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    The Life as We Knew It 4-Book Collection
    The Life as We Knew It 4-Book Collection
    The Life as We Knew It 4-Book Collection
    Ebook1,217 pages23 hours

    The Life as We Knew It 4-Book Collection

    By Susan Beth Pfeffer

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    "These books transcend their premises with terrifyingly well-imagined futures and superb characterization. Riveting." —John Green, author of The Fault in Our Stars

    When a meteor hits the moon, teenage Miranda and her friends and family struggle to survive the unimaginable. Four gripping books that follow their ordeal are collected in this boxed set.

    Includes:

    • LIFE AS WE KNEW IT
    • THE DEAD AND THE GONE
    • THIS WORLD WE LIVE IN
    • THE SHADE OF THE MOON
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 13, 2015
    ISBN9780544774803
    The Life as We Knew It 4-Book Collection
    Author

    Susan Beth Pfeffer

    Susan Beth Pfeffer is the author of many books for teens, including the New York Times best-selling novel Life As We Knew It, which was nominated for several state awards, and its companion books, The Dead and the Gone, This World We Live In, and The Shade of the Moon. She lives in Middletown, New York.

    Read more from Susan Beth Pfeffer

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    Reviews for The Life as We Knew It 4-Book Collection

    4/5

    1,952 ratings231 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Everyone's excited to see the meteor crash into the moon. In fact, there are block parties planned and everything. Miranda and her family are no exception, and it feels like a nice break from the normal routine of school and such. But the scientists miscalculated the force the impact would have, and the world is thrown into shock when it's apparent that the meteor knocked the moon closer to earth. First come the massive tidal waves, then the world-wide earthquakes and volcano eruptions, and then soon enough Miranda and her family lose contact with the outside world when the TV channels and radio stations become just static. Will they survive through the winter? Will things ever get back to normal?I adore a good disaster story. And this one almost qualifies. It's a good story, for certain, and I definitely wanted to know how it all turned out for Miranda, but I want my disaster tales to have me constantly on the edge of my reading chair, and this one didn't do that for me. In fact, the middle seemed to drag a bit. Still, an interesting take on how one family deals with sudden and massive catastrophe.
    • 4/5
      Written by 16 yr old Miranda via journal entries, who -along with the rest of the world- watches an asteroid slam into the Moon. Yet (typical for her age) her entries are mainly preoccupied with high school friends, potential boy friend, & upcoming class exams. Living with her divorced mom and two brothers (one away at college) she also maintains a good relationship with her dad and his new, much younger wife, who live in Boston. Only as weather changes, cataclymsic storms, & huge ocean shifts begins to destroy parts of continents does her entries begin to become more focused on events, & the reaction of the gov't, that is -before they lose contact with the outside world- TV, internet & radio signals drop. Understandable tensions arise between Miranda and her mother, but the forward thinking actions/dictates (she quickly goes into mamma bear/survival mode pretty fast) builds an intense, but believable "plan" to make it through. For better or worse, because of that, she and her brothers hunker down to "survive" in their Pennsylvania home with the earliest winter on record, and strange weather events everywhere. Definitely a page turner - as conditions worsen, readers want to know: will they survive the year?? In its own way, a quiet take (one teenage girl) on a growing apocolyptic world, it's realism and poignancy are grounded in Miranda's growing up, much too fast, in order to help her family survive, no matter the cost.
    • 4/5
      Written in diary format from the perspective of a 16 year old girl. This novel explores survival following a cataclysmic meteor strike on the moon that knocks it from its orbit. The ensuing changes to the gravitational pull create a hostile environment for humans. As the girl Miranda documents the changes in her world and her family, she matures in ways that would not have been possible in her pre-apocalyptic world. The author does an excellent job capturing the voice of a young woman adapting to her new normal and dealing with the tragedies and triumphs in this difficult new world. In spite of such a sensitive subject, the author should be applauded for he apolitical presentation. Other than one character’s expression of her politics (which was consistent and in-character), the remainder of the book did not portray blatant bias. It was refreshing to read a book in this genre that was not finger-pointing at human-caused environmental destruction or government-controlled collapse.
    • 4/5
      teen fiction; apocalypse for teens. Just because the coastlines are destroyed and food/gas are no longer available, doesn't mean one stops dreaming about boys and prom! Readers may think Miranda is a bit whiny at the beginning, but keep reading: she gets progressively more mature and grounded by the apocalyptic circumstances, and the way her family manages to stay strong throughout the direst circumstances will keep you from setting the book down.
    • 5/5
      Gripping story about a teenaged girl and her family surviving apocalyptic weather events--from volcanic ash to blistering heat--and how they came together as a family to keep each other alive. I tore through this book, fearing what would happen to Miranda, Matt, Jonathan, and their mom (even their cat!).It's amazing how humans can survive the unsurvivable. While I hope an asteroid never moves the moon in real life, it does make you wonder, "how would I have survived?"
    • 5/5
      I started this book last night and couldn't put it down. I ended up staying up all night reading it because I just had to know what happened to the characters and their world. It was a great dystopic young adult fiction novel.
    • 4/5
      This book was so much darker than I expected it to be. I was really absorbed in it as I read, but was ultimately unsatisfied. I think there were still two more chapters left to tell. There is resolution, but I really wanted more information at the end, and not in a good, [author: John Marsden], open-ended way, either.
    • 3/5
      Plot devices aside, this was an effective diary of a young girl during the apocalypse. At first the young voice of the narrator was grating, especially in rendering her father's voice, but then I got used to it and it reflected the character well.
    • 4/5
      It was an interesting book. A young adult book. It was not a typical apocalypse book. It really made me think about daily life after a major disaster.
    • 5/5
      Life As We Knew It (Last Survivors #1) by Susan Beth Pfeffer is a book that sounded so intriguing and it certainly was! A giant asteroid hits the moon from the dark side ( I think) and it had a greater force than expected and pushes the moon out of it's normal orbit, path, rotation, and closer to Earth!!! This book follows one family before and after as everything goes to h#ll right away as tidal waves surge again and again, then more and more disaster happen due to the different forced of the gravitational pull. Other things happen too! Very thrilling and exciting book! Glad I found it! Who knew disasters could be so entertaining, lol, as long as it's in a book!
    • 4/5
      At first I didn't like the book because I thought the characters were doing everything all wrong. Then I realized that they were probably reacting the way most people would who are ignorant of basic skills and have never prepared for emergencies or natural disasters. If anything, I hope this book served as a wake up call to those who think nothing bad will ever happen to them and that the government and local infrastructure will always provide whatever they need.

      I don't know if anyone has done this yet but I want to list the mistakes the characters made (in my opinion).

      1. Expecting the government to provide resources in times of crisis- take a look at most recent disasters and the time it takes for a response team to arrive with minimal supplies. People are recommended to have a 72 hour kit because that is the average time you might need to survive before help arrives. A 72 hour kit consists of food, water, first aid and clothes enough for 72 hours- and usually stored In a portable container. A 72 hour kit wouldn't have helped for very long but had the people in the community had that mindset, maybe they would have been quicker to organize as a town and start planning for survival after the disasters started occurring. Some cities and towns have an Emergency Response team with plans in place for emergencies and disasters. Maybe this is why in the second book the characters are able to get help from the Catholic church for quite a long time.

      2. Gardening- oh dear, this made me cringe! Don't harvest everything simply because it's cold and dark! The root plants could have stayed In the ground, especially if they wanted to be able to have a garden year after year. Carrots will produce seeds the second year. Don't eat all the potatoes- save some to plant the next year. Cover the remaining plants with sheets of plastic to make a basic green house and certain greens will continue to grow through the cold months. Even dig some of the plants up and attempt to keep them alive in the house. I get that the sky was darkened by volcanic ash bit they weren't walking around in the dark. The garden plants would have been stunted but I bet they could have kept things alive if they had tried. We had an earlier frost than I expected, and my fall crops didn't produce, but they are still alive under a layer of leaves and In the spring, I'll clear away the leaves and get some early peas.

      3. Bread- commercial yeast won't last forever but you can feed it for quite a while before it dies and one packet can actually produce enough yeast for multiple loaves of bread. But really it doesn't matter because anyone can make their own yeast. Yeast is all around us in the air. You simply mix a little flour and water and set it out in a warm place and see what wild yeast lands in it and starts growing. Not all yeast tastes great but it's a simple matter of trial and error. That is why San Fransisco sourdough is what it is- a wild yeast originating in San Fransisco. Wild yeast does take longer to rise but is more nutritious as a result.

      4. What is up with their obsession with washing themselves and their clothes? Use a bucket and a toilet plunger when it's necessary. But really! I think if I was lucky to have a well but it wasn't raining, I would not be using water for clothes and I'd be taking sponge baths once or twice a week.

