Tuesday, May 17

The moon.

It seemed to be all anybody could talk about today. They reported on it all last night and this morning, too, and no matter where I went, there was nowhere to avoid a discussion about the moon.

It began this morning on the bus.

"Did you hear about the meteor?" Elisa asked me. "It's supposed to hit the moon tomorrow night. They said we're going to be able to see it and everything!"

"I heard," I answered. I didn't really want to talk about the moon. To me, it didn't seem all that interesting, but to everyone else, it was the hot gossip.

"I heard it was an asteroid," Logan said.

"It was an asteroid," Justin confirmed nodding. "It doesn't matter, anyway. It's going to hit the moon tomorrow around nine thirty either way."

And then came our classes. First period was English, and we were given an assignment to write a 3-page essay about the moon and how it affects our lives. Then in social studies, we learned about the history of the moon and we're to write a paper about an event in history that has to do with the moon. In science we learned about how the density of the asteroid and how the way it's supposed to hit the moon, there shouldn't be any significant change in it's orbit. The moon even got incorporated into our math lesson. Mrs. Marcus made us draw the moon in art, we made moon cakes in FCS, and we're to write an essay in Spanish about la luna.

"Wow, it's hot out," Elisa said as we walked outside from the back locker room/gym entrance, out to the lacrosse fields. "What's the temperature?

I looked at my phone, which I usually keep with my sweatshirt on the sidelines. "91 degrees," I answered (I clearly wouldn't be needing my sweatshirt.)

Lacrosse was brutal. It always is, when it's 90 degrees (which it has been twice already in this abnormally hot May) and to top it off Coach Saunders made us run suicides because we lost our game on Monday against our rival school and we probably shouldn't have.

"I want you guys to be focused tomorrow at the game!" She said. "It's going to be tough like yesterday, but no slacking off this time!"

No slacking off. Whatever that means. I play attack, anyway, and sometimes our team is just so bad I touch the ball maybe once in the game. Our record is 6 wins, 8 losses. We still have 4 games left. Hopefully they'll all be wins, but I doubt it.

By the time I got home it was 6:00, so I started my homework as Mom cooked dinner tomorrow. The news in the background on the kitchen TV was playing, talking about the moon, again.

"It's supposed to be really nice tomorrow night," Mom said, looking up from the steaming pot of pasta that she was stirring. "Around 70, and perfectly clear skies. Courtney and the kids are gonna come over and we'll all watch the moon in the street."

"What happens if a car comes by?" I asked. "And, can you make sugar cookies for the special event?"

"I don't know," she said, shrugging. "And yes, Jessica, I can make sugar cookies."

Wednesday, May 18

I have to write it down. I have to write it all down, before I go to sleep. I have to write it down because if I'm dead by morning I want everybody to know what happened here, in Long Island.

I'll start with the morning. It was relatively uneventful, I guess. Except for this morning, before school. Dad called Aunt Sarah, who lives down on the south shore.

"I think you should leave," he told her. "The moon is crazy. I know they're saying it's not going to do anything, but just to be safe. And if I'm wrong, you can go back tomorrow. No harm in safety."

"I guess so," I heard Aunt Sarah say. "Other people are leaving. I guess we can, too."

I didn't stick around to hear the rest of the conversation, because by that time the bus was at the stop and Mom was reminding me that I had to clean my room last night in case Liam and Danielle (Courtney's kids, they're our neighbors and family friends) come upstairs later. I nodded as if I cared, and then hurried to make the bus.

School wasn't even as much geared towards the moon as it was yesterday. It was brought up in nearly every class, yes, but all of the assignments have been assigned and are due on Friday, point blank period. So there was no reason to talk about it all that much.

Not until ninth period, at least. Elisa and I were talking about how we were totally going to win our game today because the other team lacked a good defense, and then the loudspeaker cackled to life.

"Attention students and faculty, all after school activities are cancelled for the day," the woman said.

Normally I would be happy that I could skip out on a lacrosse practice and get all my homework done then get to sleep early, but not today. We had a game and wanted to prove to coach that we were better than we had been at our game on Wednesday.

"Why did they cancel all after-school activities?" I asked our teacher, Ms. Bernbaum.

She shrugged. "The moon thing, I guess. A lot of people are throwing parties and this is a pretty big deal."

"Not a big enough deal to cancel a game," Elisa said, groaning. "Whatever. Are you doing anything later for the moon?"

"Yeah, Liam and Daniella are coming over," I told her. Liam and Daniella are in the grade above us, but Elisa knows them anyway because she's my best friend and she's over all the time.

"I'm not doing anything," Elisa said. "My dad's on business in Chicago and my mom's going to be working until almost 10. And Jon's going to a party at some girl's house, so I'm probably not even going to end up watching the moon."

