Prologue - The Crespo Incident
I didn’t fully understand what had happened until I was much older. Crespo, a rare comet, had a trajectory where it would skim past Earth and make another appearance in about a thousand years or more. Something happened since it’s last appearance and the trajectory was altered, causing it to head straight toward Earth. At first, scientists hoped it would burn up in Earth’s atmosphere, but as they learned more and more about Crespo, they realized it was bigger than they had originally thought. As the comet neared, panic ensued. Everywhere you turned the words “we are doomed” echoed. Being a child, my parents kept me home and made the rule that I wasn’t allowed to leave the house without one of them. On the day of impact, my mother ushered my brother and me into the basement and made certain we had more than enough to keep us occupied. As the countdown edged closer to zero, we huddled together, bracing for impact. But it never happened. We remained huddled together, unsure of what had transpired. Moments passed and still nothing changed. Days passed and the news came that the comet had seemingly vanished somewhere around the Mediterranean Sea or the Sahara with pieces of the comet being found all over North Africa and Southern Europe. Miraculously, a point of impact was never found and no one can be certain how the world wasn’t destroyed. There were theories and, soon, conspiracy theories. Everything from it scattering after hitting some type of aircraft to government involvement to aliens. For awhile, there was peace; it seemed as though everyone decided to try to turn over a new leaf after coming so close to the end. Charities were flourishing and people were more kind to their neighbors. But, in time, everything returned to normal and Crespo became another event written into the history books; never completely forgotten by the populous but never truly remembered on its anniversary.
I never forgot. I finished school and went to college, always wondering whatever happened that day. Some days, I wonder if it was the catalyst for things to come.