Life As We Knew It by Susan Pfeffer

Author:Susan Pfeffer [Pfeffer Susan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2014-04-10T20:14:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

August 6 I woke up this morning thinking, I’ll never see Sammi again. I’ll never see Dan again.

I am so scared I’ll never see Dad again.

I don’t know how I’ll survive if I never see sunlight again.

August 7 I went into Matt’s room before supper to see if he had any library books to return tomorrow.

Matt walked in as I was looking. “What the hell are you doing in my room?” he shouted.

I was so startled I just stood there.

“I’ve been chopping wood all day,” he said. “I’m tired and I’m filthy and hungry and I have to be with Jonny every damn minute and I swear I could kill Dad for not staying here to take care of us.”

“I’m sorry,” I stammered.

“Well, so am I,” he said. “Fat lot of good that does.”

August 9 We’re all in a funk. You would think knowing we actually have food in the house would cheer us up, but nothing seems to.

I’ve noticed that Mom’s skipping breakfast again, and for the past couple of days I haven’t seen her eat lunch, either. Matt’s been chopping wood all day long, so I guess he’s not eating any lunch. He hasn’t been real chatty lately.

Nobody’s telling me what to do, but I guess I’d better go back to brunch, also.

It scares me that Mom is eating less when we do have food in the house. It must mean she doesn’t think the stuff Dad brought (and what we still had before he came) is going to last long enough.

You’ve got to think something in this world would get back to normal. I don’t remember the last time we had electricity, not even for a few minutes in the middle of the night. Mom makes sure at least one of us goes into town every day, to see if there’s any news at the post office (it’s become the community bulletin board) or if there’s a food giveaway, but we all come home empty handed.

It’s getting colder, too. The temperature today never even hit 60.

August 11 First frost. Just a light one, but nonetheless.

“Why are we staying here?” Jonny asked me this morning. “Everybody else is moving down south.”

“Everybody else isn’t moving,” I said, mostly because I was flustered by the question. Jonny’s never been much of a talker, but since he came home from camp, he’s been even quieter than usual. It’s like this whole business has made him old before he ever had a chance to be a teenager.

“Half the kids at camp said their families were planning to move,” Jonny said. “And camp was less than half full. I ran into Aaron in town yesterday, and he said so many kids from school had already left they’re talking about closing down some of the schools.”

“Aaron isn’t exactly a reliable witness,” I said.

“His father is on the school board,” Jonny said.

“Okay,” I said. “So he is a reliable witness. But we’re not going anywhere, and you’d better not talk to Mom about it.”

“Do you think we should go?” Jonny asked.

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