      That's all I can think of for the moment. I'll update my list as I think of more.

      One final note- I agree with everyone else who said this book made them hungry and want to make a huge stockpiling trip to the store.
    • 3/5
      Life As We Knew It begins with the diary entries of sixteen year old, Miranda Day. The whole country is watching TV the night an asteroid hits the moon, knocking it off its orbit and pushing it closer to Earth. Everything in Miranda’s normal life changes. Tidal waves destroy the coastlines while earthquakes destroy the cities. Inactive volcanoes erupt simultaneously worldwide, covering the sky with ash that blocks out the sun. The crops begin to die and starvation is a real problem. Winter comes early and there is no longer any fuel for heaters.

      There are a lot of flaws in this book. There's no way astrophysicists would miscalculate the impact of an asteroid hitting the moon. There would be a lot more violence and food stealing than what goes on in this book. The political sniping in the book was annoying. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed reading it. It had a thought provoking plot that didn't incorporate the usual “fight and run” school of worldwide apocalypse. I think that it would certainly be of interest to a lot of teenage readers.
    • 4/5
      I am so relieved to have finished this, it was a difficult read for the storyline, a little too realistic feeling.
    • 4/5
      When an asteroid is going to hit the moon, nobody took much notice because it wasn't supposed to do much - but, in fact, the asteroid was dense and knocked the moon off course, bringing it closer to earth. Within hours, the tides are wreaking havoc with tsunamis across the world, the electricity is starting to fail, and Miranda and her family find themselves in survival mode.My reading tends more to the fantasy and teen dystopia side of science fiction, so this post-apocalyptic tale was a different sort of read for me and reminded me a bit of Alas, Babylon. Except, instead of a nuclear war that might have been preventable, we see the aftermath of a natural event that was absolutely no one's fault. I would have to read up on the science behind it, but I couldn't help but wonder if the fallout of one thing after another was an accurate "what could be" or a perfect storm of terrible events that have almost no chance of happening. While I liked Miranda for the most part and enjoyed her growth as she's forced to do things she never would have thought herself capable of, I questioned whether her family's complete isolation was necessary or even beneficial. In a way, the book raised more questions for me than it answered and it's hard to call such a bleak tale enjoyable, though there is some hope throughout, since it was such difficult reading. I'm not sorry I read it, but would only guardedly recommend it.
    • 5/5
      I don't know why this is categorized as YA, unless it's due its teenage girl narrator, and that could prevent some from reading it -which would be a big mistake. The premise, that a highly anticipated event, a large asteroid striking the moon, ends up being catastrophic for everyone on earth, is a fascinating one. The moon loses a big chunk of turf and is completely shaken from its orbit, with disastrous ramifications for the planet. And there are no easy or ironic answers, as there would be on a Twilight Zone episode. It does turn out to be each family for themselves, as, due to tidal shifts and atmospheric dust and contamination, there is no communication access at all nor any easy way to replenish food or water, nor a way to head off a flu epidemic. The reader follows the seemingly hopeless progression towards the death of a rural family - mom, two brothers, and the narrator Miranda - as snow falls in August and darkness reigns over the world.There are other books in the series, with other teenagers in other settings during the same event - but this one was bleak enough for me, although it was a remarkably vivid and frightening apocalyptic tale, where only the strongest and luckiest might survive.
    • 3/5
      Life as We Knew It is the first book in another dystopian/post-apocalyptic series about how a girl named Miranda and her family survive after a meteor knocks the moon closer to the earth which in turn throws all the seasons and weather out of whack. Their day to day struggle to survive is told through a series of journal entries which could have been a cool way to do it but most of the entries were just dull and boring. The author needed to spice them up a little and create some suspense behind them. I listened to the audio version too and I didn't care for the narrator's voice at all, especially her voice for the mother so that made a dry story even harder to swallow. At this point, I don't know if I'll continue with the series or not. If I do, I'll probably forgo the audio.

    • 3/5
      I found this topic a little scary as I've never heard anyone use it before. I could see this happening and what would happen? What would we do? The writer did a good job of making you care for the family and want to know if they will survive. The story was very isolating which it should be because this family becomes so isolated in their house 4 miles from town. They have no clue what is going on in the world even in their own small town and the author really isolates the reader. I'm looking forward to reading the other two books in the trilogy.
    • 3/5
      The plot of this is slightly unsettling. It's scary to think of something like this really happening and having to survive. It wasn't a fantastic read, but it does make you want to read the next two books just to see what happens to Miranda, her family, and the rest of the world.
    • 4/5
      An interesting premise, skillfully handled. It's YA, but adults will enjoy it, too.
    • 5/5
      The reason I am giving this my highest rating is because I was fully invested in this book. I felt panic, dread, hopelessness; I smiled and became teary-eyed at the end. I was completely and totally IN this book, and that doesn't happen very often.

      Miranda is 16 and has the usual teen angst that every girl does, but it wasn't off-putting, over done, and I didn't want to slap sense into her once. Matt was an excellent older brother character. I will admit that I wanted to slap the fire out of Jon sometimes, but he is probably a normal, self-absorbed 13-year-old boy.

      Miranda's friends are very real people, too. One is a little loose with the boys and one is overly religious, which is just two sides to a coin that claims many teenagers.

      The adult characters act like, surprise!, adults. They think of their children first, make hard decisions and sacrifices and still try to maintain some semblance of normalcy in extraordinary circumstances.

      Bottom line: this may not be the stuff of science fiction, but a glimpse into our future. Nature and the universe hold together very carefully and specifically, and we all too often take for granted its constant presence. This book proved to be so intense for me that I will have to read a few in between before going to the next one in the series. But I will definitely read the others.

      Highly recommended.
    • 3/5
      3.5***

      Miranda is a typical teen – worried about whether she’ll be asked to prom, obsessed with the national figure skating championship, fighting with her Mom, eagerly awaiting her big brother’s coming home from college (he’s promised to teach her to drive), and looking forward to being godmother to her father and stepmother’s new baby. Lately all the news is about some asteroid that is going to collide with the moon and every teacher has decided to give special assignments based on this. The night of the big event, there’s a sort of party atmosphere on their rural suburban road – with families sitting outside to witness it. But once the meteor hits, people quickly realize that things are NOT the same. In fact, the moon has been knocked out of kilter and closer to earth by the collision. No one is quite sure what this means, but it’s clear that things will never be the same.

