A Children's Bible

The parents are eager to leave, but the kids are reluctant, wondering who will feed the animals. The parents regard this as a triviality. Sukey shows the parents the cairn-like grave she made for her mother’s ashes, hoping to make it “real” to them. As they stand over the grave, the kids voice their anger, and Jen blames her parents for “everything”—not just the recent tragedies but the deteriorating state of the natural world. When the parents ask what they could have done, Rafe says, “Fight.”

Red tells the kids that the owner has appointed him caretaker of the farm. To Evie’s amazement, his broken leg is healed. The parents announce their intention to shelter at Juicy’s mansion. As they head north, the storm damage is widespread, supplies are low, and prices are extortionary. When they arrive at Juicy’s luxurious, gated community, Evie tells Jack that they have made it to the “promised land,” but Jack says morosely that they already had the promised land, and lost it. The mansion is equipped with every amenity, but Jack is deeply disillusioned with his parents, who now spend their time drinking, ordering food online, and working remotely. Evie remembers her own disenchantment with them at age seven, when she was grounded for showing interest in a protest when they were late for dinner at a fancy restaurant. After that, she never held hands with her parents again.

None of the parents change their behavior despite the dire new situation; they are just as selfish, incurious, and self-justifying as ever. As the outside world deteriorates, with crop failures, droughts, heat waves, and crashing stock markets, the domestic staff quits, and the parents complain peevishly, blaming it all on others. Over time, the adults grow increasingly unstable. The kids decide to take charge and assign everyone duties according to their skills and knowledge. The kids moderate the adults with a combination of “carrot and stick,” rewarding them with leisure time or punishing them by denying them alcohol. By late winter, fresh produce can no longer be ordered online, but the hydroponic greenhouse and basement gardens now yield enough vegetables for the group’s needs. They have also obtained a huge supply of canned goods.

Although the kids have established a sustainable lifestyle, the adults sink deeper into depression, losing interest in the future and in daily living. Like small children, they wander aimlessly, sulk by themselves, and sleep restlessly. The kids, who have always relied on their parents’ “consistency,” desperately try to engage them with games, chores, and other distractions, but nothing works. One morning, the parents are gone without a trace. They never return.

Jack, who has become ill, asks Evie what happens at “the end”—the chaos time—which is not covered by his Bible storybook. The woman who gave him the book told him that the ending was left out because it was “too violent” for children. Evie tells him that even after humans have gone, new animals will evolve, and “all the old beautiful things will still be in the air, “invisible but there” (223). Jack takes no comfort from this, saying that “we” won’t be there to see them. Evie argues that other living things will see them, but Jack scoffs at this, comparing it to Darla’s “poetry,” which is not science. Evie points out to him that poetry and art also come from “God,” just like science. She reminds him of his own theory about the Trinity: that God is nature, Jesus is science, and the Holy Ghost is all the things that people make. Art, then, is the Holy Ghost: the ghost in the machine. As Jack listens thoughtfully, Evie says, “The comets and stars will be our eyes. […] The clouds the moon. The dirt the rocks the water and the wind. We call that hope, you see” (224).