ONE SWEET DAY Excerpt

That early morning, the clock on Quinn Schroener’s night stand read 3:00 on the dot. Sometimes it read 2:48 or 2:52, most times it read exactly 3:00.

He didn’t wake up often, but when he did, it was as if someone had literally awakened him. Some nights he awoke afraid, though he didn’t understand why. Others, he woke up peacefully.

Pastor Fender had told him that three in the morning was the end of the third watch of prayer and the beginning of the fourth watch. Since then, whenever he awoke he would say a prayer. Nothing big or fancy. He would just talk to Jesus as calmly as he would to his parents or friends. In a short while, he would fall back asleep.

There was something different about that night. He was excited—not fearful, like in the past, but excited. Like something out of the ordinary was about to happen.

That’s silly, the thought after switching on the lamp on his nightstand.
His bedroom looked exactly as it had before he’d gone to bed only hours earlier. Payton Mulligan had lamented that Quinn’s room was cool, probably because it was a little bigger than his own. Quinn kept it neat—or tried to, anyway. His ever-growing library of current books were kept in the small bookcase beside his desk and chair. On the top shelf of his desk was his collection of action figures, mostly his G.I. Joes, Batman, Spiderman, and Superman.

His other treasures, like his music cassettes, his Walkman, his aquarium with tropical fish, and his toy chest, were all on the opposite side of the desk and window. It was a boy’s room through and through, made even more evident by the Little League baseball trophies he’d gotten and pictures of horses he’d drawn, which his parents had framed for him.

Quinn jumped, reacting to the sudden movement of Sam rising on all fours and growling at the window.

Animals can tell when something’s up, his dad, who knew animals better than anybody Quinn knew, often said.

“What’s up, Sammy?” Quinn asked.

A moment passed, and then another. Then an odd noise broke the silence. What was that?

Quinn glanced to his left. The table on which the ten-gallon aquarium sat was shaking. Ever so slightly, but it was shaking.

His bed was shaking. Quinn sat up fully, kicking off the covers and holding onto the headboard. Instead of barking, Sam leapt onto the bed beside him, yelping.

“Dad! Mom!” He’d tried to shout out for them, but the words had come out in a terrified whisper.

An earthquake. That was an earthquake.
But earthquakes didn’t happen in North Carolina. Did they?

No. They’d studied that in school. Earthquakes happened in other places, like California and Japan and the Middle East.
Earthquakes in divers places. Jesus had said that.

This wasn’t like any other earthquake, either. This was somehow worse. It wasn’t stopping.

“It’s not stopping,” Quinn uttered under his breath.

Where were his parents? Why hadn’t they come to get him? They had to feel the house shaking violently like that. Come to think of it, why wasn’t it falling apart?
That was what happened during earthquakes. He’d seen pictures of the aftermath on the news, how buildings would be reduced to rubble, how people would lose their homes.

Go to the window. Now.

“What if I fall?” he asked.

Yet the moment his feet hit the floor, the earthquake stopped. Dressed in his pajamas, he pushed open the curtains, a breath caught in his throat, and looked out to an awesome sight.

It was daytime. But how?

Quinn swallowed. The sun, burning in the sky like a giant golden ball, was turning black. He could see the moon, too, except the moon had turned red, as red as blood.
And the stars were falling. Thousands of stars, millions, falling to the earth at once.

What was happening?

Quinn watched, motionless, almost frozen in place. The mountains in the distance looked to be melting back into the earth. Above them, the sky was opening. Opening as if it were one of those long curtains on a stage. Quinn’s heart was beating fast. He had to remind himself to breathe.
None of this is really happening. That thought came to him, bringing with it comfort.



And for another excerpt from this book, my January 2014, drop by my blog: http://conniekeenanwriter.blogspot.com .