June 12

The nightmares are getting worse. I was plunged into the same scenario, fog surrounding me as my feet sunk into the sand. But this time it was different.

I saw a small shadow pass overhead and the shriek of a seagull. And then the bodies appeared from the mist, five of them lying on the ground, seafoam swirling around their clothes and hair. A seagull landed on one of them, picking out a small chunk of flesh before flying away.

I'm not sure why, but I began to walk towards the collection of bodies. There was a torn piece of purple cloth floating on the turquoise sea. I tried grabbing it, but the waves carried it into the mist, and I stumbled forwards.

That's when I saw it. Mom in her floral dress, Dad with his clunky glasses and striped shirts, May with her oversized sweatshirt, Mira with her conch necklace, and Charles with his thick sunglasses just lying there rotting away. Their bodies were covered in green slime, scraps of kelp dotting cloth, barnacles clinging to skin with stark white ribs sticking out from their bodies.

I gasped, bringing my hands to my face only to discover that I had become green and slimy, and I caught a glimpse of myself in the reflection of the sea. I had become one of them.

A seagull swooped down picking a bit of flesh from my shoulder and I scampered away, tumbling in the wet sand. More and more and more crowded me, pushing me into the ocean. I suddenly woke up sweaty and sore.

Mom went out into the garden to try to grow the plants that we bought from the nursery. Her parents were farmers, but I think that their green thumbs may have skipped a generation. I think this is the first time that I've ever seen her in a garden.

She also ordered Mira and May to wash the laundry since our dirty laundry was piling up in the hamper and no one seemed to want to clean it. Mira and May said that it was sexist. I agreed with them, but I didn't want to do the laundry, so I just stayed quiet. Unfortunately, that didn't stop me from being dragged into chores. Mom made me wash and dry the dishes. She could be really bossy sometimes.

Dad took the van and went into town today to see if anything was even open. Mom reminded him to gas up the car. I think gasoline prices would start reaching the high twenties per gallon. California doesn't produce much oil, so we'd have to take it from Texas or some other state and that'd be pretty costly.

When he came back, everyone started to ask him questions. Even though we went to town yesterday, we didn't get to see much around it. "Is anything open?" Mom asked.

"Nothing much," Dad said. "Just some clothing stores and school supply stuff."

"What about gas?" Mom asked.

"It's around twenty to thirty dollars per gallon," Dad said. "And they only accept cash. We've only got one-hundred dollars in cash left and I checked the ATM machines. They're not working."

"Then we don't use gas," Mom said. "No more taking the car out to places, and it's only for emergencies."

"What clothing stores?" May asked, jumping into the conversation.

"Just some old thrift shops. Nothing you'll like," Dad said.

"Well, I need a new outfit. Clara's birthday party is tomorrow," May replied.

"You're not going to someone's birthday party. It's dangerous."

"It's literally two blocks down," May said. "I'm not going to get abducted or whatever."

"Let May have a break," Mom said. "She's been working all day."

She then turned to May. "No new outfit though. And you're going to have to bike there with your brother."

'What?" I said. "I don't want to go to her party."

"Exactly," May said. "I can take care of myself."

"With gasoline running out, the police might not be able to protect us anymore," Mom said. "So two people biking down a street when it's getting dark is much safer than one person by themselves."

"Or we'll both get abducted," May muttered. "A two for one deal."

"Why can't Mira take her instead?" I asked.

"Mira is going to help me with the garden tomorrow," Mom said.

"Neal can go help you with the garden," May replied.

"I don't want to work in the garden," I said.

"Then you're going to take May to her party," she said.

"Fine, whatever."

"See," Mom said. "All problems solved."

I don't think anyone was too happy about this arrangement. But no one wanted to argue with the delicate peace Mom wove, so everyone went to their own rooms to go to sleep after eating some lukewarm string beans and rice.

June 13

Mom pulled out an old SAT book and said that if I didn't want to get a summer job, I should at least start practicing for the standardized testing. So I wasted my whole morning studying grammar and reading techniques. Boring!

