"2012" - Draft 1

When all was said and done, it really hadn’t started off that unusually.

“Believe me,” a voice said in her ear, “You don’t want to get that one.” Kate turned slightly to her left, eyeing the stranger who had just sat down beside her. He had a small smile on his face and was leaning on both arms rested on the bar top. “Oh really? And what’s wrong with it?”

He jerked his head towards the tap. “It’s not well known, but all the big breweries use genetically altered yeast to brew their beer. That’s why they are all so paranoid about anyone getting anywhere near their yeast strains and seeing what they did. It’s best to get something that uses wild-caught yeast.” He tapped the glass in front of him and nodded sagely, a steady expression on his face. The glass sitting on the counter didn’t look any different than any other pint of beer she’d seen before. Kate glanced at the bartender, who had been listening off to the side the entire time, and shrugged. “I guess I’ll have what he’s having, then.”

Whatever the difference between genetically modified and wild-caught yeast was, it certainly didn’t change the taste of the beer made from it. Regardless, Kate looked over at the man to her left. “So, how’d you find out about these modified yeast? I don’t remember hearing about anything like that in the news.”

“You’d be impressed as to what a few simple phone calls to the right people can accomplish.” He looked so serious that she felt slightly alarmed. Her face must have given something away, for he cracked a smile. “No, I’m sorry, I’m pulling your leg. I had an old college professor who had seen a talk about altering the yeast genome at a conference and told our class about it. I found it interesting, so I did a bit of research on my own. Nothing to be worried about, really, just not something I’d like to be putting into my body.”

“I see. Well, good to know.” He was smiling so nicely, she couldn’t help but smile back. “I’m Kate, by the way.”

“Darren. Very pleased to meet you.” His hand was warm in hers.

And as they sometime will do, one thing did lead to any other.

The front door let a wash of cold air into the room. Kate poked her head out, and hurriedly motioned Darren inside, shutting the door quickly. The lips that brushed hers were ice cold. “Brrrrr… It’s especially cold out today. Are you sure we can’t just stay inside?” Darren broke off his sentence and crouched down to face the cat that had just appeared in the hall. “Hello, cat.”

Kate couldn’t help but smile at the sight of a small orange cat poking its nose into her boyfriend’s large hand. “Yeah, my sister is out of town for a few weeks, so I said I could take care of Rupert while she’s gone. Don’t tell my super, though. I’m pretty sure we’re not supposed to have cats, no matter how small.” The kitten’s head had completely disappeared inside the pocket of Darren’s winter jacket. “I think he likes you.” Small mews were muffled by the wool.

“I think he just ratted me out.” Darren reached inside his pocket, shaking loose the kitten and pulling out a small rectangle covered in brown paper. “This is for you.”

It was the copy of Ann Veronica she had been looking for. Kate leaned down to give her boyfriend a kiss and scratched the cat behind the ears. “Oh, thank you. I’d been looking for this for a while now.”

“I remember. The corner bookstore has a good collection of H. G. Wells, so I thought I’d look around and see what they had for you.” Darren smiled at Kate before turning back to the cat in front of him. “I was going to give it to you later, but someone ruined the surprise…”

Kate laughed. “Cats are like that. Always getting where they shouldn’t be.”

“Well, apparently, they are the animals most likely to form psychic connections, so I wouldn’t put it past them to know exactly what we don’t want them to do and to do just that to be ornery.” Darren stood up and stretched. “Come on. Let’s go before this guy gives away all my secret plans.”

Everything was going well. But as always, how long can that really last?

“Will you marry me?”

He was serious, that much was obvious. Everything that should be there – the ring, the bended knee, the bouquet of flowers – was. There was something missing, though, and Kate couldn’t put her finger on it. Whatever it was, it was important. She lifted her head up to stare into his eyes. They were so green and so steady, just looking at her without saying a word. “Darren… I don’t know what to say.”

“Well, I would hope that ‘yes’ would be an obvious choice.” When Kate didn’t move, Darren slowly moved on to the bench beside her. He wrapped his hand around hers. “Kate, I know that we haven’t been dating for very long, but I think we’ve got something. You make me happy. I’d like to think I do the same for you. I don’t see why we shouldn’t spend our lives together.”

Kate shook her head. “We’ve only been together for a couple of months. Half a year, at the most. How do you know we won’t be making each other miserable two, five, ten years down the line?”

“Have we made each other miserable in the last six months? Why would we be making each other miserable over the next six months?”

“That’s the point. Six months, a year, that’s not that far off. But things change as the years pass. We could be completely different people in five years and not even know each other then. Making permanent plans that far into the future scares me.”

Darren reached out and softly touched her cheek. “Worrying about that won’t get anything done. All I know is that I want to spend the rest of my time here with you. Is that too much to ask?”