"Do you want to come over?" I asked. "My mom made cookies just for the occasion."

I texted Mom to make sure once school had ended, but it was fine with her and I told Elisa we would pick her up around 6:30 to eat dinner with us first. It was funny. This afternoon the whole asteroid thing just seemed like an excuse for teachers to assign homework and everybody else to have parties.

Ha!

"I wish they hadn't cancelled your lacrosse game," Mom said when I got home from school. "Now I have to deal with your brother for thirty minutes more."

I had a snack and then I did my homework, which wasn't really much because apparently most of the teachers were having parties tonight, too. But Mom told me that as long as I had time, I should get started on the assignments, so I did. I worked on Spanish first and then moved on to social studies, and stopped when it was 6:30.

"Can we go pick up Elisa now?" I asked Mom.

We all got in the car, and my little brother Peter instantly began complaining. "Why does Jess get to have a friend over and I don't?" He said in a whiny voice.

"Because my friends aren't little ten year olds that run around the house screaming bloody murder the whole time!" I snapped at him.

We began bickering but stopped when Elisa got in the car, not because she hasn't seen us fighting before, because she definitely has, but because Mom started to get angry. We drove back to our house in mostly silence.

"So when is your Dad coming back from Chicago?" I asked Elisa as Mom began serving us dinner.

"Friday," she said. "He's there on business all the time. I think there's a headquarters in New York and a sector in Boston."

"Our dad never goes on business trips," Peter said, scraping his rice aside with his fork and looking slightly disappointed.

"When is he coming home, anyway?" I asked.

Mom looked at the clock. "I think around ten. He wants to be home for when the asteroid hits, but he doesn't think he'll be able to. Apparently it's supposed to be pretty amazing, you can see it and everything."

After that, Liam and Daniella came over. Peter wasn't any more disappointed that he didn't have any friends over than we already was, so he just went upstairs to play X-Box. Liam, Daniella, Elisa, and I talked for awhile until about 9, when we all decided to go outside.

Mom and Courtney (Liam and Daniella's mom, she's single because their dad left them and moved to Atlanta a few years back) were already out there. It was 72 degrees and the sky was brightly lit by the stars, a beautiful night by all standards. Everyone was out on the street. Some people were having barbecues, others were playing street football. Mom and Courtney got lawn chairs for themselves, so me, Liam, Daniella, Elisa, and Peter just sat on the street.

They said the asteroid would hit a little bit after 9:30, so by then the atmosphere began to change. We all stopped talking and from what I could see, everybody was looking up. We were all craning our necks to get a view of the moon. Everybody switched the positions of their chairs and some people got out their camcorders. Daniella even got out her iPhone to videotape the event.

And then it happened. It's not like we didn't know it was going to happen because we did, and we were all waiting for it. But I think it was the shock that it had actually happened. Nobody near me was using a telescope but down the street someone had called that they could see the asteroid coming, and we all saw it hit the moon, hit our moon, the moon that every person in the world, 7 billion people today and forty years ago, looked at.

And then everybody started screaming.

I didn't scream but my mouth was wide open, like, if a fly had flown in, I wouldn't have even noticed. Daniella was screaming and so was Courtney and everybody else was gasping. Down the street, I heard someone crying. And then a car turned on and it barreled down the street, everybody barely having enough time to scream "Watch out!" Before it came through, smacking one of our lawn chairs to the side.

And it wasn't just because the asteroid had hit the moon, because we knew that was going to happen. It was because the moon was now tiled and weird and right in the middle of the sky, like, way too big. I could see all of the craters perfectly without even squinting my eyes.

"Ok, we're fucked," Liam said.

Even though it was funny nobody laughed, because all anybody could look at was the moon. Courtney said something to Mom and she took Liam and Daniella's hands and ran inside her house.

"Mom..." I began.

"Let's go inside," she said. "We'll see if anyone on ABC or CNN or whatever knows what's going on any better than we do."

As we were going inside, Peter said, "What happened to the moon? Why is it so big?"

Nobody answered but we all went into the family room, and Mom turned on the TV, shuffling through the channels to find the news.

"I thought the asteroid wasn't really going to do anything," Elisa said. "They said it wasn't going to affect the moon at all, and it was just going to look cool in the sky, but nothing was going to happen."

"Well, something happened," I responded, pointing outside, where the moonlight was illuminating the now empty street.

"Shhh," Mom said, and she turned up the volume on the TV.

"And welcome back to Eyewitness News 7 with our special edition. It is 9:45 PM on Wednesday, May 18, and as most of you know we have just witnessed a large lunar event in our skies...we do have astronomer Michael Walsh with much more on this subject than we can tell you."