      Generally, I am not a fan of post-apocalyptic fiction, but I really enjoyed this book. It’s YA fiction and the writing is somewhat simple, but the efforts of this family to pull together and survive the aftermath of this world-wide disaster make for a very interesting and compelling read. Miranda tells the story through her diary / journal entries and we clearly see her mature over the course of the work. There were some factual errors that irritated me (you can’t pump well water if you have no electricity), but I got caught up in the family relationships and the ways in which they worked together to survive.
    • 4/5
      A heartwrenching story full of diverse emotions and genuine character growth and development. The main character is whiny, but she is aware of this fact and tries to better herself. The science is realistic and the plot forces you to question your own priorities. The end bordered on Deus ex machina, but it was good nonetheless.
    • 3/5
      Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer is a thrilling and heartwarming story about a sixteen-year-old girl named Miranda, her two brothers (Jon and Matt) and their mother who struggle to survive after a meteor strikes the moon, knocking it off-kilter. An event that was supposed to be exciting and amazing to witness turns out to be a huge disaster, causing volcano eruptions, tidal waves, among many other natural disasters. The events that take place following this life-changing event are terrible, scary, and disturbing. This story documents through a journal-like perspective how Miranda and her family struggle to survive with the limited resources that they have available to them. At times this story can be very dark and frightening, while at other times it can be very uplifting. Pros: I found the whole premise of this book to be unique and intriguing.Very good character development. There are a lot of characters in this book but I felt that I grasped their personalities quite well.I “felt” for these characters. I was saddened when they were in pain and happy when something went right for them. Cons:This book can be very repetitive. You only follow so many characters in this book. They do the same things almost daily and it can get quite boring.I was not a huge fan of the ending, but I may continue reading this series because I’m interested about what might happen next. If you like end of the world books, this might be for you. It’s not very action-packed considering it only follows one family, but if you’re looking for something a bit more “personal,” pick this one up. Having it told from a journal-type perspective makes it a very intimate story.
    • 4/5
      This review first appeared on One Curvy BloggerSince I finished this book in 48 hours, I can guarantee Life As We Knew It has that un-put-down-able quality that we all look for in a novel. While this one unearthed a mixed bag of emotions for me, I would be lying if I said the writing was anything but superb. Thankfully, I picked up the second book in the same library sale that I bought this one and both of them for a buck total! And you can bet my book hoarding obsession that I will be reading the second story just as soon as I can cram it in my daunting to-read schedule.THE WRITINGIf you’ve seen other reviews of Life As We Knew It floating about the book community, you’ve probably realized that the book was written in the style of diary entries, from the prospective of sixteen-year-old Miranda. Since it is written in such a subjective point of view, the characters could be described as one dimension, but I disagree. Sure I’m introduced characters colored by the opinions of a teenager who has a pretty damn good excuse to be mad at the world, but Pfeffer (the hardest last name you will ever spell) delivered complex enough characters to entertain me and connect with as a reader. I also liked that the diary entries reminded me a lot of reading The Diary of Ann Frank in the seventh grade. I loved the experience and cannot wait to see what else this author has in store for me.THE STORYIf you’re like me and love an apocalypse-themed novel, you know most of them weren’t written to be light and fluffy reads (unless they are romance novels disguised as apocalypse themed – that’s a different genre altogether) so I expected some less-than-pleasant emotions to run high. I didn’t expect that I would grow so connected to these characters that it was excruciatingly tough to read about their train-wreck of an existence after the meteor alters the moon’s gravitational pull in such a simple way as to hit it at the wrong angle and tilt the moon just a bit closer to the Earth than necessary.All the sudden (but at a slower pace than usual when it comes to apocalypse themes fiction) tsunamis are eating away at every coastline in America and all over the world. Smaller countries surrounded by ocean are disappearing, benign volcanoes are suddenly forced into erupting. Some they didn’t even know existed made an appearance thanks to the moon’s stronger-than-normal gravitational pull. People are dying by the thousands and it seems so real and so possible that this could happen, it gave me chills to read about … I think I even dreamed about it last night.The only thing that bothered me in the way of world building is that it was purposely sketchy. What I mean is, because of all the natural disasters cropping up on every inch of the Earth’s surface, it makes it kind of difficult for the characters to find reputable information. Nobody has any real facts – except that people are dying and everything is chaos. The world is still spinning, but not in the same way it has for thousands of years – or ever again. You expect the power and gas shortages and the food to disappear rapidly, but you’d expect at least one person to know what the hell is going on and how to fix it – right? I mean, every time I read a zombie story, there is either someone at fault or someone working behind the scenes to find a cure, even if nobody knows why it happens, some one knows something, but not in Life As We Knew It. And besides … How do you find a cure for the moon tilting closer to Earth? You don’t.Generally, I like my endings tidy and happy or at least some closure to satisfy me. Life As We Know It doesn’t have the satisfaction of a tidy ending, no matter how thankful I am that it ended the way it did. So while I cried tears of relief for ending the way it did (you had to be there, quit laughing at me!), I still had a knot in my stomach and I still had a couple unanswered questions that will undoubtedly never be answered in the next book. And you guys know how I like my questions answered!THE CHARACTERSMy tug-of-war feelings for the main characters was my biggest problem with this book. The narrator is a 16-year-old girl stuck in the middle of one older brother and one younger brother, with another sibling on the way from her dad’s new wife. She reminds me a lot of myself – probably why even though I was hard on her and could see why other readers hated her, I could understand her.For one, she is without a doubt a teenager and therefore ruled by her emotions, not logic. She knows the world will never be the same, but she was in mega denial that everything will be back to normal next year. So did she come off as whiny and spoiled in some parts? Hell, yes! She had a lot of moments that I wanted to deck her, however when I think back to my own awful teenage days (I’m saying this as a borderline 20-year-old, but I’m still a teen until September 13th), I wasn’t always so fun to be around. In fact, there are days my family still has to warn people ahead of time when to stay out of the line of fire. Factor in that Miranda is having to make some god awful choices in the name of survival, well … I don’t hate her for being a whiny brat half the time. Though I wish I could have smacked her around a little!I had a harder time respecting Miranda’s parents, to be honest. One of them doesn’t even stick around to help raise them in the midst of an apocalypse and the other would sacrifice the others to save just one. Maybe I can’t judge because I’m not a mom, but you’d think for parents who claim they love their kids equally they would fight to keep them all living! I know my mom would.THE ENDYou guys were so, so right. This book really is one of a kind, even more so than I expected – especially since it was written in 2006, before the dystopian/apocalypse craze! I had a few complaints (mainly about the characters) but I enjoyed myself and would read it again if I had the time and stomach lining to spare. Everybody should try this series, especially those science fiction fans out there!
    • 4/5
      What would you do it the mood was sudden hit by an Asteroid and moved out of it orbit? Life as you know will never be the same. Could you survive?
    • 4/5
      This series is great. Makes you realize how every little thing we have we should cherish and how very dependent we are on technology. Very sad in a way. But it's also a reminder that there's always hope left even when you think it's gone.It makes us realize how our every day problems are trivial in the face of a huge catastrophe.
    • 5/5
      I probably shouldn't have read this book, because I already have an irrational fear that the sun is going to supernova and end the world. So I probably didn't need to read this and have to worry about the moon affecting the weather too. I was totally engrossed in this book, I couldn't put it down. I was so involved in the story when I stopped reading I had to remind myself that it wasn't really happening and that the sun was still visible in the sky. It's scary to think that something like this could really happen, and I'd like to believe that the government has a plan in place if something ever did, but I know that on a massive scale like that there would be no way that any plan could really work. Excellent book, can't wait to read the next two.
    • 5/5
      There was a girl named Miranda who lived in Pinsalvania. She was living a normal life when one day on the news that an astriod will the moon out of its orbit. When she went to school after that anouncement everyone was acting the scared and talking about the astiod hitting the moon out is orbit. Miranda's mom came to get her early from school for no reason. The next day was the day that the people said it was the day that the moon will get nocked off its orbit. So everyone thought it was false alarm that it was joke and and a false alarm. When the astriod hit the moon everyone started screeming and panicing that they were giong to die. After a while earthquakes,sunamies, and volcanos started to erupting.Maranda and her family stuck together and never really went out anymore. Maranda's friends and family where all dead. The life that they knew was gone.I liked this book so much because it espested how she felt and how she was stugling. Even though she wanted to give up she still kept pushing. When her friendsand family died from the disaters she never cryed. She is very srong also whwen her dad came and step mom she stayed stron. Another thing she became very indepentent and responsible. Another thing she kept postive. Thats why I liked this book.
    • 4/5
      I did like this book, I would have liked to hear more about what happened outside of their world.
    • 1/5
      Couldn't stand the writing style. The voice was too insipid. I couldn't give 2 fucks about the main character. Also. God.

    Book preview

    The Life as We Knew It 4-Book Collection - Susan Beth Pfeffer

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    Contents

    Title Page

    Contents

    Copyright

    LIFE AS WE KNEW IT

    Dedication

    Spring

    One

    Two

    Three

    Four

    Five

    Summer

    Six

    Seven

    Eight

    Nine

    Ten

    Fall

    Eleven

    Twelve

    Thirteen

    Fourteen

    Fifteen

    Sixteen

    Seventeen

    Winter

    Eighteen

    Nineteen

    Twenty

    Twenty-One

    THE DEAD AND THE GONE

    Dedication

    Chapter 1

    Chapter 2

    Chapter 3

    Chapter 4

    Chapter 5

    Chapter 6

    Chapter 7

    Chapter 8

    Chapter 9

    Chapter 10

    Chapter 11

    Chapter 12

    Chapter 13

    Chapter 14

    Chapter 15

    Chapter 16

    Chapter 17

    Chapter 18

    Chapter 19

    THIS WORLD WE LIVE IN

    Dedication

    April

    Chapter 1

    May

    Chapter 2

    Chapter 3

    Chapter 4

    Chapter 5

    Chapter 6

    Chapter 7

    June

    Chapter 8

    Chapter 9

    Chapter 10

    Chapter 11

    Chapter 12

    Chapter 13

    Chapter 14

    July

    Chapter 15

    Chapter 16

    Chapter 17

    Chapter 18

    Chapter 19

    THE SHADE OF THE MOON

    Dedication

    PART ONE

    Chapter 1

    Chapter 2

    Chapter 3

    Chapter 4

    Chapter 5

    Chapter 6

    Chapter 7

    PART TWO

    Chapter 8

    Chapter 9

    Chapter 10

    Chapter 11

    Chapter 12

    PART THREE

    Chapter 13

    Chapter 14

    Chapter 15

    Chapter 16

    About the Author

    Life As We Knew It

    Copyright © 2006 by Susan Beth Pfeffer

    The Dead and the Gone

    Copyright © 2008 by Susan Beth Pfeffer

    This World We Live In

    Copyright © 2010 by Susan Beth Pfeffer

    The Shade of the Moon

    Copyright © 2013 by Susan Beth Pfeffer

    All rights reserved. For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to trade.permissions@hmhco.com or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.

    www.hmhco.com

    This is a work of fiction. All the names, characters, places, organizations, and events portrayed in this book are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously to lend a sense of realism to the story.

    eISBN 978-0-544-77480-3

    v2.1015

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    For Marci Hanners and Carol Pierpoint

    [Image][Image]

    May 7

    Lisa is pregnant.