I managed to find the hand-cranked radio. I totally forgot about it. I gave it a few cranks and tried to find a radio station to listen to, but it was mostly static. All the local music stations had gone radio silent (literally), so I decided to hear the news stations.

There were only two of them. The government one kept listing out names. "Sam Hunter, Alicia Xiao, Arnav Gupta..." they droned on and on. I think it's the list of the dead or missing. I wondered if the person on the beach was on it, but I didn't want to know, so I changed to the other station.

The other new station was extremely faint. The staticky murmur of the radio overpowered the voice, but you could hear a faint, deep voice speaking. Unfortunately, I was only able to hear fragments of the radio since the static grew and dimmed throughout the morning.

There was some news about NYC. I think that it's uninhabitable or at least some sort of it. Lawmakers in D.C have passed emergency relief bills for all the coastal states, but no one is sure what to do afterwards. Some people want to build sea walls to protect the seaside communities. Others want to do a managed retreat. Climate change is also a concern since sea levels are just going to keep rising. Especially with California since people are worried that there will be saltwater intrusion in the Central Valley.

Grandma and Grandpa came to our house today. I think they walked over here since Mom is trying to save gasoline. They spent a lot of time in the garden with Mom and Mira to try to fix up all the plants that we bought. Our soil is of pretty terrible quality. There's a corner in our garden where the soil is dark and rich, but the rest is dry and cracked. Dad had to take out the large shovel and try to bash the soil to soften it. I'm not sure if it worked.

In the afternoon, I had to take May to her birthday party.

"How much longer are you going to take?" I asked when she was still getting ready.

"Literally don't rush me," she said. "Otherwise you're going to mess up my hair."

"You know if you use the hair curler, then everyone will know that we have electricity."

"No one cares if we have electricity or not. I'm pretty sure that everyone has generators or solar panels."

"Just hurry up already."

"Give me five more minutes and I'll be down, okay?"

It took at least ten minutes before May actually came downstairs. "Bike or walk?" I asked her.

"Walk," she said. "Biking will mess up my hair."

"Okay. Whatever you want," I said.

We walked down the street to her friend's house. It was around the middle of the afternoon, so the sun was beating down on us. If we had biked there, it would've been a lot faster, and we wouldn't be all sweaty.

"I'm not staying at your party," I said. "That's just going to be really awkward for everyone."

"Good," she replied.

"Remember," I said. "No drugs, no smoking, no alcohol. Other than that, do whatever you want. When the sun sets, I'll be back at this house."

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"To Charles' house," I replied.

"Okay," she said.

I walked a couple of steps before yelling back, "Bring me some cake!"

I didn't think she heard me, or she did and chose to ignore me. I walked a couple blocks down to his house. I hoped he was free this afternoon. Everything seems so boring with power being out, so there's literally nothing to do. Plus, I finished all my library books, but I can't go back because Mira will find out about the computer things and she'll either get sad or angry at me.

I knocked at the door of their house. There was a lot of shuffling in the house and some muffled yelling before the lock opened and Charles walked out. He looked tired.

"Is this a bad time?" I asked.

"No, no," he said. "We were just sorting some stuff inside. You want to take a walk around the neighborhood?"

"Sure," I replied, and he yelled at his parents that he'll be back soon, and we began walking along the sidewalk.

"Do you want to talk about, you know..." I said.

"The dead body," he said.

"Yeah, that."

"What's there to talk about?"

"Well, I've been dr—" I said, but then I stopped. I wanted to tell him about the nightmares, the dead bodies littering my dreams, but I couldn't. I don't know why. I guess I was just afraid of being judged or being vulnerable.

"You've been, what?" he asked.

"Oh, you know what," I said. "Never mind. I just never imagined that this would happen to our town."

"Yeah," he said. "I'm never getting into the ocean again."

He wanted to play it off like a joke, but there was a hint of something in his eyes. Sadness, maybe even a bit of fear. I think he was just as affected about the body as I was.

"So what are you doing this summer?" I asked, trying to change the subject that I brought up.

