The End of Summer as We Know It

After a long, hard year dealing with the deaths of two grandparents and the family pet, as well as school and work troubles, and a schedule which had kept them from doing anything but the bare minimum to get by, even taking the time to plan a summer vacation had proved difficult for the Dillinger family. But Mary Dillinger had worked diligently to find time in the crevices of her days to plan, pay for, and schedule a brief long weekend vacation away from the hustle and bustle of town, to a small cabin in the Northwoods of Wisconsin on the shore of Lake Superior, where she, her husband Larry, and their three kids, Barry, Sherry, and Carrie, could get away, enjoy the outdoors, and leave the world behind.

They were only able to find three days in which they could get away, just barely enough time to get into a relaxed state before it would be over. Because of this, Mary decided that instead of following her standard plan of sending the kids off to their rooms for bed as early as possible so she and Larry could have some time alone in the quiet, she would gather them all together on their last night to sit on the dock outside their rental, and watch the sun as it disappeared over the horizon.

She had never been able to sit still long enough to watch a sunset before. She had always loved the poetic idea of sitting out and saying goodnight to the sun. The few times she had attempted to do so, usually with a young male by her side, she would get far too distracted by other activities to see the last rays of sunshine before they the world entered twilight. But for this one night, she decided she would do everything in her power to make sure that not only she, but her entire family, would witness the end of the day, as well as, metaphorically, the end of summer.

Larry, to his credit, helped her wrangle the children, although he spent a majority of the time asking why they couldn’t sit inside and watch the ballgame instead. The Brewers hadn’t exactly had a great run against the Pirates so far, but Larry was sure that the turning point would happen at any moment. Barry and Sherry fought the idea of putting their phones away, but were able to be convinced when told it would only be for fifteen minutes. Carrie seemed to be the only one actually excited about the idea, mostly because it would allow her to be up and out of bed longer than she was accustomed to.

When they we all finally seated along the dock, the children with their feet in the water, Larry and Mary standing behind them, in a position Mary couldn’t help thinking would make a perfect picture to share to her Instagram followers, a sense of calm briefly fell over the five of them. They could hear the frogs croaking in a patch of lily pads off to the right, the sounds of dragonflies’ wings buzzing as they took down a cloud of gnats, and the gentle lapping of the water as it swept up against the bottom of the dock. 

This sense of calm made Mary nervous. They were not a peaceful family. They were chaos. For all five of them to be in a state of serenity caused alarm bells to ring in the back of her head, which she worked to quiet. Perhaps the stars had simply aligned themselves in the right way for this one perfect moment. She had earned it, after all, hadn’t she?

The five of them watched in silence as the sun dipped down into the lake, casting its dark red light over the wavy waters. A fisherman drifted slowly across the water, his silhouette framed by the face of the sun. He, too, appeared transfixed by the sight of night’s approach.

Mary looked at Larry, wanting to share a smile with him over this perfect moment she had orchestrated, but he was deeply entranced by the sun’s descent. She looked to her children and noted that their feet had stopped kicking the water beneath them. It was almost as though the world had stopped around her. This world which had been moving at such a high speed for so long, simply ceased moving. And although Mary, only moments prior, had been excited about the idea of shipping her children off to school in the next couple of days, she now found herself wishing this moment could last forever. That summer could last forever. That she, and her family, could simply stay in this moment of peace and serenity, forever.

The sun finished its goodbye and Mary became aware that she had been holding her breath, as if nervous that breathing could have disturbed this tranquil moment.  As she exhaled, the rest of the world came back to life.

Larry patted her on the back and gave her a kiss on the cheek as he wordlessly turned and went back into the house. Barry and Sherry stood up, pulled out their phones, and walked to the house as well, their faces now lit by the bright blue light of their screens. Mary watched as her family made their way back inside, feeling both renewed by this brief moment of calm and disappointed that it was over so quickly.  The silence was broken by the soft sweet voice of Mary’s youngest child, Carrie, shouting from her place at the dock.

“The sun’s coming back!” Mary’s sweet eight-year-old said excitedly.

“No, honey,” Mary corrected without looking back. “That’s the moon.”

“No, the moon is up there. That’s the sun!”

