The apocalypse has happened, everyone agrees, and I’m reading about it in the paper. APOCALYPSE HAS HAPPENED, the headlines say; IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD, says the news, but it’s strange, everything looks the same, the sun is still beaming and the shadows are still leaning and people are rushing off to work and the mail is still being delivered. But everyone is talking about the end of the world. Why now? Why today? It’s rather inconvenient, isn’t it, with all the plans we made. Why, look, even I have a full calendar today. I’m getting my teeth cleaned in the morning, and lunch with Greg at 1:00, and Louis will expect me in the office after that, then dinner with Jeff at 7:30 and perhaps we’ll catch a movie afterward, if that sequel is still playing. I was going to get a new car. I was going to have some yard work done. I was going to get a new pair of boots. I was going to get a new personality and change my life and become a real success, but time has run out, apparently, and it hasn’t improved traffic any. You’d think people would be home with their kids or their aging parents, but no, they’re all turning onto Ponce de Leon and lining up at the Majestic. Well, that’s something I wouldn’t have expected, people still have their appetites. I wish I had mine. Where should I go? My son is away at college, my boyfriend off traveling again. I guess I’ll stay here; where else is there? From the nightstand I take a deck of cards, shuffle, deal. I’m playing solitaire at the end of the world. The moon is full, my tiny room immense.