"Nothing much," he replied sheepishly.

"I thought you had the internship stuff going on."

"Well, with all of this stuff going on, and the power being out for basically all of California, I guess there's no opportunity to really, you know, intern. I'm thinking of getting a summer job."

"Tell me about it if you get one. My parents have been bugging me about getting one since forever."

"Why would I want to spend all day working with my friend?" he asked rhetorically.

"Well, you know, I'll entertain you while you're slogging through work as your soul slowly gets crushed."

"Tell me a joke."

"Like, any joke," I replied.

"Yeah," he said.

"What type of cow has no legs?"

"Ground beef," he said. "I've heard this joke a thousand times in elementary school."

"Remember the good old days of elementary school, where we colored pictures and did nothing."

"Don't forget all the creative stories that we had to write."

"Or the 'essays' that our teachers graded. Those were the good times," I said.

"We sound like two old men reminiscing about the past."

"Elementary school felt like forever ago."

I picked up May afterwards. She said that she had a good time there even though there wasn't any cake. But I wasn't really thinking about whatever she was talking about.

What he said resonated with me. Is the world going to change so much that we'll be reminiscing about the days of electricity or hot water? I hope not.

June 14

I messed up bad. I wish I could disappear.

After Mira finished gardening out in our backyard, she went inside to take a break during the afternoon. "What's up little brother?"

"Nothing much," I replied. "I'm pretty bored right now. There's nothing to do."

"You could help me with the garden. There are lots of plants that need to be de-potted and planted and a whole bunch of other stuff."

"No thanks. I'd prefer to stay here and be bored."

"What about the books from the library? Did you finish them all?"

My heart began to race. For a second, I thought that it might be a good idea to tell her about the computers in the library. Maybe it'll give her a sense of peace. I know she's been struggling with just not knowing. But then I thought that it was too late to tell her, so what she doesn't know won't hurt her. Big mistake.

"I'm not in the mood to read right now."

"It's probably because all the books you've chosen are so boring," she said. "We should go to the library to get some new ones."

"We?" I asked.

"Yeah," she said. "You and me. Bro and sis walking around and doing normal people stuff."

"I thought you hated reading."

"Well, you know, we have to make sacrifices for our siblings. And also, Mom wants some books about gardening and foraging."

"The library is literally going to close tomorrow. It's going to be pointless to check out books for just one day."

"We can just take pictures of the pages in those books, and we've got the solar panels and batteries, so we can power up the printer and begin printing out all those photos."

"I don't know about all of this."

"Did something happen to you at the library?" she asked. "You seem like you don't want to go."

"Nothing. I don't know. I'm just not in the mood to go out."

"Well you better change your mood," she announced. "Because we are going to the library tomorrow."

If there was a time machine, I'd hop into it right now or maybe if I could stop time, so that tomorrow will never come. Hopefully, she has spontaneous amnesia and forgets our whole conversation. I wish I had just come clean with the truth.

June 15

I've ruined everything.

I'm such an idiot. Mom and Dad are fighting. I don't think Mira will ever talk to me again if I even see her again. May is pretending to be confused, but I think she knows what happened.

I wish the ocean would swallow me up.

June 16

Here's what happened yesterday.

Mira forced me to go to the library. I tried my best to stall since the library would've closed the next day and she wouldn't have found out about my lies. I pretended to sleep in till around noon, but then Mom woke me up because it was lunch time.

Mira wanted to go to the library afterwards since walking a bit after eating is supposed to be good, but I told her that it was too hot to walk outside and we might risk heatstroke, so we should wait until it gets cooler. It was around five in the afternoon when she had enough with the waiting.

"We're going to the library," she said.

"I'm not feeling well enough to go," I said.

"You look perfectly fine," she said and put a hand to my forehead. "You don't even have a fever."

"Can't you take May or someone else to the library," I said. If the inevitable was going to happen, I didn't want to look into her eyes and tell her that I lied to her for a long time.