Kate leaned against his hand. “No. I don’t know. Can I think about it, please?”

After that, things got a little bit… odd.

“Hey, Darren,” Kate leaned back so she could see him through the door frame, “I just heard from my mother. She wants to know if you and I want to visit home for Christmas and New Year’s.”

Darren looked up from the papers he was reading. “That’s a little far off, don’t you think?”

“I know that the idea of buying plane tickets six months in advance seems a little silly, especially for Christmas plans in the middle of summer, but my mum thinks she can get a good deal if she buys them early on. Or were you planning on visiting your family in December?”

Darren looked down and was silent for a few moments. “I’m not making any plans for December at this point.”

And of course, tension started to build.

“Kate.” She felt his eyes staring at her, but didn’t look up. “I need an answer.”

At that statement, she raised her head and looked at him. “I don’t know. I still don’t understand why there is this rush to get married. What am I missing here?” He didn’t answer. “Darren, what are you not telling me?”

There was a long silence. Neither of them moved. Finally, Darren closed his eyes and spoke. “I think the world is going to end.”

Whatever Kate was expecting, this wasn’t it. “Wh-what?”

He turned to look at her straight on. “I think the world is going to end. The ancient Mayan calendar was foretold to come to the end on the winter equinox, this year. Scholars have been debating what exactly this means for centuries now, whether this means all existence coming to an end, or just the word as we know it. I don’t know. All of the signs have been indicating that something big is going to happen soon. Political instability, strange weather fluctuations over the last decade, miracles occurring… I believe that these have all been harbingers for the end of the world.”

“You honestly believe that the world is coming to an end, and will be completely finished in a couple of months?”

“Yes.” At this point, he took her hands in his. “I don’t know what is going to happen, but I do know some things. One of those things is that I love you. If we only have a few months left on this year, I want to spend them with you. I’m an old fashioned boy and I was raised properly, so I want to marry you. There’s no time to start a family if we wanted to, but we could have a few months of happiness.”

Kate felt confused and cold all over. “So you are saying that you only want to marry me because you think the world is ending?”

His gaze was firm and unwavering. “If you put it that way, then, yes.”

It wasn’t something that you heard every day, that is for sure.

“No.”

It got very quiet in the room as soon as she said those words. Kate hesitated, and then continued. “I will not marry simply because you think that the world is going to end in a few months. A marriage like that would be a sham. I don’t think that the apocalypse is nigh, and I certainly haven’t seen any four horsemen or plagues of toads or anything else indicating that the world is going to end soon. But I also take the idea of marriage very seriously. If we were to be married and the end of the world did not happen, we would still be married, which could eventually go horribly, horribly wrong. The gamble of the world ending is too risky for me to put my life on the line here. Getting married at the point would not help or solve anything.”

“Alright.” Darren’s voice was very quiet. “I guess this is the end, then.”

Kate shook her head. “That doesn’t mean that I don’t want to be with you. I just don’t see the purpose of changing our relationship to something that could quite certainly have negative consequences if the world does not end. I don’t want to break up with you, I just don’t want to be married.”

“I know. I’m breaking up with you.”

His statement felt like a splash of cold water. “Wh-what?”

He swung around and spread his hands out in front of him. “We are obviously at a cross path here. You believe one thing and I, another. Unfortunately, it seems that these two opinions are not reconcilable.”

“Just because you believe that the world will stop in a few months and I don’t doesn’t mean that we can’t be involved until then.”

“Maybe. But what if I want to have my one true chance at happiness? If I stay with you, I am being denied that. As much as I like you – and believe me, I do indeed like you a great deal – I cannot limit my options with so little time left. I hope you understand.”

Kate just sat there, not knowing what to think. “Well…” she said slowly, “that certainly wasn’t the reaction I was expecting to get.”

Darren patted her hand. “I imagine. Don’t worry, Kate. You are a smart, pretty, and well-liked girl. I’m sure you will have a chance to find happiness before your time is up.”

And that’s how it went. Not something anyone could have predicted.

She sat at the kitchen table, cupping a mug of tea in her hands, alone. Despite her best efforts, her eyes kept flicking to the slowly moving clock. It was late – very late, in fact, almost midnight. The cold and dark winter night was quiet and still. She sipped her tea and put it back down almost immediately, making a face and wondering if she should be drinking something stronger. There were bills and paperwork in front of her, and she had brought her favourite book out into the kitchen with her, but she somehow could not find the motivation to do anything but sit there. Sit there, and wait.

As the clock ticked onwards, she sat there, staring into her cup and occasionally shivering at the midwinter cold – not from the sense of foreboding that kept threatening to permeate her entire body, no. She did nothing but wait.

Only time would tell what would happen, anyway.