Life as We Knew It Read Online Free PDF Page A

fine where you are and that you heard from Matt last night."
    "That's right," I said. "We tried and tried to reach you and Grandma last night and the circuits were all busy."
    "I reached her late last night," Dad said. "She's fine. A little shaken up, but that's natural enough. We're lucky, Miranda. We all seem to have made it, no problem."
    "I feel like it should have been a dream," I said. "Like maybe I'm still dreaming and when I wake up none of it will have happened."
    "That's how we all feel," he said. "Your mother says school hasn't been canceled. I guess the idea is for us to get on with our lives and be grateful that we can."
    "All right," I said. "I can take a hint. Give my love to Lisa, okay? Tell her I was thinking about her and the baby."
    "I will," he said. "I love you, honey."
    "I love you too, Daddy," I said. I gestured to Mom to see if she wanted the phone back, but she shook her head, so I hung up.
    "How late did you stay up?" I asked. "Did anything else happen?"
    "I went to bed around the same time you did," she said. "I saw you turn your light out. I didn't sleep very well, though, kept waking up and turning the radio on, that kind of thing."
    "Did the tides stop?" I asked. "Did the flooding stop?"
    "They stopped, they started," Mom said. "It's very bad." She kind of laughed. "Very bad doesn't really describe it. Catastrophic. They don't know how bad the damage is yet, how many countries were affected."
    "Countries?" I said. Somehow I'd forgotten there were other countries, that we shared the moon with other countries.
    "I don't know," Mom said. "They don't know. Nobody knows. Holland was decimated; they're pretty sure about that. Australia: Most of the cities there are on the coast, so it was very badly hit. The tides just went mad. They think the asteroid was denser than they'd assumed it would be, so the collision was bigger. They think the moon got knocked off kilter, got pushed a little closer to the earth. At least that was the theory around five."
    "But it's not going to crash into earth," I said. "We're okay, right? We don't live that close to the ocean."
    "They're sure it won't crash into the earth," Mom said. "At least not in the foreseeable future. Beyond that, I don't think anybody's predicting anything."
    It was funny. I was actually glad school was still on, like that proved we'd be okay. I left Mom and took a shower, and by the time I dressed and went downstairs, Mom had already started breakfast and I could hear Jonny moving around.
    Mom made pancakes, which she never does on a school day. I didn't think I'd have any appetite, but I ate more than my share. So did Jonny. I don't remember seeing Mom eat any, but there was some batter left, so maybe she made some for herself after we left.
    When I went outside to wait for the bus, I looked up, and I could see the moon in the morning sky. It was still bigger than it should have been, and it didn't seem quite as washed out as it usually looks in the daytime. I stopped looking at it, and concentrated on the dogwoods instead.
    On the bus, all anybody talked about was what happened last night. Not that anyone really seemed to know or understand. A couple of the kids seemed to think it was cool, and a couple of girls were crying the whole trip.
    I sat next to Sammi, but she didn't say much. Megan didn't get on the bus, and neither did her church friends. The bus was only half full.
    I hated the kids who were acting like it was all a big joke.
    There were a lot of kids missing from homeroom, too, but most of the teachers seemed to have shown up.
    We'd just started history when the first lightning bolt landed. It flashed so brightly the whole classroom seemed illuminated. The thunder followed, loud enough to shake the building. At least one kid screamed, and I was just glad it wasn't me.
    Ms. Hammish tried to pretend the storm wasn't happening, but there was no way we could avoid talking about the moon. She asked how many of us knew someone who lived on