The End is Now (18 page)

And that’s when it clicked. Seeing all of those pictures — all of those hopeless people being blindsided by the reality of
eternity — made Amy realize this was more than about saving the world. This was about families being separated for an eternity.
Loved ones having to deal with the chasm of heaven and hell. It was going to happen. Soon and very soon everyone in Goodland
would have to face the afterlife, and like it or not, they would have to answer to the creator of the heavens and the earth.
Sure, she always sort of knew the rapture was coming. But it always felt distant and cloudy, something far off to be worried
about someday. In the meantime she’d spent all of her time worrying about non-eternal things, like how much cholesterol was
in her diet, and who got to be head coordinator of the Royal Rangers bake sale, and what kind of college Emily and Will would
attend. (She wanted the college to be prestigious but not too secular. She’d heard horror stories of her friends’ kids going
off to college and coming home brainwashed.) But now she felt foolish for wasting so much time thinking about all of this.
Over and over again Scriptures refer to the short amount of time we have on earth. It was time she started living like that.
From now on there was only the present. And every moment of the present needed to be spent doing whatever it took to get ready
for the rapture.

As if to confirm her thoughts, the screen cut to black again and read, “The End Is No Longer NEAR… The End Is NOW!” Then the
music turned to an unbearably quick, grinding beat as one red-lettered warning after the next flew onto the screen.

“The Prophecy Has Come True!” Amy almost screamed when she saw Will’s picture come on the screen. Who put this together? Who
all has this been sent to? She looked at the top of the email and saw that it had been sent to hundreds and hundreds of recipients.

“The School Has Been Destroyed!” A picture of Jefferson Elementary flashed on. It was hard to look at. Gray rubble and dust
was scattered everywhere. It looked nothing like the school she’d dropped her son off at over the last five years. Jefferson
was a crystal-clear physical reminder of how real this whole situation was. God had destroyed the school to prove a point.
A point that Jeff or Mike or the mayor couldn’t argue. Then, over the school’s picture, more words popped up: “There Is No
Time Left!”

The screen went black. The music cut out. And then the final apocalyptic warning flashed onto the screen, “Repent… Or You
Won’t Be Sent!”

After that the video faded out. It gave Amy two options:
Play Again
or
Forward to a Friend
.

Amy’s hand quivered as it grabbed the mouse and clicked onto Play Again.

Amy knew the sun was going to rise in about an hour. It was time to act. She couldn’t wait for Jeff. Besides, he would be
so thankful when he understood what she had done. She was going to take Will to the news station to explain his side of the
story. She wouldn’t let him give the next prophecy; she wanted Jeff to be in on that decision. The important thing would be
to let everyone know a prophecy was coming soon, that the rapture was real, and that
now
was the time to get things right.

So Amy softly stepped through the hallway and into her son’s room. She gently shook him awake and told him they had to get
ready quickly. She went to the back of his closet and picked out an outfit for him — tan Dockers, canary yellow shirt, and
a navy blue blazer. “Put this on and fix your hair nice. Not that messy look.” He grabbed the clothes and marched to the bathroom,
staring at nothing but the carpet as he walked. She was happy as he obeyed in silence. He seemed too groggy to ask any questions.

As they left she was a little afraid the clanking of the garage door might wake Jeff up. Amy hadn’t taken into account the
possibility that Jeff could wake up and think the end had already happened. What if he woke up and thought they’d been raptured?
Maybe that would be even better. He’d roll over to her side of the bed and be a little startled when it was empty. He’d fling
their bathroom door open and get worried when she wasn’t in there. He’d flick the lights on in Will’s room only to see that
his firstborn son was gone. Then he’d run outside in his pajamas and stare at the sky. He’d wonder if that shooting star was
really one of the horsemen of the apocalypse. And at that moment the reality of the rapture would rip through him like shotgun
pellets. That moment of clarity might even give him the strength he needed to finish guiding their family through this time.

“Where are we going, Mom?” Will asked, snapping Amy out of her thoughts.

“We’re going to the news station,” Amy answered.

“Oh,” Will said.

