh, whistle blowers and stool pigeons came out of the woodwork. Old grudges were taken out and given a good airing. Families split up as people made their final decisions where they would spend The End. Disaster movies played endlessly on TV. No movie was too old. No plot line too thin.

Governments admitted they had known The End was coming. And had known it for a long time. They admitted they didn't tell us. They admitted everything. What they didn't admit, they were accused of by those who had been in on the cover-up. Records were leaked. And the leaks became bigger and bigger. Each trying to outdo the other. The leaks became torrents, torrents became deluges, and deluges became floods as the dams of secrecy crumbled.

We even found out who killed Kennedy.

Governments collapsed. The United States had three impeachments in three days. Seven Presidents of The United States were declared and recalled in a fortnight. Finally, The End did what the Civil War could not. The States decided to go their own way with vague promises to get together sometime, like acquaintances who meet at a party.

Some countries stayed stable. Some devolved into anarchy. Dictators tightened the reins and found themselves killed by their own cronies. England gave up on an ineffectual Prime Minister and turned back to the Royals. Countries Balkanized as ancient wars broke out anew. After all, The End was Nigh, and you may never get another chance to hate your neighbour.

And today, now, this moment, The End was upon us. Some faced it with equanimity, knowing they had done what they could. Knowing that Life, even if it went on after this, would be very different. Some discovered God. Sometimes quite suddenly. Prayers they had not said since they were children found voice. All over the world, a billion tongues in a thousand languages called prayers to a million gods. Others, just watched. Just as I was watching them, they watched the skies. People left their houses. Some by themselves, some with friends, or families, or just people they wanted to be with. And yet, they were alone. We could be in a crowd of tens, hundreds, thousands, or millions. But we each faced The End alone.

It was bright. Screaming with fire. Its sound a thunder as it burned through the sky. Clouds roiled in its wake. A sonic boom turned skyscrapers into mass murderers as glass shattered and fell hundreds of feet into the throng below. Buildings rattled, people fell to their hands and knees, some in religious ecstasy, some overwhelmed by the awe of seeing something that had travelled billions of miles in space, now travelling a few thousand feet above their heads. Some may have even noticed the multiple shadows at their feet, as the burning brightness equalled, then surpassed, the Sun.

It was not alone. It was followed by many others. There were enough, they said, that not a single country would be spared.

None of us would escape The End.

They went once around the Earth. That too was expected. Some believed that after that they would pass by. That they would be moving too fast to stay. Others believed that it would just slow them down just enough to stay in orbit. Neither of them were given much credence.

We all knew it was The End of The World. We all knew that everyone else was in denial. We all knew what was coming.

They came around again. Slower this time. The passage through the atmosphere had slowed them. This time, as they passed overhead, we saw their shadows fall on us. And we knew, like we had never known before, we knew that they were here. It was now. This was truly The End of The World.

Then they landed.

The doors opened with a sigh. The sigh of satisfaction. Of contentment. Of a job well done. Of a long journey completed safely.

The World ended.