Life as We Knew It

July 11-13. The sky is getting grayer, the days are getting shorter, and the temperatures are much cooler than the previous weeks’ heat waves. Miranda is adjusting to fasting. She says that as the day goes on, she stops being hungry. Peter stops by and approves their plans—especially the boiling of water before drinking. He suggests that Miranda stop swimming at Miller’s Pond because he’s scared people will be using it for bathing and wastewater, and it will become a breeding ground. She defies this and goes swimming one last time, hoping to see Dan, but he doesn’t show up. They also haven’t heard from Jonny or Hal. Matt stops running in order to conserve his energy and strength, and because he’s worried about the air quality of the ash cloud sky.

July 14. Miranda accidentally lets Horton outside at night. Normally he is only allowed out during the day—but his behavior has been erratic since Jonny left and he’s also muddled by the daytime gray skies, so Miranda thinks he was just confused when he darted outside as she came in. She calls for him for an hour but he doesn’t return. She feels horrible.

July 15-17. Despite Miranda, Matt, Laura, and Mrs. Nesbitt’s search efforts, Horton is still missing. Matt warns Miranda that it’s possible Horton has been killed for food. Miranda is worried about when Jonny returns home from camp and blames her. Laura and Miranda argue when Laura accuses Miranda of caring more about the cat than Jonny—whom they haven’t heard from in two weeks. Miranda responds that Jonny is fine and being well fed while the rest of them are starving. She says it’s clear which of her children Laura is betting on. In her diary she unpacks this thought further—she knows that Laura wouldn’t prioritize herself, but if she had to pick only one of her children to live, Miranda agonizes over who she would choose—and ultimately decides it would be Jonny, since Matt wouldn’t take the food, and Miranda, as a female, would having a harder time surviving alone. Miranda worries that she doesn’t contribute as much as Matt, since all she does is gather kindling, and wonders if she even deserves any of their remaining food.

July 18-19. Miranda collapses in the woods while gathering kindling and searching for Horton. When she returns home, she and Laura argue when it’s revealed that Miranda had forgotten to eat. Laura insists that Miranda follow the established rules about meals and asks if Miranda thinks she enjoys watching her children starve. They do not patch up their argument, and Miranda realizes that the longer she goes with out eating, the less appealing the idea of food becomes.

July 20. Miranda realizes it’s the anniversary of the first time men walked on the moon. It’s a fact that she remembers from all her moon-themed assignments back in May. She wishes that the astronauts had blown it up.

July 21. Miranda is gathering kindling and imagining how perfect things could be where Hal lives, when Sammi comes to visit. She’s there to tell Miranda good-bye, because she’s leaving for Nashville with a guy she met. This idea of boy-crazy Sammi still being boy-crazy makes Miranda giggle, until Sammi elaborates that the guy, George, is forty. Sammi isn’t happy about the scenario, but George is well connected and gave her parents lots of supplies. Her mom is encouraging her to go with George because he can offer her protection and a better life. Sammi hopes that they split up once she reaches Nashville and she finds someone she likes better. Like Megan, Sammi points to Becky’s death as a motivator for her actions, saying “Life is short and you have to make the best of what time you have.” Miranda is upset and scared for Sammi.

July 22. Miranda is excited and relieved to reveal that Horton has come home. They wake up to find him yowling at the door. Laura is also relieved to find five letters from Jonny waiting at the post office, saying that he’s fine and having fun. They celebrate by having Mrs. Nesbitt over for supper, which is extra festive with a can of peaches and a jar of apple juice. After supper, it’s cool enough that they build a fire in the woodstove and Mrs. Nesbitt tells stories about what things were like after World War II and during the Depression. Horton hops from lap to lap and Miranda feels hopeful that if her family sticks together, they’ll survive.

July 25-27. Miranda continues to dream about Becky being a gatekeeper for food and she continues to fanaticize that Springfield, where Hal and Lisa live, is a sort of heaven on earth that hasn’t been impacted by the moon’s collision. So when Laura pulls Miranda aside to tell her plans have changed—that Miranda and Jonny won’t be going to Springfield after all—Miranda wants to throw a tantrum. Instead she listens as Laura explains that since Lisa wants to be with her own parents when the baby is born, Hal and Lisa will be stopping to visit them in Pennsylvania before traveling west. Miranda lets go of her idealized version of Springfield and takes a moment to consider how she would feel if she were the one pregnant. She knows she’d want to be with Laura, and so accepts the change of plans.