I tried practicing telling her the truth, reciting the words out in my bedroom. But I just couldn't do it and by then, it felt like it was too late. "May is barely talking with me," she said. "Probably because I stole her room from her."

"Perfect," I said. "It'll be a great sister to sister bonding time. One on one session to solve your problems."

"Right now I want to hang out with my little brother. Haven't you always wanted me to go to the library with you?"

"Well just not today," I blurted out.

Her eyes narrowed. "Well why not?"

"Because..." I said. "Just because..."

"Are you hiding something from me?"

"No, nothing," I said. "Let me get dressed and get ready."

"Okay," she said, smiling uneasily. "If you're not out in five minutes, I'm going to break in and drag you out."

I took the whole five minutes and heard a knocking at the door. "What's taking you so long?"

"Just one more minute," I yelled back and slowly put on a pair of pants while praying that the library closes before we get there.

After that, we walked to the library. It was very awkward. I tried to tell her the truth again and come clean. But I was too scared, too cowardly. I was just procrastinating my troubles away until they became worse and worse and worse.

So I tried my best to waste time. I pointed out every little detail: the birds, the trees, the weather, dangerous conditions, sidetracks. But Mira wanted to get to the library quickly since she thought that I wanted to go to the library. So by the time we got there, the library was still open and there was a massive line of people waiting, snaking around the building.

"That's a lot of people waiting for books," she said.

"Maybe we should head back," I suggested. "Come back another day."

"But the library is closing tomorrow," she said.

"How do you know that?"

"The sign literally says that," she said, pointing to the library closing signs pasted everywhere.

"The library is losing electricity tomorrow and they've developed a system to keep track of books without the computers, so it'll probably just stay open even though the signs say that it's closing."

"Then why is everyone waiting in the lines?"

"I don't know. Maybe people want the AC. People are weird sometimes."

"I don't think it's that," she said. "I'm going to check it out. You can head back now and tell Mom that I'm at the library."

I should've headed back, so I wouldn't have to directly face her when she found out that I had been lying to her. But I didn't head back and followed her towards the library. I tried tripping myself, falling down, and spraining my ankle, but I couldn't force my body to do that. "C'mon let's go back," I said.

She didn't listen to me and asked a person in the line about what they were waiting for. "It's for the computers," he said. "They've got the lists for the dead and missing."

Mira turned to me. "Did you know about this?"

I responded with silence. "Neal, Did you know about this?" she asked again.

There was an awkward silence between us. All of my lies crumbled like a teetering sandcastle. "Why didn't you tell me about this?" she said. "I could've found out if Leon was alright. I could've known. Do you know how much this worry is eating into me?"

I looked down in shame. "I thought it was better not to tell you."

"You thought it was better for me not to know," she said and sputtered. "You don't get to choose what's good and what's not good for me. Especially with this information."

"I was worried, okay," I said in a louder voice. "You were sad about your boyfriend. If you saw that he was dead, then I was worried that you were going to break down."

"I can handle my own emotions. I'm not going to spontaneously break down," she retorted. "You should've told me about this."

"It's not like you're even going to be able to do anything with it," I shouted. "What? If you see he's dead or alive, what are you going to do?"

"You should've told me," she yelled. "It's none of your business to hold information back from me. I had a right to know."

"You want to know why I didn't tell you earlier," I said. "Because I was afraid you were going to get mad at me."

"Then, why'd you lie to me?" she asked. "Why? We used to share secrets when we were younger. Just you and me."

"Well I'm not like that anymore. You don't know me as well as you think you do."

I'm still a liar even when I'm trying to tell the truth. I've always kept secrets and lies, not just right now but even when I was younger. Mira just never saw that part of me.

I ran home after that while Mira waited in line. I think the library closed or lost power while she was in line because this morning she just left. There was a note on the counter. She said that she had to know about her boyfriend's condition.

Dad freaked out. Even though Mira was an adult and in college, he was still apprehensive about the secret boyfriend. Mom and May are both wondering why Mira left so suddenly. I know that truth. I'm the one that did it. But I'm too cowardly to say it to everyone.

