Long Past Dawn

The End

The parking lot is long empty and as the sun was setting for the last time Roger took this time to think.

He had had a good life right? He married his high school sweetheart Anne, they spent 20 years together, had three successful kids.

He had people who had loved him and he had been happy. He felt like it would never end.

But now it was ending. It was the end of his world. The bomb was on its way and the sirens were blaring. Roger had managed to tune them out.

There he was sitting in a parking lot as the rain pounded on the roof of his car. He knew he wouldn't make it home in time so he had just stopped. He hoped little Jessy wasn't scared and that her mother was holding her.

He longed to be with them but there was no time. He had been too slow. He had hesitated.

A tear rolled down his cheek as he looked out at the pink sky. The last sunset he would ever see.

A fitting end, he supposed. The calm before the destruction others would have to clean up came.

Bittersweet.

He heard a shuffling in the back seat of his car and looked back at his dog, Sparky.

Sparky whined. The sirens were hurting his ears. Roger sighed and stepped out of the car into the rain. He went to the back of the car and opened the door for Sparky who hopped out onto the concrete.

Sparky followed him as he walked to the front of his car again. Roger lifted Sparky onto the front of his yellow car then sat down next to him. Sparky looked worried but then he laid down and placed his head on Rogers's lap and calmed down.

The rain eased up a bit but the two were still soaked to the bone as the sat still on the front of the car, looking at the sunset on the horizon.

They had 10 minutes left.

Roger's mind drifted back to his children. He thought about his son Jack. He was the oldest and he had always been a very considerate person. He had always wanted to help people. He was a doctor now and he loved his job.

He had gotten married the previous year, to a wonderful woman he had met in med school. She was even smarter than him and they were good for each other. They had just had their first child.  A little boy, who they had named Roger, after his grandpa.

He wished with all his heart that he could stop this and spend a long life with his new grandchild.

A horrible thing to have such a young life cut short.

He thought about his other son Theo. Theo was 16 and they had a rocky relationship sometimes but deep down they loved each other. All Theo wanted to do was sing and make music but Roger wanted him to try harder in school in case that dream didn't pan out.

He should have let him do what he wanted but he had no way of knowing what would happen. That no one's dreams would come true because they were all going to die.

The last time they had spoken was this morning. Theo had been too slow getting up and Roger had yelled and called him lazy and a failure. Theo had yelled back that he was an asshole and had run out the door.

He regretted that these had been the last thing that they had said to each other. He would never be able to apologize and that was one of the things that hurt him the most.

He thought about his youngest child as well. A little girl named Jessy. She had just turned 7 and loved to draw and play pretend with him. It broke his heart that he couldn't be with her right now and he hoped that Anne could calm her in these last few minutes they had of this life.

He didn't want her to be scared. She was his little girl and she could melt his heart with one sweet smile. He wished he could see her smile one last time and tried to conjuring it in his mind.

He could imagine it but it wasn't like the real thing.

Roger thought about his wife Anne as well. They had been high school sweethearts and had been together through thick and thin together.

They were soulmates.

He had loved her since the moment he first set eyes on her.

Love at first sight.

He had proposed on her 19th birthday. She had toyed with him and playfully joked about saying no. At the last second, she had spun around, taken his face in her hands and kissed him with so much enthusiasm he had almost fallen over. She had laughed, moved her lips to his ear and whispered: "Yes, of course, i will marry you".

He loved her so much it hurt.

He thought about the way she laughed, the way she looked when she gazed at the sky, and how she loved to dance in the kitchen late at night after the kids were asleep.

He would walk in the door tired from a long day and she would smile at him and turn up her music. This would make Roger smile and he would hang up his jacket and walk into the kitchen. Anne would pull him close and they would start to sway to the music. They would dance and gaze into each other's eyes and it was his favourite thing.

They had had a long time together but he had hoped for more. He didn't want it to end like this. He hoped Anne was thinking of him and that she wasn't too upset. He wanted her to be happy above all else and it pained him to think that she might be sad or scared. He hoped she wasn't worried about him because he knew their children needed them and he couldn't be there so she would have to be there for them.

He wished with all his heart that she could be here with him right now but he knew it was impossible.

He loved them all so much. His heart ached with sadness because he knew he would never see them again.

Sparky shifted his head and Roger was brought back to the moment.

He looked down at his dog. Such a good companion he had been. Playful and intelligent, but also gentle and protective of the children.

"Good boy," Roger said as he patted his head and Sparky closed his eyes. Even though they were going to die in less than a minute now, they were at peace.

The sky was darker now as the sunset was almost over but the rain was still falling.Rogers's hair dripping and Sparky's fur soaked through, they sat there and waited for it to end.

Roger took a deep breath and kept his hand on Sparkys back. He leaned back, his back against the windshield.

The rain fell on his face as the end approached.

Roger wasn't worried. He knew that it would be quick and painless.

He closed his eyes and exhaled. He knew he would never get to take another breath.

They were going to die.

It was the end of his story.

It was the end.

The end