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with Brand. And although Mom wasn’t his biggest fan, it didn’t stop her
from letting me hang out with Brand. She had introduced Karla to James after
all. So they were at least friendly with each other. When he saw me he waved and smiled.
    But his voice
had a tentativeness to it when he said, “Hey there. We
uh…we came back. Help me with the boxes, will you?”
    I didn’t ask
what happened. Instead, I quickly grabbed a box and fell into step alongside
him, heading to the side kitchen door off to the side of the driveway. Before
we reached the steps to the door, Brand came out, jerked to a stop, and then
smiled.
    He said, “Hey
guess what. Traffic sucks when the world’s ending!”
    I stared at him.
Was that it? They took off without a single good-bye, and just expected
things to be the same after days of slowly growing terror? Brand and I looked
at each other—unspoken words passing between us. The end of the world was
coming and I wasn’t going to get an apology?
    End of the
world. Did an apology even matter? They hadn’t made it to safety. No one would
be safe. Was I angry? Yes, as childish as it sounded, I was. I really meant it
about us being like brothers, and brothers didn’t pull stuff like this, not
even at the end. But now, I guess it didn’t matter. Everything I knew and loved
was ending. I shrugged, he shrugged, enough said. Body language, grow up with
someone, you just know what ’s being thought .
    Aloud, I said,
“Yeah well, I know what it’s like, hit all the red lights, cross traffic is bad. You know… the usual.”
    James Houseman
snorted and jabbed a thumb over his shoulder while holding the box on his other
shoulder. He said, “Can you get the last box, son?”
    With a quick
nod, Brand went for the box while I went with Mr. Houseman into the house.
Inside, I could hear a radio in the living room, set to Riverlite’s local
station. I ignored it as Mr. Houseman started putting cans of food into the
refrigerator. I pulled out more cans to hand to him.
    He said, “So
how’ve you been, Vaughn? I thought you and your mom had left a long while back.
Why are you out walking the town, though?”
    And there it
was. They just thought we had taken off too. Okay, again, I wasn’t going to
argue. I shrugged and said, “Um, ghosts? I came over here because I wanted
something to hold onto. Something belonging to Brand, I mean.”
    He stopped
pulling cans out of the box and gave me a quizzical look. He said, “Really? And
here I thought you were a nice boy. Ransacking houses now, huh?”
    I said, “Um, I
wasn’t thinking anything like that.”
    He gave me a
narrow green-eyed look that made me want to step back. He had one of those cold
stares that I remembered getting whenever Brand and I got into trouble. Then he
grinned, laughed, and began putting the cans on the shelves again.
    He said, “Just
kidding, bud. And call me Jim.”
    I said, “Um,
okay Jim.”
    Just then, Brand
came in carrying a box filled with bread, lots of bread. He put it down on the
counter. Thinking of what we had left in terms of food in our house, I knew the
Housemans would be lighter by a few loaves once Mom and Dad dropped by.
    Brand said,
“Hey, I just saw a cop car. I didn’t see who it was, but the town actually has
cops even now?”
    I grinned at him
and said, “Are you kidding? The town may be close to empty, but the Chief of
Police stayed, along with some other volunteers. They even have some services
running. Heck, one radio announcer still has the radio station outside town
going! Obviously, you’ve noticed, though, since you have it on.”
    Just then, Karla
came up from the basement carrying a load of folded clothes. She smiled and
said, “Well, hello Vaughn. It’s good to see you…such as the things are, I mean.
How’s Andrea?”
    I nodded to her
and said, “She’s fine. My dad even came back. They’re at home if you want to
call.”
    Jim blinked with
surprise. He said, “Whoa! Mark’s here!