July 29. Hal and Lisa will be picking up Jonny from camp and arriving the next day. Laura doesn’t want Hal to worry about his children, so she declares that while he and Lisa are visiting, they will all eat three meals a day. Miranda is excited about the idea of more food, but wonders if Laura is really doing this to hide the truth from Jonny, who doesn’t know they cut back their food intake while he’s been gone. Miranda analyzes Laura’s motives for not sending Matt off on his own, or encouraging Miranda to find a guy to protect her like Sammi had—because both of these plans would ensure more food for Jonny until he was old enough to care for himself. Miranda decides that Laura loves them too much to send them away, but that doesn’t solve the problem of the dwindling supplies in their pantry.

July 30. Jonny, Hal, and Lisa arrive. There is much mutual scrutiny as everyone tries to deduce how everyone else has suffered. Miranda decides that her dad is only slightly thinner, but much grayer and more wrinkled. She can’t tell if Lisa should look more pregnant than she is, but says she looks healthy. While Miranda is excited to see her dad, she’s much more excited by the boxes of food and supplies he’s brought. He says he got them from the college where he worked, and Matt is especially excited to see that he’s brought saws. Hal says that while he’s there, he’s going to help Matt collect firewood.

Laura gives Lisa all the baby items she’d bought in the store in May. Back then, Miranda had thought that Lisa would reject the cheap clothing, but instead she bursts into tears and cannot stop thanking Laura. They stay up admiring each piece of baby clothing and then Miranda stays up later to write about it. She feels “rich with batteries”—even though she knows that all of these new supplies won’t last forever.

July 31. Hal says they’re going to need enormous amounts of wood, and that it won’t be safe to keep it outside, so Laura decides they should empty the antique furniture out of the dining room, protect the floor, and store it in there. Miranda goes to collect kindling and despite being allowed three meals a day, accidentally skips brunch out of habit. Miranda enjoys having Hal and Lisa there and hearing about Jonny’s time at baseball camp and working on the farm. Miranda is grateful again that Horton was found safe, and briefly “all felt right with the world.”

August 1. The Evanses have a dinner party and invite Mrs. Nesbitt and Peter. Miranda delivers the invitations by bike while Hal, Jonny, and Matt work on chopping wood. Miranda learns that Peter has closed his doctor’s practice and is now working at the hospital, which still has electricity, is incredibly busy, and is guarded by armed security. Peter hasn’t left the hospital in a week and is delighted by the invitation.

On her way out of the hospital, Miranda runs into Dan. He’s there visiting his mom, who has West Nile virus. Dan tells Miranda that he’s leaving—his parents swapped their car for a motorcycle, and they want him to set out on his own so that he has a chance of surviving. Dan tells Miranda that he’s liked her since before the asteroid’s strike, that he’d been trying to get up the nerve to ask her to prom, and how much their time at Miller’s Pond meant to him. They kiss good-bye and Miranda compares their situations—the pain of losing and leaving people you love like he’s experienced, versus her own experience of having to watch their day-to-day sufferings. She concludes that she’s lucky—but that doesn’t stop her from mourning the loss of prom and what could have been.

August 2. The dinner party is a success, filled with inventive cooking and good company. There’s bread from the last of the yeast, wine, meringues made from powdered egg whites, and pasta with jarred sauce and canned mushrooms. But as the meal comes to an end, Jonny asks, “Are we going to die?” and the mood changes. Lisa leaves the room when he asks about food running out and Hal follows her, leaving behind the core ‘family’ group that Jonny knows best. Peter says that all they can do is focus on each day and stay hopeful. Mrs. Nesbitt states that she won’t survive it, but Jonny is young and strong. Miranda asks if things could get worse, and Peter says that even then life will go on—in some form—and Matt brings up how insects are around from the dinosaur era. They share a cynical laugh about the idea of mosquitos outlasting humans.

August 3. Hal announces that he and Lisa will be leaving the next day. Lisa hasn’t left her room since the upsetting dinner conversation the night before and is worried about her parents and getting settled before the baby arrives. Hal works with Matt all day to get more firewood, but after dinner he asks Miranda to talk. Hal tells her how proud he is of her, how right the decision to make her the baby’s godmother feels, and how much he loves her. Miranda stays sitting long after Hal goes up to bed, thinking through everything that has happened and everything that could happen.

August 4. Hal and Lisa leave in the early morning. Hal hugs them and promises to write, but they know they may never see him again. Lisa drives the car because Hal is crying too hard to see.