The End of the Line

 

Photo credit: Robsalot (that's me!)

“Did you know they define breakfast as the first meal of the day that is eaten within two hours of waking up?”

“Um, okay?” she replied as she sipped her coffee.

“Yeah, so that means what you are eating now is not breakfast.”

“What do you mean it’s not breakfast, its eight am, of course it’s breakfast.”

“Yes, for me, but you woke up at five. It’s been three hours, this isn’t breakfast for you!”

She looked up from her eggs to see he was grinning mischievously at her.

“Alright then, so what am I eating?”

“Hmm, I suppose we’ll have to make up a different word.”

They were both quite for a minute, trying to think of a new word when their contemplations were broken by the shrill scream of a siren. He looked at her and she looked at him, and without a word they got up from their table and walked out of the café, leaving the rest of their breakfast untouched.

They drove in silence to the old Navy base. The tsunami warning siren was still screaming, but the whole world seemed to otherwise stand still. No one seemed to be panicking yet.

As they drew closer to their destination the roads started to get busier, word was getting out. She clicked on the radio, but every channel was filled with the same warning message “evacuate now, disaster imminent, head to higher ground.” Blah blah blah. They knew it wouldn’t help, now with what was coming. The good news was, everyone was heading the opposite direction, a long line of cars snaking toward the bridges.

Finally they reached the edge of the island, with nothing in front of them but water they parked the car, walked out to the end of the old broken dock, and sat down. It was a beautiful morning, the water was calm and still, the sky was blue, and there wasn’t a hint of the imminent disaster.

“We should have brought our coffee.” She sighed

“Oh well, nothing we can do about it now.”

“Yeah, so how long do you think this will take anyway?”

“Any minute I would imagine.”

She reached out and held his hand. A half an hour passed.

“What do you think is taking so long?” she asked, “Shouldn’t the wave have been here by now.”

“No,” he said, “look”, and he pointed across the water to one of the old runways.

“What?” she asked as she peered in the direction he was pointing, but she didn’t wait for his answer because she saw what he meant, there on the runway, a blue car was driving, but before it reached the end it disappeared, only to reappear and start its journey again.

“See, we’re glitching, now they will need to reboot the whole thing again, come on,” he stood up and reached out to help her to her feet, “now they will need to reset, I guess the world won’t be ending today after all.”