Amy Brashear - The Incredible True Story of the Making of the Eve of Destruction

“No, that’s not what I was going to say. You should not trust the government. Look at me. The very first page of my life story is a warning sign that clearly states you should not trust the government. Don’t take everything they say at face value. I like your distrust of the government. It gives me hope for your and Terrence’s future. I don’t want to see my grandkids living in some Mad Max [68] There’s Mad Max (1979) and Mad Max 2 (1981), and both movies take place in a not-so-distant future in a postapocalyptic Australia. Both movies were directed by George Miller. The story follows Max Rockatansky as he sets out on a path of revenge because his family was murdered by a biker gang. He’s a total loner. It starred newcomer Mel Gibson. wasteland.”

“You know Mad Max ?” I asked.

“Your hip Pops knows Mad Max ,” he said with a laugh. “I’ve been to the movies.”

I laughed too.

“Your dad mailed me this to give to you,” he said, pulling out an envelope from his back pocket.

Had everyone talked to my dad except for me?

“He was afraid you weren’t getting his letters,” he said. “But that’s between your mom and him.”

I stared at my name on the envelope: Ms. Laura Ratliff —so official. I was hoping for the best but expecting the worst.

“Go on,” Pop said.

I nodded but took my time tearing it open. I read it out loud, pausing over the black marks.

Ladybug,

I haven’t been the best dad lately. I hope to work on that in the future. If there is a future, I mean. What I’m trying to say is that I’m sorry. And I hope to say this in person one day. But for now, I can’t. And honestly, I don’t know if I ever will be able to. There’s been here. We’ve been on for weeks. going off. is routine. I’m afraid. I’m afraid for you. And I’m afraid for your mom. And I admit that was really hard to write. We screwed up everything—forever. Ladybug, I am sorry. Worst case scenario, , it will create throughout the area, and there will be . I may never see you again, and that scares me. You are my daughter, my Ladybug. may be . I’m sorry, Ladybug.

“Ladybug,” Pops said. “That’s a cute nickname.”

“It’s so redacted. What was the government so afraid of little ol’ me, a nobody, finding out?” I asked.

“Your dad wants to protect you because he loves you,” Pops said. “We all do.”

“I know.”

“I wonder what’s under the black marks,” Pops said.

“Pops, Granny said there were men in suits with gas masks near the house the last time I talked to her. Do you think there’s something wrong?”

“No, of course not. Your dad would let us know,” he said.

“Could he?” I asked, pointing at the redacted letter.

“We shouldn’t worry,” he said.

“Really?” I asked.

“Really. When I start to worry, I’ll let you know.”

“Can I tell you a secret?” I asked Pops.

“You can tell me anything,” he said.

“I don’t want to die.”

He nodded, scooted over in the booth, and wrapped me in his arms.

I cried. And he did too.

Then he bought me a box of Chocolaty Chip cookies to go. We had somewhere to be. The governor had never been to our town. Even when he was running for governor, he never made a campaign stop. I didn’t blame him. But today he was accompanied by two black cars in Griffin Flat. Hollywood was making its appearance, and now so was the governor. Governor Clinton would not be playing himself; that role went to DJ Crazy Bob from 95.6. He’d be playing Governor Holt from the fake state of Whatsitsname, where fictional Pikesville was located. Governor Holt would be the one to announce the end of the world war here.

We used to be happy before we knew the future.

The sidewalks were cluttered with actual citizens and people who didn’t live here but were pretending to live here in fictional Pikesville as extras.

And people were getting their picture taken with the governor. I did. I planned on having it framed.

“Don’t tell your mom and my son,” Pops said.

I locked my mouth and threw away the key.

Protestors showed up. They lined half the sidewalk in front of Dane’s Ice Cream Shoppe and Dewayne’s bookstore, which he probably loved, I said sarcastically.

Not much had changed since my mom marched, braless with make love not war signs. They’d even brought red balloons, but the police shut that down real fast.

The governor was coming to town right when school was in session, but the administration made the executive decision to end school early. A civics lesson, so to speak. But Pops made the executive decision for me. I wasn’t going to miss the governor here for a little suspension.

You could tell the director was annoyed at the mesmerizing control that the governor had over the crowd. All eyes were on him, and it was quiet. The director wished he had that influence.

“My fellow Arkansans,” Governor Clinton said to the crowd, “I’m happy to see so many smiling faces this afternoon. Rumor has it there’s going to be a nuclear war.” The crowd erupted in laughter. “I want to reassure many of you that this is just a movie—a movie about average Americans going about their business as usual”— until everyone gets fried —“until the unthinkable happens. Though nuclear deterrence is on the forefront on all Americans’ minds, it is”—And I tune him out. Political speech, blah blah blah—“Tonight, I ask all of you to stand with me for a future that will make us proud. God bless you all. Thank you.”

Governor Clinton had a way about him. The way he talked in a slow, deliberate, and comforting manner like nothing was wrong. He had a way about him that made me want to forget, at least for a moment, all the scenarios of nuclear devastation and the collapse of a working society that could occur: Cannibalism, famine, disease, death of the American dream, you know? Even though Arkansas had its very own nuclear warhead out on a cow pasture. But Governor Clinton was a politician, and he was just one man closer to the button.

The purpose of a nuclear war was to leave the entire planet devastated beyond recognition, and what if you were President Reagan, and you had to decide if you should push the button or not? What if you’re Konstantin Chernenko, leader of the Soviet Union, and you had to decide if you should push the button or not?

Or not.

But this was fake. In reality the governor would be one of the politicians hiding in some bunker in Mount Weather (a nuclear fallout shelter that’s at a top secret—I say top secret, but everyone knows—location for the president to be relocated when or if the unthinkable happens), waiting until this damn apocalypse passes by. We’d only hear a voice like his while we sat in smoldering ruins listening to a ham radio under candlelight while eating a can of Spam.