Good-bye world...

    Ella always enjoyed listening to music while she cleans, and the kids were inspired by the music while they were entertained with coloring and drawing at the table.  “Well, kids, the dishes are done and the kitchen is clean.  What should we do with our afternoon?” Ella asked as she wiped her hands on a dish towel.  Ella paused wondering why the kids had not immediately screamed about ice cream or playing outside in the sprinkler, those were the usual summer requests.

    Ella stuck her head around the corner to peek in the dining room.  Both kids were staring blankly ahead, as though they were in a trance.  “Michael?  Jessica?  Hello?”  she said as she waved her hands in front of each child’s face.  No response, but their hands, still clutching crayons, moved rhythmically with swoops and swirls.

    In an attempt to quell her panic, Ella reached for her purse to grab her phone.  She blindly groped at the hutch behind her, not wanting to take her eyes of her children.  At the exact moment she had her phone in hand, the kids blinked, snapping them out of their trance.  

    “Michael?  Jessica?”  Ella questioned.

    “Yeah?  Mom,”  the children responded.  A wave of relief spread across Ella’s face as she rushed to embrace her babies.  After the embrace, she went to work checking them over, starting with Michael.  She brushed her hands over his face, moving his shaggy hair out of his eyes, feeling every inch of him to assure herself he was really ok.

    “Mama, what is this?  It looks pretty,” Jessica said as she raised the picture she had been drawing while in her trance-like state.  

    “Oh, cool, did you draw that Jess?”  Michael asked as his mother was finally done groping his face and arms, assured that he was alright.  “Wait, there is another one here. Um, Mom?  Why is that in the exact color of crayon I was using?”

    “Uh, ahem,” Ella cleared her throat, “Let’s go to Grandma’s house, while I call your dad, ok?  C’mon let’s go.  Get a move on,” Ella demanded as she started shooing the children from the dining room.  She carefully folded the unusual pictures, full of loops and swirls, but yet oddly having some very sharp angles.  The designs her children created were unnerving to say the least.

    As they were about to leave the house, a broadcast began on the radio.  “We interrupt this broadcast to bring you an urgent news bulletin.  It appears that children throughout the world have been all drawing an unusual design.  While several agencies world-wide are looking into the cause of this phenomenon, there have been no explanations offered so far.”

    The words of her grandmother were coming back to her:

        “When the children draw, the time is near.

        They will present as kind, but don’t be fooled!

        They will bring a rain of fire, and all shall perish.”

    Ella’s heart sank as she saw the unusual light out the window.

                                    Good-bye.