June 22

You know how people say that their first job is "super cool" and "tons of fun". Actually, I don't think anyone sane has said that. My job is boring!

I met up with Charles at the community gardening area about five to ten blocks away from home. There were only twenty people there, and there was a man that was directing everything with a clipboard and was yelling out instructions. We had two options: work on building the greenhouses or tend the vegetable gardens outside. I'm not good at building things, so I chose the vegetable gardens.

There were much less people doing the vegetable gardens compared to the greenhouse construction, and that's alright. The person in charge told us that we were going to be divided up into three different sections: weeders, insect slayers, and builders for the fences and other contraptions in the garden. 

Charles chose to be a weeder, and I followed along. I hate insects and building things is just bad. We were given certain instructions when dealing with weeds. Pull the whole plant out, including the roots, don't pull out clovers, watch out for thistles, and have fun. I wasn't sure how I was supposed to have fun. Picking weeds seemed boring and turned out to be very boring.

"How are you liking the job?" Charles asked.

"Are we getting paid?"

"Surprisingly, yes," he said. "Each person gets about 2% of what the garden produces."

"So we're working for a couple of vegetables," I said.

"Yeah, basically," he said. "Things seem like they're going to get much worse."

"I don't know how it could get any worse," I joked and then added in a more serious tone. "What do you mean?"

"Haven't you been listening to the radio," he said.

"No, my hand cranked one is super staticky and we don't have a proper battery operated one."

"The scientists are hearing rumbling from the volcanoes up north all across the Cascade Range. Some of the more active ones are already steaming and there have been tremors around the dormant ones."

"That sounds bad," I said. "Do they think that the volcanoes are going to erupt?"

"No one knows anything at this point," he said.

We stopped talking for a while after that. I can't imagine the situation getting any worse than it already is. A couple of volcanoes erupting doesn't seem like a big deal, but I remember in our plate tectonics unit, we talked about how one volcanic eruption led to a globe wide winter. I hope that doesn't happen. 

After a while, we began to talk about stuff. Nothing too serious: high school, random politics, video games— mostly to pass the time. "I agree with you," Charles said. "This job sucks."

I chuckled. "Welcome to the beginning of the rest of our lives."

"You don't think that everything's going to get better?"

"I'm not sure," I replied.

Charles added," Do you want things to get better? For everything to return to the way it was before."

"I don't know," I replied. "I just don't know."

June 24

Mom has gone crazy.

I was in the middle of studying for the SATs even though we can't register because power is still out. I wonder if we're ever getting it back. May was sitting next to me trying to make her old camera work and Mira was in the room next to me, resting after fixing up the garden. She and Grandma have been adding barriers around the tomato plants so that they don't get eaten by the rabbits.

All of a sudden, Mom just barged in. "We're going hiking tomorrow," she announced.

"What?!" May and I said at the same time.

"Did you not hear me," Mom said. "We're going hiking! Aren't you guys excited."

"I've got my thing tomorrow," I said.

"I have to do my camera thing," May added.

"Your work is in the afternoon, so we'll hike in the morning, and it'll be a good time to practice your camera skills, May."

Mira walked into the room. "What's going on?" she asked.

"Mom is high right now and is forcing us to hike during the apocalypse," May said.

"You know, everyone has been talking about the world ending and the apocalypse, so I think it's a great idea to have my kids go out and see some of our local beauties."

"I agree with Mom," Mira said. "It's a good idea to have all of us out together. We should have some quality family time."

I cringed on the inside while hearing this. I didn't think Mira ever wanted to have quality time with the whole family. She and Dad would just start arguing. I can see that she's trying to mend her relationship with us. But hiking is not the way we're going to do it. 

May looked at Mira. "I hate you."

Mira looked genuinely hurt. "She doesn't mean that," I quickly added. "It's the teenage hormones."

"I do mean it," May insisted.

"Yeah, whatever," I replied. "Just ignore her."

But Mira had already walked away. She stayed in the garden for the rest of the day and when she came for dinner, she ate her baked beans and went to her bedroom. I knocked on the door.

"Come in," she said.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"May hates me," she said. "And it's like every time I try to make things better with Mom and Dad and I just seem to make things worse with you and May."

"May doesn't really hate you," I said. "And you and Dad aren't arguing about 'questionable life choices' anymore, so that's a positive."

"She's changed a lot," Mira said.

"Everyone has changed a lot."

"Yeah, but she's changed the most. I can't believe that kid in middle school became like this."

"She isn't all bad," I said. "I mean she can be nice if she wants to, and we talk too. It's just that she has some certain negative viewpoints about you that Mom and Dad may or may not have put into her brain."

"Okay. Spill the beans."