    Dad called around 11 o’clock to let us know. Only Mom had already taken Jonny to his baseball practice and of course Matt isn’t home from college yet, so I was alone to get the big news.

    The baby is due in December, Dad crowed, like he was the first guy in the history of the world with a younger second wife about to have a baby. Isn’t that great! You’re going to have a little brother or sister. Of course it’s too soon to tell what it’s going to be, but as soon as we know, we’ll tell you. I wouldn’t mind another daughter myself. The first one I had turned out so wonderfully. How’d you like a baby sister?

    I had no idea. When did you find out? I asked.

    Yesterday afternoon, Dad said. I would have called you right away but, well, we celebrated. You can understand that, can’t you, honey? A little private time for Lisa and me before letting the world know.

    Of course, Daddy, I said. Has Lisa told her family?

    First thing this morning, he replied. Her parents are thrilled. Their first grandchild. They’re coming for a couple of weeks in July, before you and Jonny visit.

    Are you going to call Matt and tell him? I asked. Or do you want me to?

    Oh no, I’ll call, Dad said. He’s busy studying for his finals. He’ll be glad for the interruption.

    It’s great news, Dad, I said, because I knew I was supposed to. Be sure to tell Lisa how happy I am for her. And you, too. For both of you.

    You tell her yourself, Dad said. Here she is.

    Dad muffled the phone for a second so he could whisper something to Lisa and then she took the phone. Miranda, she said. Isn’t it exciting!

    Very, I said. It’s wonderful news. I’m really happy for you and Dad.

    I was thinking, she said. Well, I know it’s way too soon and I haven’t even discussed this with your father yet, but would you like to be the baby’s godmother? You don’t have to answer right away, but do think about it, all right?

    That’s the problem I have with Lisa. Whenever I want to get mad at her, or just irritated because she really can be immensely irritating, she goes and does something nice. And then I can understand why Daddy married her.

    Of course I’ll think about it, I said. You and Daddy think about it also.

    We don’t have to give it any more thought, she said. You should see the glow on your father’s face. I don’t think he could be any happier.

    I couldn’t, Dad said, and I could tell from his laughter that he’d grabbed the phone away from Lisa. Miranda, please say yes. It would mean so much to us for you to be the baby’s godmother.

    So I said yes. I couldn’t exactly say no.

    After that we chatted for a while. I told Dad about my last swim meet and how I was doing in school. Mom still hadn’t come back by the time I finally got off the phone, so I went online to see what’s new with figure skating. The hot topic at Brandon Erlich’s fan site is how good his chances are to win Olympic gold. Most people think not very, but a lot of us think he has a real shot at medaling and ice is slippery and you never know.

    I think I’d like to take skating lessons again. I’ve missed it the past couple of years and besides, it’ll give me a chance to pick up news about Brandon. He isn’t being coached by Mrs. Daley anymore, but I bet she still hears stuff. And maybe Brandon’s mother would show up at the rink.

    When Mom got in, I had to tell her about Lisa. She just said that was nice and that she knew the two of them wanted children. She and Dad have worked really hard on making it a good divorce. Matt says if they’d worked half as hard on their marriage, they’d still be married. I didn’t tell her about how I’m going to be the godmother (assuming Lisa doesn’t change her mind, which she’s more than capable of doing). I feel kind of bad that I’m going to be the godmother but no one said anything about Matt or Jonny being godfathers. Of course Lisa and Matt don’t get along very well, and maybe 13 is too young to be a godfather.

    I hope Lisa changes her mind and I won’t have to deal with it.

    May 8

    Not the greatest Mother’s Day ever.

    I’d told Mom a while ago that I’d make dinner and she decided to invite Mrs. Nesbitt. I can’t say I was surprised, but I figured if Mom was having Mrs. Nesbitt over I could ask Megan and her mom, too. Only when Jonny found out it was going to be me and Mom and Mrs. Nesbitt and Megan and Mrs. Wayne, he said that was too many females in one room for him and he was going to have dinner at Tim’s instead.

    Mom always thinks it’s a good idea for Jonny to spend time with Tim and his family because there are three boys and Tim’s father is around a lot. She said if it was okay with Tim’s folks it was okay with her.

    I called Megan and told her to bring her history notes with her and we’d study for the test together, and she agreed.

    Which is why I’m so mad at her. If she hadn’t said yes, it would be one thing. But she did and I made enough meatloaf for five and salad and then right before I started setting the table, Megan called and said she had decided to stay on at her church and do something with the youth group. She’d gotten the dates mixed up. And her mother didn’t feel like coming without her, so it was going to be two less for Sunday dinner and she hoped I didn’t mind.

    Well, I do mind. I mind because I’d been looking forward to all of us having dinner together and to studying with Megan. I also figured Mrs. Nesbitt and Mrs. Wayne would be good people for Mom to talk to about Lisa’s baby. Mom may not be best friends with Mrs. Wayne, but she’s funny and she would have gotten Mom laughing.

    Megan is spending so much time at her church. She goes to services every Sunday and she never used to and she does stuff with the youth group at least twice a week and sometimes more and for all her talking about how she’s found God, I think all she’s found is Reverend Marshall. She talks about him like he’s a movie star. I even told her that once and she said that’s how I talk about Brandon, like it was the same thing, which it isn’t at all. Lots of people think Brandon is the best skater in the U.S. right now and besides it isn’t like I talk about him all the time and act like he’s my salvation.

    Dinner was okay except I overcooked the meatloaf so it was a little dry. But Mrs. Nesbitt’s never been shy with the ketchup bottle. After a while I left her and Mom alone and I guess they talked about Lisa and the baby.

    I wish it was summer already. I can’t wait to get my driver’s license.

    I also wish I was through studying for my history exam. BORING!

    But I’d better get back to it. Bad grades, no license. The Rules According to Mom.

    May 11

    Got a 92 on the history test. I should have done better.

    Mom took Horton to the vet. He’s fine. I worry a little bit about him now that he’s ten. How long do cats live?

    Sammi told me she’s going to the prom with Bob Patterson. I know I shouldn’t be jealous but I am, not because I like Bob (actually I think he’s kind of creepy), but because nobody asked me. Sometimes I think no one ever will. I’ll spend the rest of my life sitting in front of my computer, posting messages about Brandon Erlich and his future in figure skating.

    I told Megan about Sammi and how she always gets dates and she said, Well, the reason is there’s always a man in Samantha, and after I got over being shocked I laughed. But then Megan spoiled it by becoming that new preachy Megan and she went on about how sex before marriage is a sin and how you shouldn’t date just to go out with guys but because you were serious about making a lifetime commitment.

    I’m 16 years old. Let me get my learner’s permit first. Then I’ll worry about lifetime commitments.

    May 12

    I went to bed in a bad mood and today everything just went worse.

    At lunch today, Megan told Sammi she was going to go to hell if she didn’t repent soon and Sammi got real mad (I don’t blame her) and yelled at Megan that she was a very spiritual person and didn’t need any lessons from Megan about what God wanted because she knew God wanted her to be happy and if God hadn’t wanted people to have sex He’d have made everybody amoebas.

    I thought that was pretty funny, but Megan didn’t and the two of them really went at it.

    I can’t remember the last time the three of us had lunch together and enjoyed ourselves. When Becky was still healthy the four of us did everything together, and then after Becky got sick, we grew even closer. Megan or Sammi or I visited Becky at home or at the hospital almost every day, and called or e-mailed the others to say how Becky was doing. I don’t think I could have made it through Becky’s funeral without them. But ever since then Sammi and Megan both changed. Sammi started dating all kinds of guys and Megan got involved with her church. They’ve both changed so much over the past year and I seem to be staying who I always was.

    Here I am going into my junior year of high school and these are supposed to be the best years of my life and I’m just stuck.

    But the real reason why I’m in a bad mood is because I got into a big fight with Mom.

    It started after supper. Jonny had gone into his room to finish his homework and Mom and I were loading the dishwasher, and Mom told me she and Dr. Elliott were going out for dinner tomorrow night.

    There was this quick moment when I was jealous of Mom because even she has a social life, but it passed pretty fast. I like Dr. Elliott and Mom hasn’t been involved with anybody in a while. Besides, it’s always smart to ask favors of Mom when she’s in a good mood. So I did.

