“I hate to say this,” the captain said, “but scientists are estimating that the intensity of the impact will be equivalent to one million megatons of TNT. That’s a force almost impossible for anyone to imagine—but if they’re right, it will send a wall of water at least a mile high across all of southern California. . . .”

Lori reached over to Carl with tears welling up in her eyes. Carl was biting his lower lip to keep from crying himself. The captain continued, “Nothing in the southern half of the state is expected to survive. It’s still too early at this point to estimate what the effect of the impact may be on the rest of the Pacific region or the states east of California, but we’ll try to get more information on that for you by the time we reach Albuquerque.”

For the first time, Carl realized that everything he had worked for in life was suddenly gone. No home, no cars, no security. He didn’t even have a job to go back to, and furthermore, he had no idea what would come next. He had never felt so lost and cut off from reality.

As the captain switched off the intercom again, Carl could hear people all over the plane crying and praying loudly. Carl twisted in his seat and looked straight into Lori’s eyes.

“Lori,” he said hoarsely, “I don’t understand any of this. It’s a nightmare! This can’t be happening!” Lori nodded and brushed tears from her eyes. “What that man just said,” Carl continued, “definitely seems to describe a mountain-sized rock, burning with fire, falling into the ocean. You know I’ve never been religious, but, honey, what’s happening is just like what your aunt told you.”

Lori spoke slowly and deliberately. “Aunt Josephine said that the Book of Revelation, which was written almost two thousand years ago, told about a time when a series of violent disasters would shake the earth. Most people don’t really understand much about Revelation, but Aunt Josephine was convinced that an angel was going to throw a burning mountain into the sea and that it would kill millions of people someday.”

“Does that mean the end of the world? Are we all going to die?” Carl asked, not sure he wanted to know the answer to his question.

“No,” Lori said. “Aunt Jo said that when all the disasters were finished, Jesus was going to come back to the earth for a second time.

That’s what they mean by the Second Coming.”

“What then?” he asked. “What’s Jesus going to do to the earth then?”

“I don’t remember all of it, Carl,” Lori said, “but I think He’s going to tie the devil up somehow, put an end to all the wars, and then begin something like a golden age of peace on earth.”

Carl felt he was going into information overload. They had just lost everything. Every material object he had worked so hard to pay for was gone. He could never recoup his losses. Now Lori was trying to tell him about things that he had resisted or ignored all of his adult life.