The camera switched over to a guy sitting alone at a desk, with a projection of the moon behind him."We have very preliminary reports," he said in a monotone voice. "But what we can tell you right now is that the asteroid was much denser than we had previously assumed. It seems to have hit the moon from the side-opposing face and to have knocked it closer to Earth. We could not tell you how much closer, as reports from satellites are very sketchy right now. We do know that the asteroid came in contact with the moon at nine-thirty-seven this evening. The event was visible from most skies across the world, and again, we do believe that the denser-than-assumed asteroid has knocked the moon closer to the Earth."

"Knocked it closer to the Earth?" Mom said, sounding concerned. "That can't be good. That definitely can't be good."

The news switched back over to the news anchor from the beginning. "We do have some early reports of flooding," he said. "There have been reports of flooding in downtown Manhattan as well as Staten Island. It is believed that there has also been flooding along the Jersey Shore. Again, it has only been fifteen minutes since the asteroid hit the moon, so these reports are very preliminary as well as sketchy. We are trying to get information from sources across the area. Yes, the flooding in downtown New York City has been confirmed. We can tell that CNN and other sources in downtown New York City are down. It is-"

Just then, the lights went out in the studio. The people in the studio began talking but the camera stayed on. For about a minute, we waited, until a yellow-tinted light came on behind the news casters, who were now holding flashlights and reading from a sheet of paper.

"It is unconfirmed that there has been flooding on the Eastern End of Long Island," he finished. "We have just lost power here at our studio. It appears that all other buildings across Manhattan have lost electricity as well. This could be due to the flooding reports that we have from downtown. OK, another confirmed report. 9:56 PM and we can confirm that there has been massive flooding in Staten Island. We also have reports that the tunnels leading into Manhattan have been blocked from floodwaters. It appears that the moon has caused tides to go wayward, which has been feared since astronomers made the discovery of the asteroid. Yes, we can now confirm that there has been major flooding on the Eastern End of Long Island. Montauk is currently an island. We have many reports coming in at this time. The ocean has breached into the bay at Shore Road in East Hampton. We have our first picture from on outside source, hopefully this will show on the screen-"

On the screen, a picture (that was dark and blurry) showed what appeared to be waters rushing down a street with lighted houses and cars. "This picture was sent to us by a viewer in Staten Island," he said. "We do not have many pictures. The time is now 10:02. It has been twenty-five minutes since the incident and we have confirmation of massive damage around the tri-state area. Long Beach and Massapequa have suffered flooding, that is confirmed. It appears that the Long Island Sound almost...drained out, by Oyster Bay and near Bridgeport, Connecticut. Okay, we have some reports from other states as well. Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket have suffered massive flooding and can currently not be seen from satellite imagery. Boston and Portland are being battered by large waves. Miami is also suffering major flooding. In our area, JCP&L and LIPA are reporting power outages in the thousands and looting has been reported across the area..."

I went to text Dad. He was supposed to come home around ten but I'm sure he got in traffic or caught at work with everything happening now. But it didn't matter anyway. A message came back, and it read, "Message failed!" I tried to text another person. It didn't work.

"My phone's not working," I told Mom. "The message's aren't sending and there's no 3G connection."

"Mine, too," Elisa said. "I tried to call my mom but it wouldn't go through."

Mom took out her phone. "Mine's not working, either. I guess the cell lines are down, because everyone's trying to call each other. Elisa, does your mother know that you're here?"

Elisa nodded.

"Maybe it would be best for you to stay the night," Mom said. "It's crazy from what we can tell and I don't feel safe going out and I'm sure your mother will understand, when she gets home from work."

Normally me and Elisa would cheer because really, a sleepover on a school night is awesome, but under the circumstances, we both nodded. I'm sure Elisa was worried about her mother just like I was worried about my father.

"Yes, the power outages have been confirmed," said the anchor on the news. "There have been nearly 200,000 in the New York City area. We have had confirmation now that there has been flooding all along the East Coast. Atlantic City has been breached by floodwaters. The water has reached nearly eight blocks inland in Charleston, North Carolina..."

"You guys should go to bed," my mom said, looking more concerned than ever. "It's almost 10:30 and there's no word on school being cancelled tomorrow. So go."

I said good-night to Mom and then me, Elisa, and Peter went upstairs. Elisa's showering now (it's not weird, she's showered at my house a million times) and now I'm writing this down all as fast as I can. I don't tell Elisa that I keep a journal, even though I tell her pretty much everything

Right now I'm watching the news. Latest news has it that all of the tunnels going into New York City were completely flooded after the asteroid hit the moon, which was over an hour ago now.

I really, really hope that my dad or either of Elisa's parents were in the tunnels at 9:37 PM tonight.