trailer park apocalypse

An imagined narrative opening for Trailer Park Apocalypse
        It was just after three in the afternoon when the sky freckled purple. Penelope and Tulipwere playing hopscotch in front of their trailer, sweating through their *Life is Good* t-shirts.                “It looks like stars,” Tulip said. “Like an angel flipped the nighttime switch over thewrong hemisphere.” She was eight and knew everything about the world in which she lived.Which meant she knew how to make scrambled eggs, replace the batteries in the remote, andpatiently explain how the Heavens worked to her older sister.        “No, it looks more like bruises,” Penelope replied. She dropped the chalk on the groundin front of her. It split like a crystal straight down the middle, scattering pink dust into the air.        “Ms. Annie said that we were due for sun showers.”        “I bet someone dropped the world on its head,” Tulip said, solemn.        Penelope squinted at her sister, thinking. She really didn’t have a clue about the change inthe sky, which was bad news given her status as the eldest. If Tulip found out that she didn’tknow the answer to everything, then there would be a lot of problems. But if she gave Tulip areason that didn’t end up being true, on account of her not knowing, then Penelope would be in even worse trouble later. A liar was a liar, no matter how she tried to spin it.        “How about we ask the psychic? I’m sure she’ll know.”        “But mom said we should never talk to her,” Tulip said. “Won’t we get in trouble?”        Penelope looked between the sister and the sky. Their mother was out of town for “workbusiness,” which Penelope knew was a fancy way of saying she was visiting their father at thecounty jail. She wouldn’t be home until tomorrow. “I’m sure she’d understand.”        “Can we try Mrs. Heath first?” Tulip blinked up at her older sister, eyes wide and solemn.Purple was staining the sky in earnest now; even the sun was tinted lilac. “Maybe there’s something in the Bible that will tell us what’s going on.”        “Okay, we’ll try her first. But then it’s off to the psychic.” Penelope was excited; she’dalways wanted to go visit the trailer park psychic. The older kids on the bus said she could doanything, from talking to ghosts to predicting the future. If there was anyone who would knowwhat was going on, it would be her.        The girls grabbed their bikes from the banister and jumped on the path that led to Mrs.Heath’s trailer. The road spit gravel at their tires. It had not been repaved since Reagan had been elected to office, and likely would not be repaved ever again, if the sky was an indication of how things were going.        Penelope kept her eyes on the horizon. Truthfully, she suspected that this was the end ofthe world. Every adult on the planet talked about it; the teachers at school said it would bedroughts and tsunamis that wiped out human beings. Her bus driver, Mr. Brown, liked to believe that it would be missiles.        “They’ll whistle through the air, Penelope, long and slow like in cartoons.” His eyebrowswere greying and bushy, creeping up his face as he talked. “They’ll take us out, those Commies.”        Penelope didn’t know what a Commie was, or where they lived, but she figured they’d have to be powerful to have enough missiles to end the world.        Penelope thought it had been coming for a while, though. She’d heard the rumours aboutthe dead priest’s rotary phone calling God (collect, of course), and she’d seen a two headedsnake outside her window last week. The end of the world was deliciously imminent.