Mary turned, ready to explain the world to her child who was obviously confused, when she saw what her daughter had spotted. 

The sun was back.

As if in a trance, Mary walked to the edge of the dock, next to Carrie, staring at what she saw on the horizon, certain it must be some trick of the light.  The longer she watched it, the more she became convinced that her eyes weren’t deceiving her. Carrie was right. The sun was coming back. Rising slowly in the sky, as if it had forgotten something in its path across the sky.

“I didn’t know night time was so short,” Carrie said simply.

Mary, still transfixed by what she saw, corrected her daughter. “No, honey, it’s not.”

“Does the sun come back like this every night? Do we get to see it go back down again?”

“No, sweetheart.”

“Oh, you wanted us to watch tonight because tonight is special?”

“This is special all right,” Mary said, still staring in confusion. Her head cocked to the side as she worked through the possible explanations for what was occurring. Maybe this was normal to see when you had a clear view of the horizon like she did here on the lake. Maybe there was some scientific explanation, like that that it was a reflection of the water that played a trick on the eyes. She pulled out her phone to see if she could get an answer to her questions.

“Whoa, that’s wild!” Barry said, running out the sliding glass door from the cabin. Sherry was shortly behind him.

The two of them ran to Mary’s side and stared at the sun as it continued getting larger in what was supposed to be the night sky. Both of their heads bobbed as they switched from staring at the sky to staring at their phones.

“It says here that this is happening everywhere. That everywhere is seeing the sun moving in reverse,” Sherry said to her mother.

“Everywhere?” Mary asked. “Like, everywhere around the lake?” 

“No,” Barry said as he pointed the phone in his mother’s face, “like, everywhere everywhere.”

Larry now came out of the house, the look on his face one of grave concern as he, too, looked at the horizon to verify the claims he had just become aware of.

“What?” Mary shouted to her husband, whom she could tell was scared.

“I thought it was a joke, like a joke commercial or something,” he said, walking closer to his family, his eyes never leaving the direction of the sun.

“What was?” Mary asked, fear catching in her throat. There were very few things that would cause her husband to break away from the television during a game, primarily snacks or the bathroom. Otherwise, even during commercials, he remained seated to ensure he didn’t miss a single moment of the game.

“The breaking news report. Apparently, the Earth is spinning in reverse.”

“That’s impossible.” Barry laughed. “Wouldn’t we have felt it if the whole thing just started spinning the wrong way?”

“I don’t know, pal, I’m just telling you what the news reports are saying.” Larry turned and hastened back toward the house.

“Where are you going?” Mary asked.

“To watch the news. To see if anybody knows what’s going on,” Larry answered before reentered the building.

Mary, realizing that she needed answers as well, hurriedly followed behind him.

“Does this mean it’s not bedtime, yet?” Carrie asked her mother. 

Mary, stopping briefly enough to consider her answer, turned and said, “Um, I don’t know. Give me a moment.”

She entered the house to hear the television now blaring loudly throughout the building. Mary reminded herself that she would have to schedule a hearing appointment for Larry once they got back home.

“—several scientists have now confirmed that the Earth is indeed spinning in reverse,” the reporter on the television said with a dire tone. “This retrograde rotation could have dramatic consequences over time, as it would impact ocean currents and wind patterns across the globe. While no one appears certain as to what could have caused this drastic change in the earth’s rotation--”

Larry turned the television off, yet another first for Mary’s husband, which showed her just how seriously Larry was considering what was happening around them. 

“Why’d you turn it off?” Mary asked as she walked to her husband’s side.

“They don’t know anything. They’re just speculating. All we’re going to hear from them is how we’re all going to die.”

“But are we? Going to die?” Mary asked, suddenly realizing how much of an impact this could have on her directly. For years, she had avoided the news because it always wanted her to know the millions of different ways she was going to die. But in this case, she wondered, could they be right?

“That’s the thing, Mary, nobody knows.”

“But shouldn’t we listen in case someone comes up with an answer?” Mary asked. She felt the panic rising up in her chest. Her heart was beating faster. What could it possibly mean for the Earth to spin in reverse?

“What are they going to tell us? That we should all get out and push on the ground to try to get the planet moving in the right direction again?”

