The Light in Burning Eggs

She contemplated going back to sleep. She should have. The smell of something burning is what made her toss the covers back and hop out of the bed. 

“Mom?” 

Someone was cooking. Her dad didn’t cook, so it had to be her mom. As the smell of smoke became stronger, she lowered her mouth into the crook of her elbow and coughed up a lung. As she rounded the corner, the unmistakable cloud of smoke wafted up from the kitchen. Waving smoke out of the way, she went to see what it possibly could be, and she was greeted with a pan on the stove. Burning with eggs.

And her mother was staring at it blankly. 

She coughed again and rushed to open the window. As she lifted the screen up, she turned back around to yell at her mom, but the look on her mom’s face stopped her in her tracks. No longer was she staring blankly at the burning eggs. She was smiling at them.

Everyone was going crazy. Everyone was giving up. 

She covered her mouth again and left the kitchen, walking towards the sounds of a newscaster on TV. "...And now, to the latest on the sun's demise.” 

She turned off the TV and walked away from the living room. In a daze, she wandered through the house, absorbing the gravity of the situation. The once familiar surroundings seemed surreal, as if she had stepped into an alternate reality. She should have gone back to bed.

She decided to check on her father, finding him in the backyard, gazing up at the sky with the water hose in his hand. The once vibrant sun, now a dimming ember, hung in the heavens like a fading memory. He turned to her with a solemn expression, acknowledging the inevitable.

"We never thought it would come to this, did we?" he said, his voice heavy with resignation. She shook her head, unable to find the words. 

In the midst of the turmoil, she still couldn't shake the image of her mother's vacant smile as the eggs burned in the pan. It was as if the impending darkness had taken hold of her, erasing the worry that gripped everyone else. As her mind raced with questions, she realized that perhaps her mother had found a way to cope in the face of impending doom.

Looking towards the house, the smoke that was piled in the kitchen wafted out of the window she had opened. So it was somewhat safe to go back inside. Not that she wanted to.

She walked past her father using the watering hose to water the pool.

Hearing the creak of the swing set, she found her younger brother staring solemnly at the ground underneath him as he swung loosely. There used to be grass under his feet. He used to have an iPad in his hands. The grass would have been more useful at this time.

She shivered as the wind picked up and tried to rub some heat into her arms. To no avail. The windchimes at her neighbors sounded like they were in mourning, their once cheerful tinkling now a dissonant dirge. The world had turned a sickly green, and the air tasted of metal. She couldn't help but wonder what the animals must be thinking, the birds unable to fly south, the fish confused by the changing currents.

Her father had stopped using the hose, and she could see his shoulders slump as he stared at the ground. She wanted to go to him, to offer some sort of comfort or reassurance, but she couldn't bring herself to move. Instead, she stood there, feeling the cold air dance around her.

Eventually, she walked back into the kitchen and noticed that the smoke had cleared, and the eggs were nothing but a blackened mess. Her mom was nowhere to be seen. No longer smiling at the burning eggs. She wrapped the handle of the pan with a dry towel and scraped the burnt ashes into the trash. She then opened the window to let some fresh air in. 

Maybe that was what her mother had been trying to do, to create some sort of normalcy in the midst of chaos. As she breathed in the last bit of fresh air, she couldn't help but wonder what else her mother might try to do in the face of this impending darkness. Making breakfast seemed like the little bit of hope she had.

The family then silently gathered in the living room, sitting in silence as they turned the TV back on to the news updates. The sun's demise was irreversible, and the world would soon plunge into eternal darkness. Some sought refuge in denial, others succumbed to despair, but her mother... her mother seemed to have found solace in the simplicity of burnt eggs.

She went upstairs, feeling the weight of the world on her shoulders. Her room was a mess, her bed unmade. She should have cleaned it while it was still light. There was no point in cleaning now. There would be no light tomorrow. There might not even be a tomorrow at all.

As she lay down on the bed, she stared up at the ceiling, watching the shadows play tag with each other. The world was dying, and she was stuck here, helpless to do anything about it. She wished she could be brave like her father, or accept it like her mother. But all she could do was lie here and wait.

She closed her eyes, trying to escape the reality of the situation. In her mind's eye, she saw the sun, blazing brightly in the sky, bathing the world in warmth and light. She remembered days at the beach, building sandcastles and playing in the waves. She remembered lazy afternoons in the backyard, eating ice cream and laughing with her friends.

Maybe she should try to find some beauty in the world too, before it was all gone. She pulled the covers up to her chin as more drafts of cold wind picked up and carried into her room. As she drifted off to sleep, she couldn't help but wonder what the world would look like when she woke up.