The Last Boy on Earth by Burby Thomas

Author:Burby, Thomas [Burby, Thomas]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2011-04-05T07:00:00+00:00

The night before leaving for the transmitter in East Corinth, Kaileigh busied herself reading the book, All About Ham Radio. Brady knew how intelligent she really was. In school she had received the President’s Award for Academic Excellence and she was always a high honor student, known for her mind as well as for her acerbic, sometimes cutting wit. He knew she was not one to agree with someone just because they were a teacher. She questioned everything and everyone and some people thought this was off-putting. No one could deny that she was a scholar with the gift of being able to teach herself from books. Knowledge wasn't hard for her. People were. They always caused her frustration. She couldn't understand why people didn't just do as she expected. Brady had to learn the hard way most of the time, through trial and error and much bad judgment. He admired her focus. Kaileigh looked up in frustration at Brady at one point and muttered, “I’d give my left leg for an hour on the Internet to figure this thing out. I miss the Internet.”

“Yeah, me too,” replied Brady, longingly.

Silence fell for a few long moments.

“I miss fast food,” Brady said.

“I miss iTunes,” Kaileigh countered, quickly.

“Well, I miss the Weather Channel,” he said.

“You do?” she asked.

“There’s this weather caster, she was really hot...”

“Yeah, I bet,” Kaileigh laughed.

She looked off into the corner of the room for a moment and said, “I miss chocolate ice cream.”

“Any ice cream, really,” agreed Brady.

“A hot soak in the tub and a blow dryer. I really miss those.”

“Yup.”

“You know what I don’t miss?” asked Kaileigh.

“No, what?”

“Some of the people. I know that sounds awful because, you know, everyone is gone, but I only miss some of them. There are some people I don’t miss at all. I feel badly about saying this, but there are some people that this world feels better off without.”

Brady shook his head in agreement and said, “I know what you mean. Mean guys, for one. I don’t miss them.”

“Mean girls, too. They were the worst.”

“And my mean old neighbor who always told my mother lies about what I’d done during the day,” added Brady. “I don’t miss Cable TV like I thought I would. I don’t miss video games that much either.”

“At least we still have music, for now.”

“Yeah, I’m really thankful for music.”

“And books.”

“And sleep.”

“And you,” added Brady without thinking.

A tender smile broadened across Kaileigh’s face as she watched Brady’s turn red with embarrassment.

“Right back at you,” Kaileigh said.

“I miss my Mom,” Brady said, as a way of avoiding any further conversation about his previous comment.

“Where did your mom work in the hospital?” asked Kaileigh, “What's her name?” She was careful to speak in the present tense.

“Her name is Anne Smith and she's a nurse in the emergency room. Here,” he said, pulling out a wallet from his back pocket. “I don’t really know why I carry a wallet anymore except for the photos.”

He pulled a small photograph from one of the plastic sleeves and handed it to her carefully.

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