    Mom, can I take skating lessons?

    Just for the summer? she asked.

    And next year, too, I said. If I feel like continuing.

    After your ankle healed, you said you didn’t want to skate again, Mom said.

    The doctor said I shouldn’t even try jumping for three months, I said. And by then there wasn’t any point competing. So I stopped. But now I’d like to skate just for fun. I thought you like it that I do sports.

    I do like it, Mom said, but the way she slammed the dishwasher closed let me know she didn’t like it nearly as much as I thought she did. But you have swimming and you were planning on trying out for the volleyball team in the fall. You can’t handle three sports. Two’s probably a stretch, especially if you want to work on the school paper.

    So I’ll skate instead of volleyball, I said. Mom, I know my limitations. But I loved skating. I don’t understand why you don’t want me to.

    If I thought the only reason was because you loved it, then we’d talk about it, Mom said. But skating lessons are very expensive and I can’t help thinking you only want them so you can gossip about Brandon Erlich on the message boards.

    Mom, Brandon doesn’t even skate here anymore! I cried. He trains in California now.

    But his parents still live here, Mom said. And you’d want to be coached by Mrs. Daley.

    I don’t know if she’d even take me on, I said. It’s about the money, isn’t it? There’s money to send Jonny to baseball camp this summer, but not enough money for me to have skating lessons.

    Mom turned 15 shades of red and then we really went at it. Mom yelled at me about money and responsibilities and I yelled at her about favorites and not loving me like she loves Matt and Jonny (which I know isn’t true, but Mom wasn’t right about me not understanding about money and responsibilities) and we got so loud Jonny left his bedroom to see what was going on.

    Mom came into my room about an hour later and we both apologized. Mom said she’d think about the skating lessons. She said she thought volleyball would be better on my college applications since I could join a college squad if I was good enough.

    She didn’t say I’d never be good enough at swimming for a college squad, which was actually kind of nice of her. I’m never going to be good enough for anything the way things are going.

    And I don’t much like either of my two best friends these days.

    All that and a math test tomorrow I can’t even pretend I studied enough for.

    I wish I was in college already. I don’t see how I can make it through the next two weeks, let alone two more years of high school.

    May 13

    Friday the 13th. Well, things weren’t that bad.

    The math test wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be.

    Mom said if I wanted, I could take skating lessons in July. August I’ll be spending with Dad, anyway. Then if I want to continue, we’ll talk about it again.

    Megan had lunch with her church friends (I don’t like any of them) and Sammi had lunch with this week’s boyfriend, so I ended up eating with some of the swim team, which was a lot more fun than listening to Megan and Sammi yell about God. Dan, who’ll be captain next year, told me I had a really good crawl stroke and that if I worked at it, he could see me anchoring relays as soon as next season.

    And I like Peter (he told Jonny and me to call him that; said Dr. Elliott was his name at the office). Some of the guys Mom’s dated have tried too hard with us, but Peter seemed pretty casual. Not with Mom, though. He actually stammered when he was talking with her and he stumbled and nearly fell. But he laughed at himself and said he wasn’t nearly that careless when he was operating on someone.

    He asked if any of us had heard about the asteroid and the moon. Mom remembered something about it, because it was big news when the astronomers first announced it was going to happen. Some asteroid is going to hit the moon, and Peter heard on the radio driving over that it’s going to be visible in the night sky next week. I asked Mom if we could dig out Matt’s telescope and she said we should ask him, but she was sure it’d be okay.

    Jonny and I didn’t even argue over the computer after Mom left. There was something I wanted to watch on TV from 8 to 9 and there was something he wanted to watch from 9 to 10, so that worked out really well. The fan board is still fighting over whether Brandon’ll need two quads to win the Olympics or whether he could win with just one.

    It would be so amazing if Brandon won a gold. I bet we’d have a parade and everything.

    It’s 11 already and Mom still isn’t home. I guess she and Peter are out admiring the moon.

    May 15

    Spent the weekend working on my English paper.

    Dad called this morning.

    Matt says we can use the telescope. He’ll be home in a couple of weeks. He swears he’ll teach me how to drive.

    Jonny was named middle school player of the week.

    May 16

    All of a sudden this moon thing is the biggest thing ever. Either that or my teachers are as bored with schoolwork as we are.

    I could understand it if I were taking astronomy. But French? Madame O’Brien made us talk about la lune the entire class. She’s making us write a composition about it due Friday, because Wednesday night we’re all going to be outside watching the asteroid hit the moon.

    Sammi says every time they make a big fuss like that, for an eclipse or a meteor shower, it rains.

    It isn’t just Madame O’Brien who’s hot for this asteroid. In English today we talked about the origin of the word lunar. Eddie made a joke about mooning, and Mr. Clifford was so excited about word origins, he didn’t even get mad. He talked about slang instead and metaphors that have to do with astronomy and he gave us a new assignment, too. We can write on any topic that has to do with the moon. Due Friday, of course.

    I guess Ms. Hammish thinks this moon thing is historical, because in history that’s what we talked about. How people throughout history have looked at the moon and comets and eclipses. Actually, that was kind of interesting. I never really thought about how when I look at the moon it’s the same moon Shakespeare and Marie Antoinette and George Washington and Cleopatra looked at. Not to mention all those zillions of people I’ve never heard of. All those Homo sapiens and Neanderthals looked at the very same moon as me. It waxed and waned in their sky, too.

    Of course Ms. Hammish wasn’t satisfied with inspiring us like that. She gave us an assignment, too. We can write either an essay about astronomy in the past and how it affected someone in history (like if they saw a comet and it scared them or prophesized something) or an article about what’s going to happen Wednesday night.

    Either way it’s due on Friday.

    I don’t understand teachers. You’d think they’d talk to each other and at least one of them would realize how unfair it is to give us all assignments due on Friday. I wouldn’t mind if I could figure out how to double up on them, write my history essay and translate it into French (which I could maybe do if my French was good enough, which it isn’t). But I don’t see how to do two for the price of one, so I think I’ll have to write three separate papers (and one in French) and hand them all in on Friday.

    I’ll really be sick of the moon by then.

    This moon thing is supposed to happen around 9:30 Wednesday night, and Mom was interested enough that we watched the news tonight. They said asteroids hit the moon pretty often, which is how the moon gets its craters, but this one is going to be the biggest asteroid ever to hit it and on a clear night you should be able to see the impact when it happens, maybe even with the naked eye but certainly with binoculars. They made it sound pretty dramatic, but I still don’t think it’s worth three homework assignments.

    Mom watched the local news, too, which she almost never does because she says it’s too depressing, and they’re predicting a really nice night. Clear skies and temperatures in the low 60s. They said in New York people are organizing parties for Central Park and on apartment rooftops. I asked Mom if we could have a party, and she said no, but people on our road will probably be out watching and it’ll be like having a block party.

    I don’t know how interesting it’s really going to be, but compared to everything else in my life, at least it’s something different.

    May 17

    I got an 82 on my math test. There were at least four questions I should have gotten right but made careless mistakes on.

    I know for a fact that Sammi’s mother hasn’t looked at a test result of hers in years, and Megan’s mom has always worried about who Megan hangs out with, but I don’t think she cares all that much about her grades. I had to get stuck with the mother who works at home and has plenty of time to check things out and hover and demand to see tests.

    We didn’t have a big fight over it (I did pass, after all), but Mom gave me one of her famous You Shouldn’t Be So Careless lectures, which I get at least once a week and sometimes more than that if the mood strikes her.

    Mom said since I’m prone to carelessness, etc., it might be a good idea if I got a head start on all my moon papers, especially since they didn’t have to be about whatever is going to happen tomorrow.

    She suggested writing about the 1969 moon landing, so I Googled it, and I found out lots of people didn’t really care that there were men walking on the moon. They all watched Star Trek (the original, old lousy-special-effects Beam Me Up Scotty Star Trek) and they were used to seeing Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock hopping around the universe so real people walking on the real moon wasn’t as exciting.

    I think that’s funny. Men were walking on the moon for the very first time in history and people preferred watching Dr. McCoy say, He’s dead, Jim, for the thousandth time.

    I wasn’t exactly sure how to turn that into a paper, so Mom and I talked about it, about how fiction can have more power than reality and how in 1969 there was a lot of cynicism because of Vietnam and the sixties and all that and there were people who didn’t think men were really on the moon and thought it was a hoax.

    I think I’ll do my French paper on what happens tomorrow night, because my French isn’t good enough for stuff like hoaxes and cynicism. For English I’m focusing on how fiction can be more exciting than reality and for history I’ll focus on how people in the ’60s were cynical about what the government told them.

