“Did you hear it?”<\/p>\n
I burst through the door, looking for anyone who might be around to speculate with.<\/p>\n
“Wait–you did, too?” my sister said, twisting to glance over the couch.<\/p>\n
“What the hell was it?”<\/p>\n
“It came on about five minutes ago, right? That’s when you heard it?”<\/p>\n
“Yeah, I was in traffic and then the radio just cut out. I figured that old piece of shit grandma gave us had just seen it’s day but then the radio made this crackling noise. Was it on the radio here, too?”<\/p>\n
“No, it came through the television.” Jumping onto the couch, I quickly eyed the TV before my sister said, “It hasn’t come back since.”<\/p>\n
“Was there a video with it?”<\/p>\n
“No. It was weird. Right in the middle of my movie the sound died but then…”<\/p>\n
“Hold on. Where are mom and dad? Did they hear it?”<\/p>\n
“My phone’s been blowing up. Everyone heard it. Even Uncle Lanny in Alaska! He texted asking if anything weird had happened in the last few minutes. I haven’t heard from mom or dad, though.”<\/p>\n
The trembling in my core amplified. “Did you try to call?”<\/p>\n
“No.”<\/p>\n
“Call them!”<\/p>\n
As my sister frantically dialed our parents, I surveyed the neighbors congregating across the street. They shouted at each other and pantomimed their excitement or concern. In a flash, I was back on my feet and out the door. “Did you hear it?” I called across the street.<\/p>\n
“They think it went country wide,” our neighbor responded.<\/p>\n
“Maybe the whole world,” said another.<\/p>\n
“What did it mean?” I asked but they returned to chatting among themselves just as my parents’ Jeep pulled into the driveway.<\/p>\n
“Did you hear it?” my sister asked from behind me.<\/p>\n
Mom’s brow cranked upward. “Did we hear what?”<\/p>\n
My sister and I couldn’t help but share a perplexed look. “Anything on the radio?”<\/p>\n
“You heard it, too?” mom said.<\/p>\n
“That thing we heard on the phone?” dad added.<\/p>\n
They didn’t seem to notice the chatter going on across the street and casually walked to our door like the world wasn’t in a panic around them. “Everyone heard it,” my sister said.<\/p>\n
“It came through on your phone?”<\/p>\n
Dad nodded.<\/p>\n
“I heard it in the car and she heard it on the TV,” I said.<\/p>\n
“Strange,” he said to himself. “Let’s go inside.”<\/p>\n
I held my ground and said, “What did it mean?”<\/p>\n
A wrinkle appeared between mom’s eyes and she let a tense breath escape. “Nothing good.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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