The Last Day on Earth

She wasn’t sure how long she sat there. Her watch was stuck on 5:35. As the sunlight slowly crept along the tiles towards her, she watched the dogs chasing each other around the yard. She was envious of them. They had no idea life, as they knew it, would soon be over. To them, it was just another day of playing and chasing in the sun, eating and scratching and investigating all those scents dogs seemed to find so fascinating. The birds continued to squawk and squabble in the trees and the ants marched ever onwards. Lucy felt a lot of empathy for those dinosaurs who had lived and died 65 million years ago. They had woken to a morning just like this, and just like this, their death was hurtling toward them. Only they didn’t know it. Sometimes she wished the governments had never admitted the asteroid was coming, and that everything they’d used to attempt to steer it off course had failed. That they hadn’t admitted it would be catastrophic, and wasn’t just going to burn up in the atmosphere. Hadn’t confirmed it was bigger than the one that had wiped out the dinosaurs and they were probably all going to die.

Wouldn’t it have been better not to know? Then life would have gone on like usual. Society wouldn’t have disintegrated. But then she would have spent her last day on earth working in an insurance call centre, fielding calls from irate customers complaining about their premiums going up yet again. And those people would have wasted their final day being on hold and wasting energy on being mad about insurance premiums.

When you knew the world was about to end, those things just didn’t seem to matter anymore. A lot of things didn’t seem to matter anymore. Working two jobs to save money for an overseas trip she’d never get to go on felt like a waste of time. Analysing every text message from a certain boy seemed stupid now.

Nearly everyone seemed to agree that working was not how they wanted to spend their last few weeks. It was a shock to realise how much everyone took for granted, especially in the cities. It amazed Lucy how quickly everything had fallen apart.

She wondered if the powers that be had realised what would happen once the news broke. They couldn’t be stupid enough to think everyone would just keep carrying on like nothing had happened, keep caring about the same materialistic, mundane issues that had occupied them before. Interest rates and new taxes didn’t strike quite the same chord as they used to for some reason.

Lucy wondered where the asteroid would hit. That was one thing they’d never told the masses. She’d read online that it would smash into the Pacific, it would hit Russia, that it would land in the middle of the Amazon, and that it would wipe out New York City. It was all speculation. All quoted “experts”. Lucy was torn between wanting it to land right on top of her, or on the opposite side of the planet, as far away as possible.

Lucy sat there until her backside went numb. She stood up, stretched, and decided to go and visit her friend Tim one last time. She’d told him she’d probably come over. Apart from enjoying his company, she felt sorry for him. He was alone.

She went back into the kitchen to tell her parents where she was going. Her mother was alone in there, washing up the breakfast dishes.

“Mum, what are you doing?”

“Cleaning up, what does it look like?”

“Don’t bother with that, not today.”

Liz laughed. Lucy thought it sounded brittle. She took the washcloth out of her mother’s unresisting hands and led her over to the kitchen table and gently pushed her down into her usual chair. Lucy went to the pantry to find the emergency stash of chocolate. This stash had served them well over the years, from simple bad days to break ups and deaths. Lucy pulled out her mother’s favourite dark chocolate and broke off two large pieces and placed them in front of her mother.

“Here, eat this.”

Lucy grabbed the last of the Ferrero Rochers for herself and watched her mother out of the corner of her eye as she unwrapped and methodically savoured each of the delicious chocolate balls.

“Where’s Dad?”

“In that blasted bomb shelter. I don’t know why his grandfather even built the damn thing.”

“You know Dad, he’s got to feel useful.”

Liz just sighed and nodded. She picked up one of the chocolate pieces and popped it in her mouth.

“Who needs drugs when you’ve got chocolate?”

Lucy smiled. “I’m going to go see Tim for a bit, is that okay?”

Liz nodded. “Yes of course, that poor boy. Take him some bread. Don’t be too long though.”

“Thanks, and I won’t.”

“I’m going to start making the last supper. Any special requests?”

Lucy thought for a moment.

“Lasagne?”

That almost got a laugh out of Liz.

“Why did I even ask? You’ve been requesting that for every special occasion since you were seven.”

“Hey, what can I say, I love your lasagne. When you’re onto a good thing…”

Lucy watched Liz bustle around the pantry. She piled Lucy’s arms up with a fresh loaf of bread, a jar of her homemade quince jelly and some precious butter.