SIENNA
Sienna stands under the wooden arch, the sweet smell of lavender and Denny’s hydrangea bouquet floating on the steady breeze.
Everyone on the beach is there. There hadn’t been an announcement, but somehow it was understood. After they’d all taken their turns at the machine, they drifted slowly up the hill, gathering in a close cluster on the flat part of the bluff.
Denny had changed, at some point, into a simple white sundress. Dad wore his usual uniform of khakis and a button-down, but he’d taken off his shoes. He looked, for the first time since Sienna could remember, comfortable and relaxed. He didn’t even seemed bothered by the large group of people, mostly strangers, who stood, waiting for him to arrive.
There was no music. There was no program. There was just Dad and Denny, walking together through the crowd, which parted silently to make a natural aisle.
Now, as they reach the arbor, Sienna glances around the group. Beside Dad is Ryan, standing tall with his hands clutched behind his back. Inside his tight little fists are the rings, and he nods at Sienna with deliberate precision, as if to convince her he has everything under control.
Owen stands a bit farther back, but still very much a part of things, as if he’s physically straddling the line between family and friend. She wishes she could pull him closer. He gives her a reassuring smile.
Over Denny’s shoulder, she sees the kids from the neighborhood. They’re each standing surrounded by other people, people with similar features, the same hair, the same broad shoulders. Families.
Sienna swallows. She can’t remember the last time she’s had to speak in front of so many people. Maybe a school project, or when it was her turn to share in Group. But this feels different. Not like punishment, or an assignment. It feels like she’s playing a part.
“Hi,” she begins simply. “I’m Sienna. This is my brother, Ryan, and this is my dad. We’re here today because he’s getting married, to Denise. We call her Denny. And we’re all so glad that you’re here.”
Dad and Denny squeeze each other’s hand and Sienna feels the crowd of onlookers surging closer together, either to hear her better or just because they want less space between them.
“My dad asked me to say something to all of you today. He said it didn’t have to be anything in particular, or even anything about them, which I guess makes sense. We don’t know any of you all that well. And you don’t know us. We’re summer people, and we haven’t been back here in a while. I used to play on this beach when I was little. I remember some of you did, too. But I have to say, when my dad told me we were coming here now, with everything that’s going on … I didn’t get it. This isn’t our home. Not really.
“I don’t think he really knew why he wanted us to be here, either. He said it was so we could spend time together, but we could have done that anywhere. I think he thought we were running away, to be honest. And maybe we were, at first. But it didn’t work. Nothing magically disappeared because we were on vacation. Or even because of an asteroid. We still disagreed. We wanted different things. I guess there’s really no running away from all that.”
Sienna shuffles her feet in the sand. Her throat feels dry and the back of her neck is sweaty. She clears her throat.
“I’m sixteen,” she says. “It feels funny to be standing up here and talking about things like home and family and love, but I guess those are hard things for anybody to talk about. You just kind of know it when you see it. At least, I do. And it’s here.”
Sienna smiles at Dad. “Your turn.”
THE END
It starts not long after the kiss.
The first kiss, as husband and wife. The stars are falling. It’s unclear who goes first, but soon they are reaching into their paper cones, one at a time and all together. They are tossing handfuls, showering the newlyweds and each other in colored confetti, in star-shaped forgiveness, in love.
The wind, a swooning gust that has been building all afternoon, picks up again. First gently, a soft swirling of sand around their feet. Still, they are kissing, the newlyweds, and others, too. They are finding hands to hold, arms to grab on to, shoulders to crouch inside. There are no more empty spaces, no hard lines or angles, only the round, melded shape of people huddled on a cliff, watching as the sun slips lower and lower, the sky behind it shocked with brilliant orange and red.
The wind swallows the scattered confetti, lifts it up and tosses it around, a cloud of color whipping around them, between them, landing in their hair, on their faces, as they strain to look up at the sky.
Like a paintbrush sweeping the horizon, the sunset colors glow deeper and wider, pulling back from the water’s edge, higher into the early night sky. Where the darkness had already settled above them, new, dramatic streaks of yellow, crimson, and tangerine ignite, exploding in sharp bursts overhead.
The wind picks up again.
The sky cracks open, now, like lightning, but everywhere at once.
More colors: violet, emerald, and bold, brilliant blue.
The silence falls like a screen, sudden and heavy and real.
The air is still, peculiar and calm.
The people of the island, families, neighbors, strangers, friends, stand together.
And they wait.
Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers
175 Fifth Avenue, New York 10010
Copyright © 2013 by Alloy Entertainment and Alexandra Bullen Coutts
All rights reserved
First American hardcover edition, 2013
eBook edition, September 2013
macteenbooks.com
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Coutts, Alexandra.
Tumble & fall / Alexandra Coutts.
pages cm
Summary: With an asteroid set to strike Earth in just one week, three teens on an island off the Atlantic Coast wrestle with love, friendship, family, and regret as they decide how to live their final days.
ISBN 978-0-374-37861-5 (hardback)
ISBN 978-0-374-37862-2 (ebook)
[1. End of the world—Fiction. 2. Interpersonal relations—Fiction. 3. Conduct of life—Fiction. 4. Family life—Fiction. 5. Islands of the Atlantic—Fiction. 6. Science fiction.] I. Title. II. Title: Tumble and fall.
PZ7.C8329Tum 2013
[Fic]—dc23
2013012969
eISBN 9780374378622
Tumble & Fall Page 28