The End of the World

Today was my first day back at the office. It was exhausting. I now know that I much prefer working from home. Unfortunately, I think I’ll have to have additional body parts removed in order to justify a bedroom office, so for now I guess I’ll stick with the original plan.

Anyway, Sam and I followed each other home from work tonight, like we do most nights. We never leave at a set time, yet as soon as one of us gets in the car we call the other and invariably discover we’re just a block apart on the Traffic Way. We’ll leave the office anywhere between 5:45pm to 7:30m, it’s never planned. But somehow we each reach our final point of exhaustion and decide to head home with in minutes of one another.

I pulled into the driveway just behind Sam this evening. I always make him stay on the phone with me until we’re in the driveway because I’m so happy to talk with him at the end of the day. Tonight, I watched him get out of the car and then, clicking off my phone, I turned to gather up my things. When I looked again – he was gone. I’d only turned away for a second, but he was no where to be seen.

It was amazingly quiet in that moment and the sky was deepening to the color of rain. For a split second I wondered if he’d been caught up in the rapture. He’s such a really good person – of course he would go.

I don’t believe in the rapture and for saying that I am sure I’ll be left behind. In fact I don’t believe in a lot of things I was taught to believe as a kid. Most of the time it feels incredibly liberating. Occasionally it scares the hell out of me.

I found Sam inspecting our newly planted flowers at the front of the house and was relieved to know the end of the world hadn’t begun. I told him what I’d thought and we laughed about it and he said we could just call my Mom if we were ever unsure. If she answered the phone, we could rest assured that the other person was probably just taking an extra long time at the grocery store.

I wished I didn’t have to go back to work this week. I would much rather be here at home. But at least it’s not the end of the world.