The End

What if it was terribly painful? Oh, this can’t happen, it just can’t! She had school tomorrow, a ball game this week, a life to live, and dreams to chase!

Her cries were interrupted when she heard her father’s voice. He was calling her. "Hurry up!" she heard him say, "If we are going to go, we have to go now."

"He did it!" she thought, "He figured out a way to save us!" "I knew he could do it!" Quickly she jumped up, wiped her face as relief swept through her body. She almost ran to the living room.

The look on her parent’s faces immediately told her, he hadn’t figured out anything. They looked old, older than she had ever seen anyone look and sadder than sad. She had never seen her parents like this. Her mom had the Bible clutched tightly in her arms and the worry lines on her face were deeper than the deepest river in the world.

Her father looked nervous and weak. He had never looked weak to her before. Fear embraced his face. Her heart dropped to the pit of her stomach. Tears came again. "Oh, God, this is really happening." She said. Suddenly, both parents had her in their arms and together the three of them cried. They cried and held each other, like they would never get the chance again. A desperate hold, like they so much wanted to comfort her and tell her it would be ok, but they couldn’t. Not this time, it was over, everything was over.

Her father took her mother’s face in his hands and told her if they were going to go, they had to go now. Mom looked up at him and slowly nodded her head. Silently, they walked out of their home. They walked away from their memories, their lives and their future. They walked out into the rain. She followed her parents, into the rain on this most terrible of nights, they walked, silently. Then they stopped under a tree. She looked to her dad for answers. "We must go immediately," he said, "we can’t be in any shelter, we don’t want to suffer, we must just let it get us."

Slowly, he took their hands and they knelt to pray.

Three tiny, helpless creatures in a huge, vast universe knelt together for the last time and prayed.