The End

I had the most vivid and yet at the same time, the most vague dream last Saturday night. Do you ever try to tell a dream the next day, but your words do not even come close? I’m going to turn this dream into a story by adding the details necessary to give you the experience I had.

“What did you find? Did you find anything good, Dad?” I said, as he came through the door carrying the crumbling cardboard box he always used to transport groceries. But what was in the box today and every day didn’t even resemble groceries.

He set the box on the small table. The table where we used to play Rummy with grandma for hours. Seems like yesterday that we enjoyed those carefree days. Grandma giggling as she would holler out, “Rum!” Dad and I would throw our cards down, shaking our heads in disbelief. She always won and she always said Rum rather than Rummy but I’ll never know why. She’s been gone five years now, thankfully, as I would not want her to live through the mess of the world we now know.

Dad’s voice comes to me from somewhere far away, slamming to the front of my mind. “I managed to get a can of tuna, looks like it has a dent in it. They gave me our weekly seven cans of beans and I was able to barter one can for this can of sardines. Can you believe that there are people out there being that picky during this global food shortage? Ya snooze, ya loose, I guess.”

There is no affordable food to be had. No seeds to buy. No stores of corn like Joseph so wittingly stored for the seven years of famine. There are millions of people on the planet and only so much to go around. What food is available can be purchased at huge mark up rates. There are no longer food stamps or community pantries. The only places that don’t feel the collapse are the hospitals and healthcare facilities. Why would they feel the collapse when they’re the ones keeping people alive during the five year pandemic. The government had to stop all assistance and start paying fully to the hospitals. Once the United States economy took the biggest nose dive in history, things got dire fast. Signs for employment hung on business doors; the businesses that didn’t go under with the collapse.

The health care system seems to grow in size and in numbers. The global pandemic has crippled the world, but is booming the business for healthcare. Some people who are starving hurt themselves in purpose just to get a night in a clean bed and three square meals that they cannot find in the streets.

As I walk over to get the can opener out of the drawer, I hear a far away buzzing sound. Walking to the window where grandma hung her bird feeder back in another tine, another world; I look up into the blue sky. I think a quick thought of how can the sky be so beautiful when this world is spoiling and dying right in front of our eyes. Speaking of eyes, mine are fixated on a league of tiny objects flying from the East towards our house. I drop the can opener and run out the back door to get a better look.

My heart goes back to the verse of seeing locusts with faces of a man, as I hear a thunderous sound and see dozens of helicopters leading a in army of all types, big and small aircraft….to be continued.

And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men. Rev. 9:7

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