I guess I just don't want to be blamed.

June 17

Mira is still gone.

Mom is alternating between panic and eerie calmness. She's been trying to phone Mira all day, but May and I keep telling her that cellular data isn't working and there's no internet anywhere.

The car only had around a hundred miles worth of gasoline. Her university was forty miles away from here. She wanted to keep a solid distance between our family and her college life, otherwise Mom and Dad might've stalked her to college. Sometimes they can be a little too overprotective.

My little secret is boring a hole through me. I wish I had someone to just confess that I was the reason Mira had left. I would never tell either Mom or Dad because they might start to ask other questions or get angry. Also, probably not Charles because it's awkward to drag your friends into family drama.

There were a few tremors today, including a large one early in the morning that jolted the house. No one knows exactly what's causing all these tremors. It's probably the Moon.

Everything's easier when you can blame the Moon for everything.

June 18

Charles came to my house today. He knocked on the door sometime in the morning. I must have looked sad or angry because the first thing he asked was, "Is this a good time?"

"Yeah," I said and yawned. "What's up?"

"You look tired. Maybe I should tell you later."

"Tell me what?" I asked, now more awake.

"Well you were wondering about getting a job," he said. "Well I've found something for the both of us."

He pulled out a flyer. I looked at it. "Gardening?" I said. "At the community garden?"

"It'll be fun," he said. "With all the bees and bugs and everything gross."

"You know you're disgusting," I said.

"The great outdoors is great," he replied.

"And you never considered becoming a park ranger because..." I said.

"I hate going outdoors—"

"But you literally said—"

"I was just joking," he said. "Still want to do computer engineering."

"What computers? Do you think the world is going to get better?"

"I hope so," he said. "I miss watching anime."

"I miss the internet," I replied.

"If we tried to list everything that we missed, we'd probably die before we get to the end."

"Yeah," I said. "When does this job-slash-volunteering thing start?"

"Next week," he said. "It's from two to three pm on Wednesdays and Fridays."

"Okay," I said. "I'll see you there."

He left afterwards. I told Mom and Dad about the job, but the best response they could muster up was a weak "Good job" before they kept on worrying about Mira. The only time that she wasn't worrying about Mira was when we went to get the food. Then she went back to worrying about Mira. I wish she would come back home already.

June 20

Mira is back.

She came sometime in the afternoon. Mom heard the rumble of the engine (sometimes, she has great hearing) and ran outside to greet Mira. The first thing she said was, "Don't ever do that to me again."

The second was, "I'm glad that you're back."

Mira had to unwrap herself from Mom. "Geez Mom. You don't need to overreact like that. I was gone for like five days only."

"Five days are five too many," Mom said. "And with everything that is going on, it can get dangerous out there."

Dad stepped into the conversation. "Mira, what you did was reckless and dangerous. Do you know how worried we were?"

"I'm an adult," she said. "I can go wherever I want without telling you. I'm not a little kid anymore."

"All for a boyfriend." Dad scoffed. "A college boyfriend that you never told us about that you just abandoned us for."

"First of all, I didn't abandon you guys. I left a note on the kitchen counter. Second, I never told you guys because I knew that this is exactly how you guys would react. Third of all, guess what I brought you guys."

She opened the trunk. There were boxes with jams and pickles bobbing in clear glass jars. "Leon and his family have a farm up on the mountains and they're a big fan of off the grid living."

"We're not a charity case," Dad said, all stubborn. "We've got enough food."

"No," Mom said. "We're not going to return the food. The more food the better. Now you better start unloading the van."

Mom and Dad unloaded the van while May and I pretended to disappear, so we wouldn't have to do any work. I looked into the boxes of food. There was everything; canned peaches, syrupy strawberries, pickled green cucumbers, rich tomato paste. Grandma could probably make a feast out of it. I felt a tap on my shoulder when I was looking at the jars. It was Mira. "Can we talk?" she asked.

"Uh, sure," I replied. "So, how was your trip?"