    I told Mom that Sammi said it was sure to rain tomorrow night because it always rains when something important is supposed to happen in the sky and she laughed and said she had never known a more pessimistic 15-year-old.

    I’ll be at Dad’s when Sammi turns 16. I have a feeling if she has a party, it’ll be all boys, so it probably won’t matter.

    Around 10, something kind of odd happened. I was working on my paper and Mom was arguing with Jonny about going to bed, when the phone rang. We never get calls that late, so we all jumped. I got to the phone first and it was Matt.

    Are you okay? I asked him. Matt never calls that late and he pretty much never calls on a weekday night.

    I’m fine, he said. I just wanted to hear your voices.

    I told Mom it was Matt. Jonny took the kitchen phone and she used the one in her bedroom. We told him what was going on (I complained about my three moon papers), and he told us about what he has left to do at school. Then he and Mom talked about the arrangements for him to get home.

    This was all perfectly normal stuff, but it didn’t feel right. Jonny hung up first and then Mom, and I managed to get Matt to stay on a minute longer.

    Are you sure everything’s okay? I asked him.

    He paused for a moment. I have a funny feeling, he said. I guess it’s this moon business.

    Matt’s always been the one to explain things to me. Mom had her writing and Jonny, and Dad was at work (for as long as he was here), so Matt was the one I turned to. I don’t think he’s psychic and maybe it’s just because he’s three years older than me, but whenever I’ve had a question he’s seemed to know the answer.

    You don’t think anything is going to go wrong? I asked him. It’s not like the meteor is going to hit us. It’s just the moon.

    I know, he said. But things might get a little crazy tomorrow night. Phone lines might get tied up, people calling each other. Sometimes people panic even if there’s no reason.

    You really think people are going to panic? I asked. Around here, it just seems like an excuse for teachers to give us even more work.

    Matt laughed. Teachers never need an excuse for that, he said. Anyway, I figured I’d find you all home tonight and it’d be a good chance for me to say hello.

    I miss you, I said. I’m glad you’re coming home.

    Me too, he said. He paused for a moment. Are you still keeping that journal of yours?

    Yeah, I said.

    Good, he said. Be sure to write about tomorrow. You’ll probably enjoy reading all the details twenty years from now.

    You just want me to keep a record of all your clever sayings, I replied. For your many biographers.

    Well, that, too, he said. See you in a few days.

    When we hung up, I couldn’t figure out if I felt better because he’d called or worse. If Matt’s worried, then I’m worried.

    But maybe all Matt is worried about is getting through his papers and exams.

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    May 18

    Sometimes when Mom is getting ready to write a book she says she doesn’t know where to start, that the ending is so clear to her that the beginning doesn’t seem important anymore. I feel that way now only I don’t know what the ending is, not even what the ending is tonight. We’ve been trying to get Dad on his land line and cell phone for hours and all we get are the kind of rapid-paced busy signals that mean the circuits are tied up. I don’t know how much longer Mom’ll keep trying or whether we’ll talk to him before I fall asleep. If I fall asleep.

    This morning seems like a million years ago. I remember seeing the moon in the sunrise sky. It was a half moon, but it was clearly visible and I looked at it and thought about how tonight the meteor was going to hit it and how exciting that would be.

    But it wasn’t like we talked about it on the bus going to school. Sammi was complaining about the dress code for the prom, nothing strapless, nothing too short, and how she wanted a dress she could wear when she went clubbing.

    Megan got on the bus with some of her church friends and they sat together. Maybe they talked about the meteor, but I think they just prayed. They do that on the bus sometimes or read Bible verses.

    The whole school day was just normal.

    I remember being bored in French class.

    I stayed for swim practice after school, and then Mom picked me up. She said she’d invited Mrs. Nesbitt to watch the meteor along with us but Mrs. Nesbitt had said she’d be more comfortable watching at home. So it was just going to be Jonny and Mom and me for the big event. That’s what she called it: the big event.

    She also told me to finish my homework early so we could make a party of it after supper. So that’s what I did. I finished two of my moon assignments and did my math homework and then we ate supper and watched CNN until around 8:30.

    All CNN talked about was the moon. They had a bunch of astronomers on and you could see how excited they were.

    Maybe after I’m through playing second for the Yankees, I’ll be an astronomer, Jonny said.

    I’d been thinking the exact same thing (well, not about playing second for the Yankees). The astronomers looked like they loved what they were doing. You could see how excited they were that this asteroid was going to make a direct hit on the moon. They had charts and computer projections and graphics, but basically they looked like big kids at Christmas.

    Mom had gotten out Matt’s telescope and she’d found the really good pair of binoculars that had somehow hidden themselves last summer. She’d even baked chocolate chip cookies for the event, so we carried a plate out and napkins. We decided to watch from the road, since we figured we’d have a better view from up front. Mom and I brought out lawn chairs, but Jonny decided to use the telescope. We didn’t know exactly how long the hit was going to take or if there’d be something exciting to see afterward.

    It seemed like everyone on the road was out tonight. Some of the people were on their decks having late barbecues, but most everyone else was in front of their houses, like we were. The only one I didn’t see was Mr. Hopkins, but I could tell from the glow in his living room that he was watching on TV.

    It was like a big block party. The houses are so widespread on our road, you couldn’t really hear anything, just a general happy buzz.

    When it got closer to 9:30, things got really quiet. You could sense how we were all craning our necks, looking toward the sky. Jonny was at the telescope, and he was the first one who shouted that the asteroid was coming. He could see it in the night sky, and then we all could, the biggest shooting star you could imagine. It was a lot smaller than the moon, but bigger than anything else I’d ever seen in the sky. It looked like it was blazing and we all cheered when we saw it.

    For a moment I thought about all the people throughout history who saw Halley’s Comet and didn’t know what it was, just that it was there and frightening and awe inspiring. For the briefest flick of a second, I could have been a 16-year-old in the Middle Ages looking up at the sky, marveling at its mysteries, or an Aztec or an Apache. For that tiny instant, I was every 16-year-old in history, not knowing what the skies foretold about my future.

    And then it hit. Even though we knew it was going to, we were still shocked when the asteroid actually made contact with the moon. With our moon. At that second, I think we all realized that it was Our Moon and if it was attacked, then we were attacked.

    Or maybe nobody thought that. I know most of the people on the road cheered, but then we all stopped cheering and a woman a few houses down screamed and then a man screamed, Oh my God! and people were yelling What? What? like one of us knew the answer.

    I know all those astronomers I’d watched an hour earlier on CNN can explain just what happened and how and why and they’ll be explaining on CNN tonight and tomorrow and I guess until the next big story happens. I know I can’t explain, because I don’t really know what happened and I sure don’t know why.

    But the moon wasn’t a half moon anymore. It was tilted and wrong and a three-quarter moon and it got larger, way larger, large like a moon rising on the horizon, only it wasn’t rising. It was smack in the middle of the sky, way too big, way too visible. You could see details on the craters even without the binoculars that before I’d seen with Matt’s telescope.

    It wasn’t like a big chunk of it flew off into space. It wasn’t like we could hear the sound of the impact, or even that the asteroid hit the moon dead center. It was like if you’re playing marbles and one marble hits another on its side and pushes it diagonally.

    It was still our moon and it was still just a big dead rock in the sky, but it wasn’t benign anymore. It was terrifying, and you could feel the panic swell all around us. Some people raced to their cars and started speeding away. Others began praying or weeping. One household began singing The Star Spangled Banner.

    I’m going to call Matt, Mom said, like that was the most natural thing in the world to do. Come on in, kids. We’ll see what CNN has to say about all this.

    Mom, is the world coming to an end? Jonny asked, picking up the plate of cookies and ramming one into his mouth.

    No, it isn’t, Mom said, folding her lawn chair and carrying it to the front of the house. And yes, you do have to go to school tomorrow.

    We laughed at that. I’d been wondering the same thing.

    Jonny put the cookies away and I turned the TV back on. Only there was no CNN.

    Maybe I’m wrong, Mom said. Maybe the world really is coming to an end.

    Should I try Fox News? I asked.

    Mom shuddered. We’re not that desperate, she said. Try one of the networks. They’ll have their own set of astronomers.

    Most of the networks were off, but our local channel seemed to be carrying NBC out of Philly. Even that was weird, because we get New York City feeds.

    Mom kept trying to get Matt’s cell phone, but without any luck. The Philly news broadcasters didn’t seem to know much more than we did, although they were reporting some looting and general panic in the streets.

    Go check how things are outside, Mom told me, so I went back out. I could see the glow from Mrs. Nesbitt’s TV set. There was still some praying going on in someone’s backyard, but at least the screaming had stopped.

