Left Alone

Of the End

Beginning

Afterward, the pastor took her out to introduce her to the rest of the congregation, Noah staying close to her side. The men were calm and controlled with an aura of anger that seemed to float around them, redirected through their every word and action. There might have been fewer women or else they were simply less noticeable, faint, faded people who seemed to be slowly bleeding away into the air, embarrassed by their presumption to take up space. The pastor left them as Noah brought her to the other children.

Noah introduced to Micky.

"Hi," Adalia said. "You're the one who told everyone to come here, right?"

The boy nodded, looking terrified of her. "Everyone, after everyone disappeared all the teachers weren't sure what to do, they were trying to find the other kids. Something was wrong about the buses and at another school something bad happened they didn't tell us but they were all upset. I was the only one who knew they weren't coming back and I was scared because the teachers they were people who were left, and I said we should go home, and Jan, she lived close and said her mom and dad both had a minivan so they could drive us, only we went there and there wasn't anybody and then we tried Amanda's house and we - they - there, they'd..." He gulped, and some of the kids started crying. "It was like Mom said, people without God. We didn't want to go to any of the other houses and I thought we should go to the church so God wouldn't hurt us. Mom always said Matthew wouldn't get taken so I called him..." He trailed off, restarted with, "I wanted to find another adult like Mom said but I didn't know anybody else who was still here and I was really scared I'm sorry about Noah I didn't know you were still here I'm sorry I'm sorry -"

"No, no," Adalia had said, kneeling next to him and shaking her head. "I wasn't here, I just got back, I'm so glad Noah had someone to take him here, that he wasn't left all alone. Thank you." She thought of what he'd said, asked, "The other adults, are any of them from the church?"

Micky shook his head. "Some of them were married to somebody. Everybody who was a member of the church is gone."

"Except you."

He shook his head more vigorously. "God would have taken me, if I'd really been."

She'd taken Noah home. He was dressed in someone else's clothing, which he explained he'd gotten from the church. They'd stayed there for the last few days, eating sandwiches made by some of the women and spending the night in sleeping bags one of the men brought.

Back home, he'd settled into the couch, knees drawn up to his chest. Adalia wasn't sure what to do. She boiled water and made mac and cheese from one of the boxes in the cabinet.

When they sat down at the table to eat, Adalia thought of the other children still at the church. "They can't just stay there," she said.

"Pastor says that they'll go home with some of the families. Almost everybody adult lost their kids. But he wants to wait until it's safer and everything's calmed down."

"What about their families?"

Noah's mouth quivered. "I didn't go in but Micky and Amanda did and her parents, they'd killed themselves."

Adalia remembered the children crying. She didn't know what to say.

When he finished his bowl he just sat there. "Come on," she said, herding him back to the living room. "Have you finished Final Fantasy Ten?"

"Almost," he said.

She turned on the TV, meaning to switch it to input. A news channel flashed onto the screen. Something was happening at the UN, and she hesitated.