"Fine," she said. "You know, the usual, rolling hills and other stuff." We sat there in silence after that for one excruciating minute.

"I feel like you wanted to talk with me about something more important," I said.

"Yeah," she said.

"Look, I'm sorry, okay," I said. "I'm sorry for doing that to you."

"Thanks," she said. "But I feel like we need to stop the lying. Please, no more secrets between us— just like when we're younger."

I looked at her before staring at the ground before my eyes finally settled at the wall behind her. "I can't promise that," I whispered.

"Why not?" she asked.

"Because I just don't like when people know my secrets. I just feel too vulnerable," I wanted to say, but instead, I said, "I just can't."

She sighed. "Just try not to keep the important stuff away."

"Okay," I said and changed the subject. "Is he coming down? You know, Leon, to meet us."

"I'm not sure we're ready yet," she said.

"You guys seem pretty serious."

"Yeah, I guess we are," she said.

"So Leon," I added. "Pretty strange name, isn't it"

"Not really. His mother named him after her favorite actor in that TV show. I'm forgetting the name."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"The one with those people. Oh you know what, never mind."

"Still have no idea what you're talking about."

"I give up," she said.

Mom and Dad fixed a big meal for Mira's return. We got some stir fried noodles with bits of pork and canned corn while Dad made some canned okra and potatoes. For dessert, we had a piece of chocolate though I noticed that May took two pieces. I didn't tell Mom and Dad. Let today stay as a happy day.

June 21

"You guys need to do something other than laying around all day," Mom said.

"But there is literally nothing to do," May said. "Nothing at all."

"Pick a hobby and do it," Mom said. "Didn't you like photography in middle school? Go and take some photos."

"But Dad isn't doing anything."

"Your Dad is meeting with other people in our neighborhood. They're discussing what they would do with the houses close to the water and other important items. So I better see you with Dad's camera tonight unless you have a better idea."

"Fine," Mira said. "So annoying."

"And Neal," Mom said. "What do you want to do?"

"Didn't I literally tell you that I got a job?"

"Oh, yeah," Mom said. "How long is it?"

"Two to three on Wednesdays and Fridays."

"That's not a lot of time," Mom said. "You better find something else to do and not waste time."

"Yeah, whatever," I said.

"Colleges like that," she said. "And that's important."

"Not like they even exist," I wanted to retort back, but I kept that to myself.

But she had me thinking, do colleges and universities still exist? What is the world outside of our neighborhood? My world after the Mooncrash had been confined by the rolling waves and the border of houses by the end of the town. Who knows what's out there? What happened with all the other places? I want to ask Mira, but everything is too awkward between us.

My job-slash-volunteering thing is starting tomorrow. I feel like I'm going to regret making this decision.

June 22

You know how people say that their first job is "super cool" and "tons of fun". Actually, I don't think anyone sane has said that. My job is boring!

I met up with Charles at the community gardening area about five to ten blocks away from home. There were only twenty people there, and there was a man that was directing everything with a clipboard and was yelling out instructions. We had two options: work on building the greenhouses or tend the vegetable gardens outside. I'm not good at building things, so I chose the vegetable gardens.

There were much less people doing the vegetable gardens compared to the greenhouse construction, and that's alright. The person in charge told us that we were going to be divided up into three different sections: weeders, insect slayers, and builders for the fences and other contraptions in the garden.

Charles chose to be a weeder, and I followed along. I hate insects and building things is just bad. We were given certain instructions when dealing with weeds. Pull the whole plant out, including the roots, don't pull out clovers, watch out for thistles, and have fun. I wasn't sure how I was supposed to have fun. Picking weeds seemed boring and turned out to be very boring.

"How are you liking the job?" Charles asked.

"Are we getting paid?"

"Surprisingly, yes," he said. "Each person gets about 2% of what the garden produces."

"So we're working for a couple of vegetables," I said.

"Yeah, basically," he said. "Things seem like they're going to get much worse."

"I don't know how it could get any worse," I joked and then added in a more serious tone. "What do you mean?"