    I forced myself to look at the moon. I think I was afraid I’d see it had grown even bigger, that it really was lumbering its way to earth to crush us all to death, but it didn’t seem to have gotten any larger. It was still off, though, still tilted in a funny way, and still too large for the night sky. And it was still three quarters.

    My cell phone is out! someone screamed a few doors down, and she sounded the way we’d felt when we saw CNN was gone. Civilization had ended.

    Check your cell phone, I told Mom when I came back in, so she did, and hers wasn’t working, either.

    I guess cell phones are out in this part of the country, she said.

    I’m sure Matt’s okay, I said. Why don’t I check e-mails? Maybe he sent us one from his laptop.

    So I went online, or rather I tried to go online, because our Internet connection was dead.

    He’s fine, Mom said when I told her. There’s no reason to think he isn’t fine. The moon is right where it belongs. Matt’ll call us when he has the chance.

    And that was the one thing Mom said all evening that turned out to be true. Because about ten minutes later, the phone rang, and it was Matt.

    I can’t talk long, he said. I’m at a pay phone and there’s a line of people waiting for me to finish. I just wanted to check in and let you know I’m okay.

    Where are you? Mom asked.

    In town, he said. When we realized our cells weren’t working, some of us drove to town just so we could phone in. I’ll talk to you tomorrow when things aren’t so crazy.

    Be careful, Mom said and Matt promised he would be.

    I guess it was around then Jonny asked if we could call Dad, and Mom started trying to reach him. But the phone lines were crazy all over. I asked her to call Grandma in Las Vegas, but we couldn’t get through to her, either.

    We sat down in front of the TV to see what was happening to the rest of the world. The funniest thing was that Mom and I both jumped up at the exact same moment to get the chocolate chip cookies from the kitchen. I beat her to it, and brought the plate in. We all started devouring them. Mom would eat a cookie, sit still for a few moments, then get up and try Dad or Grandma. Jonny, who’s really good about limiting the number of sweets he eats, just kept ramming cookies into his mouth. I would have eaten an entire box of chocolates if there’d been any in the house.

    The TV connection went in and out, but we never got cable back. Finally Jonny thought to bring out a radio, and we turned that on. We couldn’t get any of the New York stations, but Philly was coming in strong.

    At first they didn’t seem to know much more than we did. The moon got hit, like we’d been told it would. Only something had been miscalculated.

    But before some astronomer could come on and explain to the rest of us just what had gone wrong, there was a bulletin. First we heard it on the radio, and then we got enough TV reception to see it as well, so we turned the radio off.

    Whoever was broadcasting the news must have heard it over his little earphone, because he actually turned pale and then said, Are you sure? Has that been confirmed? He paused for a moment to listen to the reply, and then he kind of turned to face the camera.

    Mom grasped my hand and Jonny’s. It’ll be all right, she said. Whatever it is, we’ll get through this.

    The newsman cleared his throat, like taking an extra few seconds was going to change what he had to say. We are receiving reports of widespread tsunamis, he said. The tides. As most of you know, the moon controls the tides. And the moon, well, whatever happened this evening at nine thirty-seven PM—and we don’t know just what really did happen, but whatever it was—the tides were affected. Yes, yes, I got that. The tides seem to have swelled far beyond their normal boundaries. The reports coming in are from people in airplanes who happened to be flying overhead at the time. Massive flooding has been reported all over the eastern seaboard. There has been some confirmation of this, but these reports are all preliminary. Sometimes you hear the worst and it doesn’t prove that way at all. Wait a second.

    I quickly thought about who I knew on the eastern seaboard. Matt’s in Ithaca and Dad’s in Springfield. Neither one was anywhere near the ocean.

    New York City, Mom said. Boston. She has publishers in both cities and goes there on business.

    I’m sure everybody’s fine, I said. You’ll go online tomorrow and send everybody e-mails and make sure they’re okay.

    All right, we are getting some confirmation, the newsman said. There are confirmed reports of tidal waves twenty feet or higher in New York City. All power there has been lost, so these are very sketchy reports. The tides don’t seem to be stopping. AP is reporting that the Statue of Liberty has been washed out to sea.

    Mom started crying. Jonny was just staring at the TV like it was broadcasting in a foreign language.

    I got up and tried Dad again. Then I tried Grandma. But all I got was the busy-circuit signal.

    We’re getting an unconfirmed report that all of Cape Cod has been flooded, the newsman said. Again, this is unconfirmed. But the AP is reporting that Cape Cod,—and he paused for a moment and swallowed—that Cape Cod has been completely submerged. The same seems to be true of the barrier islands off the Carolina coast. Just gone. He stopped again to listen to whatever was being said through his earpiece. All right. There is confirmation of massive damage to Miami. Many deaths, many casualties.

    We don’t know what he’s saying is true, Mom said. Things get exaggerated. Tomorrow morning we may find out all this didn’t really happen. Or if it did, it wasn’t nearly as bad as they thought it was. Maybe we should just turn the TV off now and wait until tomorrow to see what really happened. We may be scaring ourselves for no reason whatsoever.

    Only she didn’t turn the TV off.

    There’s no way of knowing the number of deaths, the newsman said. Communication satellites are down. Telephone lines are down. We’re trying to get an astronomer from Drexel to come to our studio and tell us what he thinks is happening, but as you can imagine, astronomers are pretty busy right now. All right. We seem to be getting a national feed again, so we’re cutting to our national news bureau for a live update.

    And there, suddenly, was the NBC anchorman, looking reassuring and professional and alive.

    We’re expecting word from the White House momentarily, he said. Early reports are of massive damage to all the major cities on the eastern seaboard. I’m coming to you from Washington, D.C. We have been unable to make contact with our New York City headquarters for the past hour. But here’s the information as we have it. Everything I’m going to announce has been verified by two sources.

    It was like one of those lists on the radio to let you know which schools were having snow days. Only instead of it being school districts in the area, it was whole cities, and it wasn’t just snow.

    New York City has suffered massive damage, the anchor said. Staten Island and the eastern section of Long Island are completely submerged. Cape Cod, Nantucket, and Martha’s Vineyard are no longer visible. Providence, Rhode Island—in fact, most of Rhode Island—can no longer be seen. The islands off the coast of the Carolinas are gone. Miami and Fort Lauderdale are being battered. There seems to be no letting up. We’ve now had confirmation of massive flooding in New Haven and Atlantic City. Casualties on the eastern seaboard are believed to be in the hundreds of thousands. Naturally it is far too early to tell if that number is excessive. We can only pray that it is.

    And then, out of nowhere, was the president. Mom hates him like she hates Fox News, but she sat there transfixed.

    I am broadcasting to you from my ranch in Texas, the president said. The United States has suffered its worst tragedy. But we are a great people and we will place our faith in God and extend a helping hand to all who need us.

    Idiot, Mom muttered, and she sounded so normal we all laughed.

    I got up again and tried the phone with no luck. By the time I got back, Mom had turned the TV off.

    We’re fine, she said. We’re well inland. I’ll keep the radio on, so if there’s any call for evacuation, I’ll hear it, but I don’t think there will be. And yes, Jonny, you have to go to school tomorrow.

    Only this time we didn’t laugh.

    I said good night and went to my bedroom. I’ve kept the clock radio on, and I keep hearing reports. The tides seem to have pulled back from the East Coast, but now they’re saying the Pacific is being affected also. San Francisco, they say, and they’re afraid for LA and San Diego. There was one report that Hawaii is gone and parts of Alaska, but no one knows that for sure yet.

    I looked out my window just now. I tried to look at the moon, but it scares me.

    [Image]

    May 19

    I woke up around 6 to the sound of the phone ringing. I threw on my robe and went to Mom’s room.

    It’s your father, she said, and handed me the phone.

    Right after Mom and Dad split up, I got it into my head I’d never see him or hear from him again, and every time he called, I’d get this ridiculous sensation of relief. I felt the exact same way, like a hundred-pound weight had just flown out of my stomach.

    Are you okay? I asked. And Lisa? Is she all right?

    We’re both fine, he said. Your mother says everything is fine where you are and that you heard from Matt last night.

    That’s right, I said. We tried and tried to reach you and Grandma last night and the circuits were all busy.

    I reached her late last night, Dad said. She’s fine. A little shaken up, but that’s natural enough. We’re lucky, Miranda. We all seem to have made it, no problem.

    I feel like it should have been a dream, I said. Like maybe I’m still dreaming and when I wake up none of it will have happened.

    That’s how we all feel, he said. Your mother says school hasn’t been canceled. I guess the idea is for us to get on with our lives and be grateful that we can.

    All right, I said. I can take a hint. Give my love to Lisa, okay? Tell her I was thinking about her and the baby.