“Will, let me ask you a question. What made you go to school and tell everybody about what the face said?”

“Because the face told me for a reason. And if I didn’t tell anyone, I was afraid the school would be destroyed with all of
the kids still in it.”

“That makes a lot of sense,” Amy said.

“I thought so,” Will agreed. “Why? Are you still mad at me for telling?”

“No, not at all.”

“Do you think something’s wrong with me?”

“No baby, I think everything’s right with you. You listen to me; you have been given a very important gift. The signs the
face gave to you are very important. They’re from God, and they’ll tell us how to prepare for the rapture,” Amy said.

“How do you know they’re from God?”

“Because they came true.”

“So if they didn’t come true they’d be from Satan?”

“Um, probably. I don’t know, honey.”

“I thought Dad wanted me to forget everything the face said.”

“Your dad was just trying to get the mayor to leave. He’s a little worried.”

“Oh,” Will said. “Does Dad think the face is Satan?”

“I haven’t thought about that.”

“He probably thinks the face is Satan. I thought the face might be Satan at first.”

“You did?” Amy asked.

“Yeah, but then I realized the face didn’t have horns. The face had a beard. And Satan never has a beard. Normally only people
who are interested in God have beards. And that’s probably because God has a beard. If the face had been clean-shaven I wouldn’t
have listened to him. It would have been a dead giveaway that he was up to no good.”

“So, does the face visit you often?”

“Nope, only that one time in the cornfield. I’ve asked him to come back but he hasn’t. I figure he has lots of other things
to do,” Will said.

“You’re probably right,” Amy agreed.

The news station was much smaller than Amy thought it would be. On TV it looked like this large room with commanding oak desks
and the sprawling Goodland skyline in the background. But here it was just this tiny set where everything looked plastic and
flimsy — the desk looked like it could snap in half if you leaned on it wrong and the background appeared as if it was cut
out of a large magazine and pasted on the back wall with a glue stick.

It was a little disappointing. Not that Amy really had a reason to feel disappointed. It was just that her son was about to
have his first televised statement, and that should be in a place that was as grand and important as what he was about to
say. Apparently, Goodland Channel 4 wasn’t that place.

Will and Amy waited for twenty minutes as the producer ran around making one frantic phone call after another. Finally she
came up to them and said, “We’re really happy you want to give our station the exclusive.”

“We just want to get his story out,” Amy said. “We want people to know what really happened.”

“That makes perfect sense,” Monica said. Amy hated how agreeable she was. She knew the producer was just buttering them up
to get what she wanted. Then again, Amy was using Channel 4 to get what she wanted, so it probably all worked out in the end.

“All right, so we’re just going to ask Will a couple of questions. And Will, you just answer them honestly,” Monica said.

“Yeah, okay,” Will agreed.

“You can ask him about anything but the next sign,” Amy butted in.

“The next sign?” Monica asked.

“Ask him all you want about the tornado, the school, the cornfields, but I don’t want him talking about the next sign.”

“I guess I didn’t realize there was more than one,” Monica said.

“Me neither,” Nancy Palmer added, scribbling down notes on a notepad. She appeared out of nowhere and Amy noticed how great
she looked all of a sudden. When Nancy had first arrived at the station she looked horrible. Monica had called her and told
her she had to come in for this interview. Nancy had walked into the studio with bags under her eyes, frizzy hair, and wearing
a large dumpy trench coat. Twenty minutes later she had her makeup, hair, and wardrobe done and she looked ready to change
the world.

Amy wondered if she could change the world if she had a whole team helping her look great. I look better than Nancy when I
wake up, she thought. What if I had a whole hair, wardrobe, and makeup crew? For some reason Amy thought that Nancy made herself
up for the nightly newscast. But now she knew the truth: Nancy had a whole team. All she really had to do was read words off
a TV screen. Amy wondered what else she had misconceptions about. She’d always been so intimidated by the outside world, but
lately she was starting to realize it was all smoke and mirrors. Amy was starting to understand she could have been just as
important as these women newscasters and producers — maybe even more — if she hadn’t blatantly disobeyed God’s perfect will
and gotten pregnant when she was eighteen.

