Life as We Knew It

May 20. The electricity finally turns back on around 4 a.m. Their schools are closed, so Miranda and Jonny stay home with Laura, and their family cat, Horton, who has been acting strangely since the lunar collision.

The Evanses have an email from Matt, who tells them his college finals are trickier with the power failures to work around, and that he’ll be back home the following Wednesday. Jonny and Miranda each spend a half hour on the Internet. Miranda uses her time to look for information on figure skater Brandon Erlich—fans have been asking on his message boards, but no one knows his status. Miranda realizes she might have overstated the slight connection between her and Brandon (she used to train with his former coach), because people keep asking her for news, which she doesn’t have.

Miranda, Jonny, and Laura spend most of the day putting away their supplies. With the electricity on and the sun shining, even Laura feels like maybe she over-reacted and the supplies won’t end up being necessary. The journal entry ends abruptly mid-sentence with Miranda recording that the lights are flickering and her wish that the electricity would stay on.

May 21. The president—who Laura thinks is an idiot—comes on TV to announce a national day of mourning for Monday, to reiterate the disasters that have occurred so far, to warn people to prepare for worse, and to say that all offshore oil wells and tankers have been destroyed. Laura tells Jonny and Miranda that this may mean shortages for gas and oil heat. Miranda finds this ridiculous, since it’s only May and winter is a long way off.

The governor also comes on TV and gives updates: the schools will be closed Monday and Tuesday. Gas is limited, he says, so only get more when your vehicle is below a quarter tank. He also says that he doesn’t know when the power outages will stop. After the news, Jonny is upset that the governor didn’t indicate whether the state sports teams were safe. Miranda wishes Matt were home and thinks things will be better when he arrives.

May 22. Sick of being stuck at home and since their fridge and freezer are emptied due to unreliable electricity, Jonny, Miranda, and Laura attempt to go to McDonalds. They discover that the price of gas has risen to $7 a gallon and all of the fast food restaurants are closed. Finally they find a local pizza place that is open. While waiting in line, they exchange news and rumors with the other customers. Among these are rumors that there will be no electricity all summer, that the moon will crash into the earth by Christmas, and that the school board has voted not to open the schools the following year.

Laura finds an open bakery and buys days-old cake, cookies, and bread. They eat this with their pizza, but Laura cautions Miranda and Jonny not to expect fresh food “until things get back to normal,” and says she wishes she trusted the president to handle this crisis. Mrs. Nesbitt compares their immediate future to food shortages and rations during World War II, but reassures them they’ll be fine and “We’ll rise to the occasion.” As she’s saying this, the power goes out. But instead of taking it as an ominous sign, they laugh and play Monopoly until the sun sets.

May 23. It’s the national day of mourning. The radios broadcast all sorts of prayers—and news of the continued deaths. While they haven’t given a number of the dead, they report that the floods have continued and people continue to drown. Laura reassures Jonny and Miranda that they are inland and safe.

They receive an email from Matt that he’ll be home on Wednesday. Miranda can’t wait, but also recognizes that she’s got unrealistic expectations that things will go back to normal when he’s home. She wishes for school—but only because she wants school lunch.

May 24. Laura takes Jonny and Miranda to look for open stores. Miranda has noticed that Laura looks with pride at her stocked pantry, and since she has cash left, she seeks to add to it. But the grocery stores are closed or empty except for school supplies, pet toys, and mops. As they drive around, they see that electronics stores have been looted and boarded up and the sporting goods store has a sign that reads “NO MORE GUNS OR RIFLES.”

Laura ends up taking Jonny and Miranda to a dingy, rundown store where she buys them clothing that Miranda thinks is unfashionable and can’t ever imagine wearing. Laura buys out the store’s stock of gloves, socks, underwear, and long johns—while Miranda “practically dies of embarrassment.” On their way back to the car, Miranda makes a comment about the child’s mittens going to Lisa for her baby, and Laura then goes back in the store and stocks up on baby gear. Miranda thinks the gesture is sweet, but can’t imagine that Lisa will ever put the baby in such unfashionable clothing. She thinks it will be funny to watch her mom give Lisa all the baby stuff when they pick up Jonny from baseball camp and drop Miranda and Jonny off at Lisa and Hal’s for the month of August.