    I will, he said. I love you, honey.

    I love you too, Daddy, I said. I gestured to Mom to see if she wanted the phone back, but she shook her head, so I hung up.

    How late did you stay up? I asked. Did anything else happen?

    I went to bed around the same time you did, she said. I saw you turn your light out. I didn’t sleep very well, though, kept waking up and turning the radio on, that kind of thing.

    Did the tides stop? I asked. Did the flooding stop?

    They stopped, they started, Mom said. It’s very bad. She kind of laughed. Very bad doesn’t really describe it. Catastrophic. They don’t know how bad the damage is yet, how many countries were affected.

    Countries? I said. Somehow I’d forgotten there were other countries, that we shared the moon with other countries.

    I don’t know, Mom said. They don’t know. Nobody knows. Holland was decimated; they’re pretty sure about that. Australia: Most of the cities there are on the coast, so it was very badly hit. The tides just went mad. They think the asteroid was denser than they’d assumed it would be, so the collision was bigger. They think the moon got knocked off kilter, got pushed a little closer to the earth. At least that was the theory around five.

    But it’s not going to crash into earth, I said. We’re okay, right? We don’t live that close to the ocean.

    They’re sure it won’t crash into the earth, Mom said. At least not in the foreseeable future. Beyond that, I don’t think anybody’s predicting anything.

    It was funny. I was actually glad school was still on, like that proved we’d be okay. I left Mom and took a shower, and by the time I dressed and went downstairs, Mom had already started breakfast and I could hear Jonny moving around.

    Mom made pancakes, which she never does on a school day. I didn’t think I’d have any appetite, but I ate more than my share. So did Jonny. I don’t remember seeing Mom eat any, but there was some batter left, so maybe she made some for herself after we left.

    When I went outside to wait for the bus, I looked up, and I could see the moon in the morning sky. It was still bigger than it should have been, and it didn’t seem quite as washed out as it usually looks in the daytime. I stopped looking at it, and concentrated on the dogwoods instead.

    On the bus, all anybody talked about was what happened last night. Not that anyone really seemed to know or understand. A couple of the kids seemed to think it was cool, and a couple of girls were crying the whole trip.

    I sat next to Sammi, but she didn’t say much. Megan didn’t get on the bus, and neither did her church friends. The bus was only half full.

    I hated the kids who were acting like it was all a big joke.

    There were a lot of kids missing from homeroom, too, but most of the teachers seemed to have shown up. We’d just started history when the first lightning bolt landed. It flashed so brightly the whole classroom seemed illuminated. The thunder followed, loud enough to shake the building. At least one kid screamed, and I was just glad it wasn’t me.

    Ms. Hammish tried to pretend the storm wasn’t happening, but there was no way we could avoid talking about the moon. She asked how many of us knew someone who lived on one of the coasts, who might have been affected.

    All our hands went up.

    I don’t actually know someone who lives there, Michelle Webster said. But I feel like I do, because all the stars live in Hollywood or in New York, and I know I don’t know them, but I feel like I do.

    A lot of the kids said they felt that way too.

    I guess Ms. Hammish was going to tell us that was a normal way to feel, but then a lightning bolt hit one of the trees right outside the school grounds. The tree burst into flames, and then we lost our electricity.

    A lot of kids started screaming then. Michelle began sobbing, real hysterical sobs, and other kids started crying, too. Sarah pulled out her cell phone to call home maybe or 911 but she couldn’t get a connection and she threw the cell phone across the room. The thunder kept rolling, and the tree began to smolder from the fire and the rain.

    It was weird. There was all this craziness going on around me, and Ms. Hammish was trying to calm everybody down, only we could hardly hear her, because the thunder was so loud, and kids all over the school were screaming, so it wasn’t just our classroom, and I didn’t feel anything. I wasn’t screaming or crying. I was just noticing things, how the winds had picked up, and branches were flying around outside, and how the storm didn’t seem to be letting up any.

    Ms. Hammish must have decided it was a tornado, because she told all of us to get up and go into the hallway. I don’t know how many of the kids heard her, but I did, and I got up and started walking around the classroom, lifting the other kids out of the seats, until they all figured out what we were supposed to do. By the time we’d evacuated the room, there were lots of kids sitting on the hallway floor, and we joined them.

    I kind of missed being able to see the storm. I didn’t feel like it was a tornado. I felt like the world was coming to an end, and I was going to miss all the action, because I was going to be sitting on the hallway floor when it did.

    And then I thought, Well, that’s typical, I can’t even get any action when the world’s coming to an end, and I started laughing. It wasn’t hysterical laughing (it really was funny that the world was coming to an end and I still couldn’t get any action), but once I started, I couldn’t stop. Other kids were laughing, too, so the hallway consisted of kids laughing and kids crying and kids screaming and teachers walking around and checking classrooms to make sure they were empty. The hallway was completely dark, except for the flashes of lightning we could see from the classroom windows.

    I managed to stop laughing, but then I thought, at least nobody’s singing The Star Spangled Banner, and I started laughing all over again. The phrase By the dawn’s early light got stuck in my mind, and I kept hearing it over and over again. By the dawn’s early light. By the dawn’s early light. I wondered how many people had sung By the dawn’s early light yesterday and were dead today.

    We were in the hallway for almost an hour. It’s hard to stay hysterical for that long, and by the time the hour was over, and the storm had died down, almost all the kids were quiet, except for one girl who kept screaming, I don’t want to die!

    Like any of us did.

    We went back into our second-period classrooms, even though it was already fourth period. It was still raining with thunder and lightning, but the winds had calmed down, and the lightning was farther away. Some of the kids who’d been crying were just shaking. The electricity still wasn’t on, and with the lightning not striking so close or so frequently, things were actually darker in the classroom. The sky was still a mean gray, and I think we all felt like the storm could come back at any moment full tilt and we’d be back in the hallway. Ms. Hammish didn’t tell us to go to our fourth-period classes. We all just sat there instead.

    I couldn’t totally shake By the dawn’s early light from my head, and I was kind of wishing Ms. Hammish would distract us with a history lesson, when in walked Mom.

    She was soaking wet and looked wild and determined. I thought, something’s happened to Matt, and that stomach weight came right back like it had never been gone.

    Come on, Miranda, Mom said. Get your books and let’s get going.

    Ms. Hammish stared at her, but she didn’t say anything. I got my books and followed Mom out of the classroom.

    I thought, If I don’t ask what happened, it won’t have happened, so I kept quiet as we left school. Mom didn’t say anything, either. The rain was pouring, and the thunder was still pretty loud, and I thought the world really is coming to an end, and Mom wants me home when that happens.

    We ran to the parking lot, and Jonny opened the door for me. I jumped in, and I was surprised to see Mrs. Nesbitt sitting in the passenger seat. I could see Mom not wanting Mrs. Nesbitt to be alone when the world ended, but I couldn’t figure out why she had to be driven somewhere first.

    Here, Miranda, take this, Mom said, and she handed me an envelope. I looked inside it and saw ten $50 bills.

    Mom started the car. I looked at Jonny, who just shrugged.

    When we get to the supermarket, I want Jonny to go to the pet food department, Mom said. Jonny, you know what Horton’ll eat. Get kitty litter, too, and put the bags on the bottom of the wagon. Get the biggest bags that’ll fit there. Fill the wagon with as many bags of dry food as you can.

    Horton likes canned, Jonny said.

    Get the little ones, Mom said. The expensive kind. As many as you can throw into the empty spaces. Fill the wagon as high as you can possibly can. And Mrs. Nesbitt, when you get the paper goods, don’t forget Tampax for Miranda and me. Lots of boxes.

    Thanks for reminding me, Mrs. Nesbitt said.

    What’s going on? I asked. Would someone please tell me?

    It’s just in case the world’s coming to an end, Jonny said. Mom wants us to be ready.

    I went to the bank this morning, Mom said. And I filled the gas tank and gas was already at five dollars a gallon. I went to the supermarket and the electricity went out and there was chaos there, so they just said a hundred dollars for each wagon no matter what was in it. I had a lot of cash on me, so I filled a wagon and then I went back and got Mrs. Nesbitt and then Jonny and you so we could each get wagons to fill.

    You don’t really think we’re going to need this stuff? I asked. Everything’s going to get back to normal soon, isn’t it?

    Not in my lifetime, Mrs. Nesbitt said.

    We don’t know, Mom said. "But kitty litter doesn’t go bad. If it turns out I’m wrong and I’ve wasted all this money, fine. I’d just as soon the world gets back to normal. But in case it takes a while, we might as well have toilet paper. Miranda, you’re going to canned vegetables and fruits. You know

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