Project #45

By Dee Ernst

The Brightness wasn't the end of the world, but it might as well have been. Now, Amy and her family are trying to rebuild their lives, trying to return to some kind of normalcy, all the time wondering…why did it happen? How? And when will it happen again? And a million years (Miles? Worlds?) away, the answer is so simple…

This short story first appeared in the anthology, Celestial, as written by Marijon Braden

• Language: English
• Publisher: 235 Alexander Street
• Release date: Dec 22, 2016
• ISBN: 9781386750765

Dee Ernst

Dee Ernst loved reading at an early age and decided to become a writer, though she admits it took a bit longer than she expected. After the birth of her second daughter at the age of forty, she committed to giving writing a real shot. She loved chick lit but felt frustrated by the younger heroines who couldn’t figure out how to get what they wanted, so she writes about women like herself—older, more confident, and with a wealth of life experience. In 2012, her novel Better Off Without Him became an Amazon bestseller. Now a full-time writer, Dee lives in her home state of New Jersey with her family, a few cats, and a needy cocker spaniel. She loves sunsets, beach walks, and really cold martinis.

Book preview

For over two years now, Amy set her alarm so that she would wake up in the middle of the night, just to make sure the world hadn’t ended. Again.

Of course, she was still alive, so the world hadn’t really ended. But The Brightness had seemed like the end, to her and to most of the people on Earth. So she set her alarm for two-oh-seven in the morning, just to make sure it was still dark outside. She flipped on her light and went to the window, looked up to the moon and said a silent prayer of thanks. Sometimes, she leaned her head out of the window to see other lights on, up and down the street. She wasn’t the only one checking. Then, she went back to sleep.

It made it tougher to get up in the morning to go to school, but she didn’t care. She was so grateful for school again that nothing could have kept her from going. In the weeks and months following The Brightness, there was no school for her and her brother, no work for her parents. There had been chaos. After all, it had been the end of the world, right? Why bother with going to school? Or work? Why bother doing any of the everyday things that made up a normal life when it was all about to end?

Her family had been lucky. For years, they had spent the summers at a sprawling cabin in