Bill handed them each a wine glass and balanced his between his knees as he unscrewed the wine bottle. It was one of their usual wines this time, nothing fancy. He poured it into the glasses, and almost spilled his glass all over himself, but was saved by Lucy’s mother’s quick hands. He let the empty bottle roll down into the gutter.
They clinked glasses and sipped the wine. Normally Lucy liked this brand just fine, but it was a bit disappointing to her taste buds after the Grange. They drank in silence, listening to the birds sing out the day, admiring the sunset and taking comfort in each other’s presence.
Lucy watched the sun disappear below the horizon with a sinking heart. Her chest felt tight; she’d just seen her last sunset. They sat in the growing dusk. Bill was the first to stir, slapping at a mosquito on his arm.
“All right, girls. Does anyone know what time it is?” Lucy shook her head. Liz looked down at her watch.
“We’ve got about an hour.” Lucy’s chest felt even tighter at her mother’s words. Bill held them tightly.
“Okay then. Well. Let’s get off this roof for starters.” He slid down to the gutter and manoeuvred himself onto the ladder. Liz started to pass him the glasses. She stopped just short of his waiting hand. Lucy watched her mother carefully as she stared at the glass in her hand. Without warning, Liz flung the glass from her with a cry. It smashed on the brickwork below.
Lucy’s father looked up at them with raised eyebrows. Her mother seemed to deflate a bit. Liz just shrugged at Bill’s questioning look with a wry smile. Lucy looked at the now empty glass in her own hand. She felt a little tipsy from the wine, but she wasn’t drunk and she doubted either of her parents were either.
“Go on, Lucy. It feels good.” Liz gestured for her to throw her glass as well.
“If you say so,” Lucy said, then pulled her arm back and tossed the glass as hard as she could. A satisfying shatter came from behind the bushes. Lucy grinned for a moment at her mother. She looked at her father, but he just shook his head and went down the ladder.
“Gather anything you want to keep, and bring it to the shelter,” Bill told Lucy and Liz. Lucy glanced at Liz. Her mother seemed willing to go along with this scheme of her father’s. Bill told them to meet him at the shelter in ten minutes, and then he strode off into the gathering darkness, whistling for the dogs.
“Do you think… do you think Dad might be right?” Lucy bit her lip and looked at her mother. Liz frowned.
“I honestly don’t know, Lucy. I’d like him to be right, but… I’m also… I’ve been preparing myself.” Lucy nodded.
“I’m still trying to figure out how I feel, as opposed to how I think I ought to feel.” Lucy shook her head. She didn’t have much time left to figure it out. She looked up to see her mother looking sympathetically at her.
“I wish I could fix this for you, Lucy. You have no idea how powerless I’ve felt the past few months. This is not what I wanted for my children. Obviously. When you were born, I swore that I’d do everything in my power to protect you…”
“You could try giving Cecilia ‘The Look.’ That always frightened your students. And me… and probably Dad as well. And maybe even Grandma too.”
Liz smiled wanly. “I could try,” she echoed.
“I don’t like your chances of success though, I don’t know that asteroids have the emotional capacity to be intimidated.”
Liz snorted. “If only. The sheer force of will of the entire planet.”
They reached the hallway that led to the bedrooms and briefly parted ways. Lucy stood in the doorway and surveyed her childhood room. What would she want to keep? There wasn’t much. She grabbed a framed picture of her and Claire when they were kids, and another more recent one of herself and her nephews. She touched the picture of Claire and wondered where her sister was. She pulled down a photo of her and Jess at their university graduation. She hadn’t heard from her best friend since the mobile phone network went down. She missed her.
Lucy felt around in the back of her wardrobe and found an old bag. She plucked her favourite novels off their shelves and put them in the bottom of the bag. It was strange thinking about the possibility of tomorrow, albeit a vastly different tomorrow, after over a month of thinking that oblivion was her only possible future. She tried to think practically. She didn’t allow herself any more room for sentimentality, other than a handful of photographs and a gold bangle that her grandparents had given her when she’d graduated from high school. She looked over her clothes and picked out some of the sturdier looking pieces to join the books in the bag. Her journal and an unopened packet of pencils went in the top of the bag. She threw a last glance around the room, then walked out, shutting the door firmly behind her. She wasn’t sure how long she’d been. She could still hear her mother rustling around her bedroom.
Lucy walked out to the laundry to grab Matilda and her kittens, but the box was gone. Lucy took one last lap of the house she’d grown up in. Memories threatened to flood her. She allowed herself to wallow for a minute before ruthlessly closing her mind to the clamouring thoughts.
She stood outside and waited for her mother. The moon had risen. It was almost full and lit the landscape with its silver glow. Apart from a quick glance at the moon, Lucy kept her eyes firmly earth-bound. She didn’t want to risk seeing her death hurtling toward her. Her mother came out carrying two large bags. They didn’t speak, merely nodded at each other. Together they walked across the dark yard, through the orchard to the old bomb shelter. A warm glow emanated from the opening of the shelter. Bill was waiting for them.
Lucy blinked as her eyes adjusted. The last time she’d been in the shelter it had been mostly empty and full of dust and cobwebs. Now it was clean, brightly light and full of boxes and supplies. There was a comfortable old couch that used to live in their playroom, a little kitchenette up against one of the walls, a dining table, Claire’s old desk, and bookshelf full of survival books. The box with Matilda and her kittens sat high on a bench, out of reach of the dogs that milled about. It seemed bigger as well, even with all of the extra stuff in it.
“Oh, Bill.” Her mother and father had followed her in. Lucy dropped her bag and walked to the end of the shelter. There was a new door.
“What’s behind here?”
“Sleeping areas, a toilet, and another supply room.”
“Wow, Dad.” Lucy was shocked. This was much more than she’d been expecting.
“Like I said this morning, I think I’ve got enough down here to last us a few years, and I’ve got all sorts of seeds so we can replant if we get the chance to…” he faltered off. Lucy and her mother were both staring at him.
“What?”
Lucy shook her head.
“Oh, Bill. This is amazing.” Liz bit her lip and Lucy knew she was trying not to cry. Lucy watched as her mother turned around and buried her face in her father’s shirt. Lucy quickly strode over and hugged both of her parents.
“Dad, I… this is… wow… I wasn’t expecting this. I hope it wasn’t all for nothing. You’ve put a lot of effort in here.”
“Well, we’ll find out soon one way or the other,” Bill said. He led Liz over to the couch. Lucy trailed after them. She made herself comfortable in between her parents. The dogs made themselves comfortable at their feet. Liz gripped both Lucy and Bill’s hands tightly in hers.
They sat. And waited.
About the Author
R.M. Allinson is an Australian author. She grew up in a teeny tiny town called Noorat (which is no longer even officially a town as of the 2011 census) in rural Victoria and graduated from Monash University in 2008, with a very useful Bachelor of Arts. After back-packing around Europe and North America in her early twenties, she somewhat accidentally ended up living in Vancouver, Canada for the past 3 years.