The End of the World As We Know It

Yesterday the world did not come to an end.  At 6 PM all around the country, the world,  life went on exactly as it had on most Saturdays in May.  In the North Georgia Mountains it was warm and sunny and the humidity failed to develop as threatened.  I had a group over for dinner and  put up a tent in the yard with Christmas lights and candles. As a group we did toast the fact that life went on, but other than that, no one seemed to notice or care that a group of people somewhere sat waiting for the rapture that did not come. To go along with pasta salad and fruit salad and salmon salad and every kind of summer food you can think of, I wanted to serve Vodka Punch.  The only problem was that I did not have the Vodka to put the punch in my punch so I had to drive into Jasper to the liquor store. When I went out the back gate a helicopter was landing in the old cemetery yard adjacent to my neighborhood.  I turned and headed down one of the beautiful winding roads that run though these mountains.  A jeep was coming in the other direction and the driver's hand was out motioning for me to go back.  As we passed each other he told me that there was a bad wreck ahead, in the sharp curve by a bridge running over a bubbling mountain stream.  One side of the road is mountain and trees and the other a gorgeous green pasture always complete with 20 or so horses. Very picturesque.  I turned around and took the long way into town, passing again where the helicopter was landing. Noting the cross on the side indicating as I feared that it was there to pick up someone. After making my purchase of the cheapest Vodka, having been told it doesn't matter when mixed with a bottle of white wine and orange, berry, pomegranate and pineapple juice, I started home. The road was still blocked due to the wreck.  I started to turn around in the street when a truck pulled up behind me. A young woman, under 30, jumped out.  Her hair was a fright and she had on flip-flops and looked like she'd rushed out without looking at herself. She ran to my car asking if I knew "Was it a motorcycle? Was it someone on a motor?". I told her I didn't know but had seen the copter. I watched as she ran down the hill toward the sharp curve and as she reached the trooper standing in the road, she stopped, screamed and fell to the ground. As I turned the car around, two small children, a little boy maybe 6 and a girl a little older, stuck there heads out the truck and began to yell "Daddy, Daddy". A woman in the truck came around to the center of the lane and began to make a call on her cell.  The children's faces were streaming with tears and their voices continued raised in such anguish that I almost couldn't stand to listen. I stopped and asked if I could help but she shook her head, "I'm calling my husband". I knew I could offer no comfort for what those children were to face. The offer of a stranger would not make a difference for them at that moment.  No gum or sucker or kind word would matter but I said I was sorry through my own tears. I  have since heard that for their daddy, that day, the world did come to an end and those children's lives will never be the same. On a beautiful sunny day, in the blink of an eye.