“So then, how many signs are there?” Monica asked.

“Three,” Will said.

“And the tornado was the first one?” Nancy asked.

“Yeah, that’s right,” Will answered.

“Okay, I can’t ask him specifically about the next sign, but can I ask him how many signs there are?” Nancy asked Amy.

“Yeah, sure, I’d appreciate if you did ask that,” Amy said.

“Just out of curiosity, why don’t you want Will talking about the next sign?” Monica asked.

“I want his father here for that,” Amy said.

“But Mrs. Henderson, Will saved so many lives by telling his prophecy the last time,” Monica said.

“I know what my son did,” Amy said.

“Then you realize he can save as many lives again.”

“What I realize is I can take him to Channel 9 instead and they’ll be happy to respect my requests about the interview.”

“Okay,” Monica said and flashed a smile. Then she turned to Nancy, “No questions about the next prophecy.”

Amy sat in the makeup room watching a stylist feather her son’s hair. It really was impressive to watch. She sculpted each
strand with such confidence, and Amy was amazed as Will’s hair went exactly where the stylist wanted.

How come his hair won’t do that for me?

Monica popped her head in the door and said, “Okay, we’re firing everything up now and we’ll be ready for Will in five.” Then
she left. She didn’t even look at Amy. It was probably because she was still upset that they couldn’t ask about the next sign.
But Amy had her reasons. Right now was about getting him on the air and having him become a friendly, trustworthy face. And
then, when the time was right, maybe later today or even tomorrow, they would stand as a family and Will would give them the
next sign. And ultimately it would be her family — not the stupid mayor or Mike or anyone else — that would lead Goodland
to the end.

It was so exciting.

Amy could almost picture what the day would look like. It would start with all of her family and the rest of Goodland on a
hill looking up towards the sky. Maybe they’d all be wearing white. They would hear the trumpets blaring this perfect heavenly
blast. The sky would split open, glowing with ultraviolet, crimson, and tangerine hues. It would probably also be lit up with
other colors that hadn’t even been invented yet. And everyone on the grassy hill would be so enraptured with the colors that
they wouldn’t notice themselves becoming light as balloons and floating off the ground.

The floating would be the best part.

It’d be better than any amusement park ride ever created. They’d float into the air (maybe it’d even feel like the hand of
God was pulling them up) and as they’d float higher, they’d watch their houses, then Goodland, then Kansas, then the entire
country become ant-sized and eventually disappear. And soon they’d stop looking at the earth all together. They would look
up towards the sky as they passed through the atmosphere and then there would only be heaven and eternity to think about.
Of course Amy knew this was a fantasy. She knew the end of the world wouldn’t be as romantic as she was picturing it.

When they finally got Will on the set Amy thought Will looked so grown up. And he looked grown up more than just in a my-boy’s-growing-up-so-fast
way. He actually looked like an adult. She’d always wondered what he’d look like as a thirty-year-old with kids of his own.
Of course now with the rapture she would probably never know. After all, we don’t become grown-ups in heaven, do we? How old
are we in heaven? And as Amy thought this she realized maybe there was something to be sad about with the end of the world.
She would never get to see Will and Emily as adults. She would never get to hold her grandkids. She would be in her thirties
and Will and Emily would be preteens and teenagers for all of eternity.

So, as she looked at her handsome son in his blazer with his hair done so professionally, she thought this may be the closest
she’d ever get to seeing him as an adult. And Amy was glad he looked so grown up, because once the cameras started to roll
and the reporter started to talk, she knew he was completely on his own.

“Good morning, Goodland,” Nancy said as she smiled and flashed her flawless teeth to the camera. “We’re here with Will Henderson,
the fifth-grade student who caused quite the ruckus four days ago when he predicted the Jefferson Elementary Disaster. And
yesterday his prediction came true when a tornado came out of nowhere and did quite a bit of damage to the elementary school.
Now this morning, Will has agreed to give Channel 4 his first public statement on all of the events of the last couple of
days.” Nancy then turned to Will. “Good morning, Will.”