Winter Moon

heaters still worked. For a while they just stared through the half-open door at the falling snow and took turns petting Falstaff when he rubbed against their legs.
        Eventually Jack said, "Is it over?"
        "Maybe."
        "You don't know for sure?"
        "Right near the end," the boy said, "when it was burning up, it made some of itself into little boring worms, bad things, and they tunneled.into the cellar walls, trying to get away from the fire. But maybe they were all burned up, anyway."
        "We can look for them. Or the right people can, the military people and the scientists who'll be here before long. We can try to find every last one of them."
        "Because it can grow again," the boy said.
        The snow was not falling as hard as it had been all through the night and morning. The wind was dying down as well.
        "Are you going to be all right?" Jack asked.."Yeah."
        "You sure?"
        "Never the same," Toby said solemnly. "Never the same… but all right."
        That is, Jack thought, the way of life. The horror changes us, because we can never forget. Cursed with memory. It starts when we're old enough to know what death is and realize that sooner or later we'll lose everyone we love. We're never the same. But somehow we're all right. We go on. o Eleven days before Christmas, they topped the Hollywood Hills and drove down into Los Angeles. The day was sunny, the air unusually clear, and the palm trees majestic.
        In the back of the Explorer, Falstaff moved from window to window, inspecting the city. He made small, snuffling sounds as if he approved of the place.
        Heather was eager to see Gina Tendero, Alma Bryson, and so many other friends, old neighbors. She felt that she was coming home after years in another country, and her heart swelled.
        Home was not a perfect place. But it was the only home they had, and they could hope to make it better.
        That night, a full winter moon sailed the sky, and the ocean was spangled with silver. the end.