"Haven't you been listening to the radio," he said.

"No, my hand cranked one is super staticky and we don't have a proper battery operated one."

"The scientists are hearing rumbling from the volcanoes up north all across the Cascade Range. Some of the more active ones are already steaming and there have been tremors around the dormant ones."

"That sounds bad," I said. "Do they think that the volcanoes are going to erupt?"

"No one knows anything at this point," he said.

We stopped talking for a while after that. I can't imagine the situation getting any worse than it already is. A couple of volcanoes erupting doesn't seem like a big deal, but I remember in our plate tectonics unit, we talked about how one volcanic eruption led to a globe wide winter. I hope that doesn't happen.

After a while, we began to talk about stuff. Nothing too serious: high school, random politics, video games— mostly to pass the time. "I agree with you," Charles said. "This job sucks."

I chuckled. "Welcome to the beginning of the rest of our lives."

"You don't think that everything's going to get better?"

"I'm not sure," I replied.

Charles added," Do you want things to get better? For everything to return to the way it was before."

"I don't know," I replied. "I just don't know."

June 24

Mom has gone crazy.

I was in the middle of studying for the SATs even though we can't register because power is still out. I wonder if we're ever getting it back. May was sitting next to me trying to make her old camera work and Mira was in the room next to me, resting after fixing up the garden. She and Grandma have been adding barriers around the tomato plants so that they don't get eaten by the rabbits.

All of a sudden, Mom just barged in. "We're going hiking tomorrow," she announced.

"What?!" May and I said at the same time.

"Did you not hear me," Mom said. "We're going hiking! Aren't you guys excited."

"I've got my thing tomorrow," I said.

"I have to do my camera thing," May added.

"Your work is in the afternoon, so we'll hike in the morning, and it'll be a good time to practice your camera skills, May."

Mira walked into the room. "What's going on?" she asked.

"Mom is high right now and is forcing us to hike during the apocalypse," May said.

"You know, everyone has been talking about the world ending and the apocalypse, so I think it's a great idea to have my kids go out and see some of our local beauties."

"I agree with Mom," Mira said. "It's a good idea to have all of us out together. We should have some quality family time."

I cringed on the inside while hearing this. I didn't think Mira ever wanted to have quality time with the whole family. She and Dad would just start arguing. I can see that she's trying to mend her relationship with us. But hiking is not the way we're going to do it.

May looked at Mira. "I hate you."

Mira looked genuinely hurt. "She doesn't mean that," I quickly added. "It's the teenage hormones."

"I do mean it," May insisted.

"Yeah, whatever," I replied. "Just ignore her."

But Mira had already walked away. She stayed in the garden for the rest of the day and when she came for dinner, she ate her baked beans and went to her bedroom. I knocked on the door.

"Come in," she said.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"May hates me," she said. "And it's like every time I try to make things better with Mom and Dad and I just seem to make things worse with you and May."

"May doesn't really hate you," I said. "And you and Dad aren't arguing about 'questionable life choices' anymore, so that's a positive."

"She's changed a lot," Mira said.

"Everyone has changed a lot."

"Yeah, but she's changed the most. I can't believe that kid in middle school became like this."

"She isn't all bad," I said. "I mean she can be nice if she wants to, and we talk too. It's just that she has some certain negative viewpoints about you that Mom and Dad may or may not have put into her brain."

"Okay. Spill the beans."

"She thinks you're a druggie."

"A druggie." Mira laughed. "Now that's a first."

"You know, you just have to talk with her and stop always siding with Mom and Dad on everything, especially if May hates whatever they want her to do because Mom will definitely forgive you faster than May will."

"Any other pieces of advice?"

"Just try," I said. "Talk about anything. Complain about anything. I don't know. Just do it."

"Thanks," Mira said.

"No problem," I said. "Be ready for the hike tomorrow. It's all your fault that we're doing it."

June 25

The hike today actually wasn't all that bad. The weather this morning was pleasant, and I wasn't shivering the whole walk to the beginning of the trail. It's around five miles away from our house, so it took us roughly an hour and a half to get there.

