The end of the World

Last night I relaxed on the couch to watch the T.V. Just minutes into my television viewing bliss my telephone rang, it was my good friend Steve’s babys mother and I knew it was not good. I let the phone ring and waited for the dreaded message, I assumed a lovers quarrel had broken out and I was going to be roped into the middle of it via telephone. It’s however, my duty as the godfather to their baby girl to have to be involved against my better judgment. I listened to the message, in which I was informed in a hysterical way that my buddy Steve had completely lost his mind, and was headed west to avoid some kind of apocalypse that was going to strike New York tomorrow on October 25th. My heart rate immediately jumped, “No way!” I said. I couldn’t believe what I was listening to. Just a few hours before I had talked to Steve and everything seemed okay, he was preparing to spend his night uneventfully taking care of his daughter at his house. The only thing unusual about our conversation was that he would not stop talking about a terrorist attack that was going to happen tomorrow, according to numerous conspiracy theories he had watched on Youtube. He went on about how secret organizations such as the Illuminati were controlling everything. I repeatedly told him I felt the conspiracies were total B.S. and thought at first he couldn’t possibly believe this stuff. But no, he lectured on and on which saddened me that he had bought into the propaganda of it all. When our conversation ended I still would have never guessed that he would have a few hours later readied himself for the apocalypse. As you can imagine, after hearing the voice mail I immediately called up Steve to find out what was really going on. I was shocked when he answered the phone and confirmed to me that he was indeed driving west to escape the apocalypse. I told him he could drive down and relax at my place in D.C., but considering what he was avoiding D.C. was about the last place to be when the nuclear war starts. I was running out of options, my good friend who I had shared a foxhole with In Iraq. He had my back but I couldn’t have his because I was too far away to do anything. Most disturbing was that he brought with himself gear for camping in the woods, a handgun, and from the way our conversation sounded I assumed drugs as well. I pleaded with him to turn around and head back to his house, I felt like this was going to end horribly. After the disturbing conversation had ended, I called up my buddy Rob who also served in Iraq with Steve and me. Rob lives in the same town as Steve and I figured he could do more to help than I ever could from D.C. Rob tried unsuccessfully as well to persuade Steve to go home. It would be after hours of no word or contact from our friend that he finally called to tell me he had gotten home and this ordeal had ended. I am still in disbelief of the events of last night, what could motivate a man to think the world is going to end. I still haven’t really come to a conclusion as to what last night was all about but it was very unusual and worth documenting in this blog, that’s for sure.