"She thinks you're a druggie."

"A druggie." Mira laughed. "Now that's a first."

"You know, you just have to talk with her and stop always siding with Mom and Dad on everything, especially if May hates whatever they want her to do because Mom will definitely forgive you faster than May will."

"Any other pieces of advice?"

"Just try," I said. "Talk about anything. Complain about anything. I don't know. Just do it."

"Thanks," Mira said.

"No problem," I said. "Be ready for the hike tomorrow. It's all your fault that we're doing it."

June 25

The hike today actually wasn't all that bad. The weather this morning was pleasant, and I wasn't shivering the whole walk to the beginning of the trail. It's around five miles away from our house, so it took us roughly an hour and a half to get there. 

There were quite a few people hiking up the trail this morning. I guess with the world never becoming what it used to be before or possibly ending, it would be a good time to start seeing the small wonders around town before you kick the bucket. May complained the whole way to the trail. "I'm so tired. It's so hot. It's too cold out here. My legs hurt."

After a while, I turned towards her. "Suck it up," I told her.

"Hey," she said. "Only I'm allowed to say that."

"Hypocrite," I said. "You're an actual hypocrite."

"Does it look like I care?"

"Whatever," I said. 

"That's what I thought," she said.

We started our hike up the mountain when the sun was a couple of inches above the rolling hills. May complained that her legs were too tired to walk, so Mom and Dad decided to walk slower with her while Mira and I went ahead. There was a good ten minutes of awkward silence before I broke it. "How was the world outside?"

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

"You know, when you left town, what did you see?"

"I saw a lot of things," she said. "Anything you want to know in particular?"

"Is there power anywhere?"

"Only a couple of places still had power: the hospitals, police and firefighter stations, places with back-up generators."

"What about schools?" I asked. "Or colleges."

"Most of them are closed down. The college that I went to is partially flooded."

And for some reason, I breathed out a sigh of relief. I'm not sure why I'd feel such relief or even some joy that the colleges are flooded. I guess it's because, I don't know, I'm scared of the future or something. Mira looked at me. "Is something wrong?"

"No, nothing really," I said. "Just thinking about something, so what were you saying?"

"To help all the coastal places that got flooded, they're trying to build sea walls. But the main concern for the government would be helping the people in the big cities, especially in Southern California."

"I heard there was a lot of flooding there."

"Yeah," she said. "And a complete lack of water. Those cities are surrounded by desert."

"Do you think we're going to get power back soon?"

"Maybe," she said. "I saw builders installing solar panels and wind turbines."

"Go green energy."

She laughed. "They're probably building oil power plants too, so don't get your hopes up. California still has a lot of those oil rigs."

We walked for a bit before reaching the top of the hill. The sun was high in the sky, and there was good visibility, so we were able to look down upon our city. I could be the waves slowly receding to the horizon, revealing the ruined neighborhoods. "It's beautiful," Mira said. 

"Yeah," I said. "Do you think that we'll be able to fix the houses near the old beach?"

"It's going to be too expensive. It's better to let them go."

"I thought you said that the government is working on fixing up the coasts."

"They are," she replied. "It's just that it might not be worth the effort to fix up those houses. Eventually, the sea will take anything that is built over there no matter how well built it is."

"Plus," she added. "We'll have a beach in our backyard."

"Charles already told me about that."

"Dang it! I was trying to be original."

After going to the top of the hill, we climbed down and met Mom, Dad, and May around the midpoint. Mira told them about the beautiful sights, but I told them that I had to go to my thing and that they can always hike up by themselves. 

While we were weeding plants in the garden, Charles asked," Did you hear about the fair?"

"There's a fair?" 

"Yeah," he said. "I thought you knew everything that is going around in town."

"Nope. I had no idea."

"Well, the town is holding a sort of flea market in the city plaza this Sunday. Lots of people are supposed to show up."

"Are you coming?"

"I'm not sure," he said.

"Why not?"

"I haven't been feeling so well," he blurted out, but he quickly added. "I'll definitely try to come though."

It's the first time I've noticed something wrong. His eyes have light bags around them, and he seems to be catching his breath more than me while weeding. I don't think he has the stomach flu or anything. Maybe he just got some bad sleep, but I think that something else might be going on that he isn't telling me or maybe I'm overthinking it like always.

At the least end of our hour, we walked home and parted ways. "You better come!" I yelled.

"We'll see about that on that day!" he shouted back.

I told Mom and Dad about the fair. Mom thinks that it's a great idea. Dad is a bit more skeptical, but I think he agrees with Mom. If this happened before, I'm not sure that any of us would want to go, but I guess things have changed, taking everyone along with them.