There were quite a few people hiking up the trail this morning. I guess with the world never becoming what it used to be before or possibly ending, it would be a good time to start seeing the small wonders around town before you kick the bucket. May complained the whole way to the trail. "I'm so tired. It's so hot. It's too cold out here. My legs hurt."

After a while, I turned towards her. "Suck it up," I told her.

"Hey," she said. "Only I'm allowed to say that."

"Hypocrite," I said. "You're an actual hypocrite."

"Does it look like I care?"

"Whatever," I said.

"That's what I thought," she said.

We started our hike up the mountain when the sun was a couple of inches above the rolling hills. May complained that her legs were too tired to walk, so Mom and Dad decided to walk slower with her while Mira and I went ahead. There was a good ten minutes of awkward silence before I broke it. "How was the world outside?"

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

"You know, when you left town, what did you see?"

"I saw a lot of things," she said. "Anything you want to know in particular?"

"Is there power anywhere?"

"Only a couple of places still had power: the hospitals, police and firefighter stations, places with back-up generators."

"What about schools?" I asked. "Or colleges."

"Most of them are closed down. The college that I went to is partially flooded."

And for some reason, I breathed out a sigh of relief. I'm not sure why I'd feel such relief or even some joy that the colleges are flooded. I guess it's because, I don't know, I'm scared of the future or something. Mira looked at me. "Is something wrong?"

"No, nothing really," I said. "Just thinking about something, so what were you saying?"

"To help all the coastal places that got flooded, they're trying to build sea walls. But the main concern for the government would be helping the people in the big cities, especially in Southern California."

"I heard there was a lot of flooding there."

"Yeah," she said. "And a complete lack of water. Those cities are surrounded by desert."

"Do you think we're going to get power back soon?"

"Maybe," she said. "I saw builders installing solar panels and wind turbines."

"Go green energy."

She laughed. "They're probably building oil power plants too, so don't get your hopes up. California still has a lot of those oil rigs."

We walked for a bit before reaching the top of the hill. The sun was high in the sky, and there was good visibility, so we were able to look down upon our city. I could be the waves slowly receding to the horizon, revealing the ruined neighborhoods. "It's beautiful," Mira said.

"Yeah," I said. "Do you think that we'll be able to fix the houses near the old beach?"

"It's going to be too expensive. It's better to let them go."

"I thought you said that the government is working on fixing up the coasts."

"They are," she replied. "It's just that it might not be worth the effort to fix up those houses. Eventually, the sea will take anything that is built over there no matter how well built it is."

"Plus," she added. "We'll have a beach in our backyard."

"Charles already told me about that."

"Dang it! I was trying to be original."

After going to the top of the hill, we climbed down and met Mom, Dad, and May around the midpoint. Mira told them about the beautiful sights, but I told them that I had to go to my thing and that they can always hike up by themselves.

While we were weeding plants in the garden, Charles asked," Did you hear about the fair?"

"There's a fair?"

"Yeah," he said. "I thought you knew everything that is going around in town."

"Nope. I had no idea."

"Well, the town is holding a sort of flea market in the city plaza this Sunday. Lots of people are supposed to show up."

"Are you coming?"

"I'm not sure," he said.

"Why not?"

"I haven't been feeling so well," he blurted out, but he quickly added. "I'll definitely try to come though."

It's the first time I've noticed something wrong. His eyes have light bags around them, and he seems to be catching his breath more than me while weeding. I don't think he has the stomach flu or anything. Maybe he just got some bad sleep, but I think that something else might be going on that he isn't telling me or maybe I'm overthinking it like always.

At the least end of our hour, we walked home and parted ways. "You better come!" I yelled.

"We'll see about that on that day!" he shouted back.

I told Mom and Dad about the fair. Mom thinks that it's a great idea. Dad is a bit more skeptical, but I think he agrees with Mom. If this happened before, I'm not sure that any of us would want to go, but I guess things have changed, taking everyone along with them.