“I don’t know, but—” Mary was finding it hard to catch her breath. Regardless of which way the Earth was spinning, she was definitely feeling it spin around her now.

“It stopped!” Sherry screamed as she ran into the house. “The sun stopped moving!”

Mary looked at Larry with wide eyes.

“It couldn’t have stopped, Sherry,” Larry said, headed back outside to take a look for himself. 

“Neil DeGrasse Tyson just retweeted a tweet from British Astronomical Society saying it has,” Sherry debated. 

“Is it even daytime in Britain right now?” Mary asked as she followed Larry and Sherry back out onto the dock. Looking at the sky, she couldn’t see anything that would indicate that the sun was any different than usual. Sure, it was supposed to be gone right now, but how would one even tell if it wasn’t moving any longer.

“Um,” Barry said, his mouth hanging open as he stared at his phone. “The Earth isn’t spinning backward.”

“Okay, that’s good. Someone managed to get things back on the right track then,” Mary said, turning to go back inside now that the matter had been resolved.

“No, um,” Barry said, his eyes still scanning the text on his phone. “The Earth isn’t spinning at all. It’s stopped.”

“Now how in the world could anyone possibly know that?”

“The International Space Station is looking right at us. They say it’s just stopped.”

“What does that mean?” Sherry asked. 

“If the Earth stops spinning?” Barry asked rhetorically. “Um, it means that all life on the planet is pretty much done for.”

“Oh, come on, Barry. There’s no need to be so dramatic,” Larry reprimanded his son.

“Dramatic?” Barry retorted. “Think about it. If the Earth stops spinning, that means half of the planet is in constant daytime and half of it is in constant night. Half of the Earth’s plants won’t get any sun. The other half will get too much. Half of the planet will freeze; the other half will burn. This could very well mean the end of the world.”

“I’m sure this’ll fix itself in a minute. The world can’t simply stop spinning,” Larry said, waving his hand as if to say this is all a phase the planet is going through.

“But what if it did?” Mary asked, suddenly realizing all of the time she had wasted in her life. Was this actually the end? Now? For real?

“Well, then I guess it’s the end of the world,” Larry said simply. The words hung in the air as everyone reflected on them.

Mary’s mind raced with all of the things she would have done differently if she had realized how little time she had left. How much less time she would have spent running from place to place and how much more time she would have spent simply experiencing the world around her. If the world was well and truly done for, she couldn’t help but thinking that she had done a terrible job of appreciating it while it was here. 

The silence was finally broken by Carrie, still sitting at the end of the dock with her feet kicking the water playfully. “Does that mean it’s the end of summer, too?”

“Actually,” Mary said a renewed sense of serenity coming over her. She walked to the dock and sat down next to her child, placing her feet into the cold lake and giving it a playful kick, “I think it means it’s summer forever.”

“Yay!” Carrie cheered. “Is it vacation forever, too?”

“Sure,” Larry said, joining the two of them at the lake. Barry and Sherry followed right behind him. “It’ll be vacation forever.”

The five of them sat at the edge of the dock and kicked their feet in the water, working hard to ignore the sun shining down on them in its eternal golden hour, none of them worried any longer what tomorrow may bring, as they realized there would be no more tomorrows, only now. For however long now may continue.

This starts a panic among everyone. What does it mean? Does it mean that summer’s here to stay? Are they going back in time and will have to do everything they did over again? The family watches the sun for a few more moments and it’s obvious that it’s definitely going in reverse. Mom starts to freak out, while Dad tries to suggest that it’s just a trick of the horizon. Probably a reflection off the water or something. They continue watching, and the sun is definitely rising back up.

Phone notifications start going off, and they find out that they’re not the only people seeing this odd thing in the sky. They check social medias and everyone is talking about the return of the sun. 

So…the answer is obviously that the earth suddenly started rotating backward, but what does that actually mean? Maybe it does mean that summer will last for forever because this is happening due to the earth’s orbit slowing and it’s now being pulled into the sun? 

Ultimately, because of the upcoming disaster, the family decides that they’re going to stay on vacation, because why go back to school and work if everyone’s going to die.

This is a good start, let’s let it mellow before we do any actual writing.