May 25. Miranda begins her journal entry by stating that Matt should’ve been home by now and she, Laura, and Jonny are feeling nervous—especially since it’s a clear night and the moon appears too big and bright. The electricity is working, so Jonny and Miranda have turned on all the lights in their house—they find this reassuring.

There had been many students and teachers absent at the school that day, including Sammi. Miranda realizes that she hasn’t called Sammi or Megan over the long weekend, because everyone is too busy figuring out their own problems to take on anyone else’s. No one at school was talking much. Laura had instructed Jonny and Miranda not to talk about the goods they’ve stockpiled in their pantry. Miranda wondered if everyone else was being quiet for similar reasons. In an assembly, their principal, Mrs. Sanchez, announced that after-school activities, the prom, and senior trip were all cancelled, bus service would be stopping the next Tuesday, and that the kitchen would no longer be preparing hot lunches. The lack of lunches creates the biggest reaction—with it escalating to some students breaking windows and having to be removed by cops.

At lunch Megan tells Miranda about how she’s been living in the church for the past week. Her eyes are bright and shiny in a way that reminds Miranda of the way Laura looks when she sees supplies. Megan excitedly describes how at Reverend Marshall’s encouragement, her church has been only sleeping 1-2 hours a night so they can keep praying. Miranda tries to reason with Megan, but Megan responds by telling Miranda that she’s damned unless she embraces religion. Miranda rejects this idea, partially because her family isn’t religious and she doesn’t want to be in heaven without them there.

After walking away from Megan, Miranda joins her swim teammates. They’re discussing the pool being closed because without electricity it can’t be filtered. After they run through several failed scenarios about where they could practice, Miranda suggests Miller’s Pond, and the team agrees to meet there the week after next. The journal entry ends abruptly when Miranda hears her brother, Matt, has arrived home from college.

May 28. Miranda is relieved that Matt is home. Even though their situation isn’t changed, things seem better with him there to play baseball with Jonny and help Laura organize supplies. Miranda and Matt have not yet talked about the disaster, and she knows he doesn’t have any new information—but she feels like she’ll believe it more from his mouth.

Attendance is up in school on Thursday. Matt works on Miranda and Jonny’s bikes so they’ll have a way to get to school once the buses stop. Peter stops by with a bag of apples—and since he and Laura can’t go anywhere on a date, they prepare apple crisp together and invite Mrs. Nesbitt to join them. The simple dinner of pasta and sauce with the apple crisp feels festive and Miranda wonders how long they can live like this. She vacillates between thinking things have got to return to normal and realizing she’s starting to forget what it’s like to be able to depend on electricity, the Internet, or stores.

Matt tells Miranda that this is a unique time in history when heroes will be made from the people who choose to live heroically. Miranda reflects that Matt’s always been her hero, and wonders if she could be one too, even though she’s still missing things like ice cream and swimming.

May 29-30. Electricity is becoming more and more sporadic. Whenever it comes on, Laura rushes to put in a load of laundry—but sometimes this means laundry gets done in 15-minute increments that span a whole day. Because of the lack of electric light, the Evanses are spending more time outside—but they leave the light in the living room window on, so that when electricity does work, they have a signal. They hear on the radio that the list of the known dead will be posted, so when the light comes on, Laura abandons the laundry and rushes to the Internet.

In less than ten minutes, Laura has found the names of thirty people she knows who have died. These include most of her editors, some friends, and her second cousins. She’s relieved to find that Mrs. Nesbitt’s family isn’t on the list—and Miranda is relieved that Brandon Erlich doesn’t appear on it. Jonny finds that many baseball players are dead, presumed dead, or missing, and Matt looks up the status of classmates from his high school graduating class and finds that three are dead and many presumed missing. Miranda has more people she could look up—campmates and friends who had moved—but she doesn’t think it’s right to look up or mourn their deaths when she didn’t even think of them while they were alive.

Matt looks up each of their own names on the lists of the dead, but they don’t appear anywhere. Miranda ends her entry with “And that’s how we know we’re alive this Memorial Day.”

May 31. It rains on the first day that there’s no bus service, so Matt drives Miranda and Jonny to school while Laura stays home to work on her book. The schools are even emptier than before, with more than half the students absent. Jonny learns that standardized tests have been cancelled, and when Peter stops by that night, he shares a rumor that schools will be closing altogether in a week. He’s heard they’ll reopen in the fall when “things are back to normal.” Miranda clings to the hope that things will be back to normal by September.