The Bomb

A young boy, Jonathan, goes to speak to his former love in his final moments, as a missile is currently hurtling towards their city.

By this point, Jonathan was almost ready for the bomb to go off.

The missile strike would be devastating, no doubt. Thousands instantly killed, millions of lives forever affected negatively. The country would possibly never recover. The world might end altogether. But he wouldn’t be around for any of that. He would die peacefully, instantly, painlessly, and that seemed like his best option. He had accepted his fate. The anticipation, however, was nightmarish. He wanted it to be over already.

Jonathan was seated at the dinner table with his family, sharing a final meal with them. The silence was deafening. His parents were smiling, but a terrible pain could be seen behind their eyes. Tabitha, his little sister, was not told about their impending doom, being only nine years old, but, sensing something was wrong, stayed silent as well.

The sound of Jonathan’s chair scraping against the hardwood floor broke the silence as he stood up. “I’m going to see some friends,” he said, placing his silverware on the plate that contained the food he hadn’t touched. “I’ll be back before…” He paused with a glance at Tabitha. “Before late.” His parents nodded in approval. A single tear slid down his mother’s cheek, which she hastily wiped away before Tabitha saw. Attempting to comfort her, his father placed a hand on hers. Jonathan gave a quick hug to all of his family members before hurriedly making his way out the door into the cool night air. He knew he didn’t have much time.

Jonathan decided to take his bike instead of his car. Though his neighborhood was lifeless, he couldn’t risk running into traffic elsewhere, and he figured there could be a great deal of abandoned vehicles. He also loved the weather tonight; he wanted to enjoy his final moments.

Pedaling out of the driveway, he took a deep breath of the rainy October air. The cool wind was refreshing on his face. He looked down at the leaves stuck to the streets. The way the streetlamp reflected off of the pavement after a rainstorm had always appealed to him. As he rode, he noticed that nobody was out driving, though he was correct in assuming there were lots of cars left on the road by frantic owners.

Jonathan arrived at Sarah’s house sooner than he thought he would. Looking down at his phone, he noticed that he still had an hour and a half before he died. He looked up at the lights glowing warmly in the windows. As he thought about approaching the door, his heart began to pound and his stomach churned. If this wasn’t the last night of his life, he definitely would not have the nerve to do this. However, since he no longer had anything to lose and no consequences to face in the future, he found the walk to the front door much easier.

Jonathan breathed deeply before ringing the doorbell. He waited for a few minutes before the door began to swing inward. He felt his heart rate increase further, but then saw it was only Sarah’s mother.

“Oh, hello Mrs. Hanson,” he began, stammering over his words. “Is Sarah there?”

“Hello, Jonathan,” she said with a forced smile. It was easy to see that she had been crying. “I think she met with a friend in the park down the street. if you see her, will you tell her to come back before…” Her voice cracked on the last word, her eyes filling with fresh tears.

“Yeah, I will,” he replied as began to make his way back to his bike. Without warning, and without saying anything, Mrs. Hanson stepped outside the house and hugged him, something that had never happened before. Jonathan, taken aback, froze at first, before awkwardly returning the embrace.

Mrs. Hanson stepped back, now fully in tears. “You’re a really great young man,” she said to him before turning and going back inside.

Jonathan was puzzled, but decided that a situation they were in would do crazy things to people. He hurried back to his bike and began to pedal quickly down the street. He had a hunch as to who this friend would be, and though he hated to interrupt an intimate moment between Sarah and her best friend, he was hoping Debra would understand his urgency.

Jonathan rode through the gates of the park and threw his bike behind a bush, hiding it out of habit. He made his way to where Sarah’s favorite swing was, beelining through the rocks and trees as opposed to taking the long and winding concrete trail.

He heard Sarah before he saw her. Soft sobs were coming from the area of the swing. Jonathan quickly hid behind a tree, not wanting to startle her. Even after a year apart, the sound of Sarah crying still broke his heart. He made his way slowly to a boulder closer to the swing and ducked behind it, taking care not to step on any sticks. He pressed up against the boulder, shivering from the contact with the cool stone, and listened.

“I was so excited about our future together,” Sarah said quietly. Jonathan’s heart leapt. He knew she still had feelings for him!

“I know, darling.” A guy’s voice, one he didn’t recognize, had replied. “I was too. But we can’t think about that. Let’s just enjoy being with each other.”

Jonathan was confused. He didn’t know Sarah had a boyfriend. He slowly and carefully peered over the top of the boulder. Sarah, looking as beautiful as ever, was being held by boy he recognized only in the face. He went to Sarah’s church. Her head was against his chest, and one of his stroked her gorgeous blonde hair while the other held hers. Tears stung Jonathan’s eyes. He wanted more than anything for that to be him again. He wanted to hold her, to looking her magical blue eyes, to press his lips against hers, to feel her body against his, to simply tell her he still loved her, in spite of everything that happened last year.

He had messed up, he knew that, and he didn’t deserve her. He never had. In his opinion, nobody deserves an angel that lovely. Fighting against the immeasurable jealousy that burned in the pit of his stomach and made his head swim, he continued watching.

The boy placed his hand gently under her chin and lifted her head to face him. “I love you, Sarah.”

She smiled and placed a hand on the back of his neck. “I love you, too,” she said, her smile growing. God, Jonathan loved her smile. He wanted to hate this boy, but he couldn’t. He treated Sarah like the princess she was, and she seemed much happier with him than she had been with Jonathan.

And then he kissed her. It was more than Jonathan could bear. He sank down behind the boulder and began to cry, the hardest he had since Sarah left him. He decided that he was lucky the missile was coming to take his life in an instant. He wouldn’t be able to witness her so happy with someone else every day for the rest of his life.

Yes, he thought. He was ready for the bomb to go off.