Someone's coming... (leggings perhaps)

"It's so dark against the pallid moon," said Harmonica mystically, rolling her eyes in a sort of emphatic I'm so nearly not here motion.  
"Ica, can you stop the psychic stuff," begged Nat, she'd been at it since their wedding day some six weeks past.  It was becoming so old.  

"I'm trying to show you the world in a different way," said Harmonica sharply.  She felt he was becoming non responsive and she wasn't quite sure how to deal with it.  He'd been so nice before the wedding.  A pity all in all.  

“The others will be round in a bit, just to make sure things go okay.” she went on as he moved purposely  into the kitchen.  
“I mind,” he observed sharply, “And I think our neighbours do too.  They are so badly behaved.  All that screaming and shouting at everyone.  Do they believe everyone needs harassment in the area?”

She sighed: it was becoming impossible, mostly the others were waiting for their lift.  
They believed the world was coming to an end again.  He just didn't understand.
Her parents had said it wouldn't work.  Outside their church, their beliefs.  

“Where's Tim Hutton?” he said when he came back bearing tiny cups of sweet strong coffee.  “I mean did he take the earlier spaceship?”  He tried to keep his face straight.
Hell the people at the store had said that the rest of the church had decided on a quick option, and had taken poison together.   He knew Ica hadn't gone for weeks.  He'd asked her not too.  Sunday was often his only full day off.  

She pushed the hairbrush through her hair in quick cross strokes.  “Don't rightly know.  Said something about joining an Amish community in the states.”
“How odd.”
“Apparently they are lovely places to work, as long as you have a partner.”
“I always fancied the Holy Isle,” said Nat calmly, “I thought I might volunteer to help out up there later in the year.  Do you want to come?  If you haven't been taken up that is?”

“I think it will be my turn soon.  And yours.” she went on throwing the hairbrush to the floor, in an odd twist of the wrist.  “I can hear them coming in, a kind of heavy aircraft noise on the psychic plane.”
Nat looked surprised, “I heard a sonic boom the other night.  I thought it was Concorde.  They do sound heavy though.  And they go out a lot.”
  
“They've been here for years.   Only now, they think we're finished.  God is about to pack up the planet.  I feel quite excited by it all.”
Nat nodded, he was glad she felt something about something.  He was an English Christian, less hot than the American Christian, and more based on the old King George's bible.  
“What if we're not at the end of the world?” he said quietly.  “I mean would you mind?”
“I think the end of the world has already happened and we were taken back to live again.  That's what the survival lift is all about.  We want to live again.  Back, back we go.  If we have enough babies then the world will change for the better...”

“Err,” said Nat taken aback.  “I thought we couldn't have babies.”
“Every one thinks that.  It's only in this world this problem.  We're nearly finished here, we've done the churches like we did in France.  It's all working out.  We got loads of people with Dementia too.  It's all the same and no – one ever sees the pattern. “  She grandstanded and pivoted on one foot.  “When we go on, everything is in reverse.  I become good as gold and have loads of children.  In the 1940's it's normal.  I love it there.  You will too.  I can't understand how you don't remember doing it before.  Most of us do...”

Nat nearly slipped off the sofa in surprise.  Was she mad?  He wasn't sure.
She didn't want children, he didn't want them either.  He wasn't slim or fit, he was extra extra large and just didn't have the energy.  
Ica smiled at him and hugged his arm companionably.  “You'll soon see.  You'll be entirely different too.  That's why I chose you.”
"in the bible," he began cautiously, "
we get another chance to put things right. About..."  Only she wasn't listening. So Nat hugged her back, glad of the companion warmth of the sudden encounter.  “You do love me don't you?” he asked.  He felt that something had slipped away.  

He heard the approaching noise before she did, the sonic boom and the pulling noise of something landing nearby.  The children of the others cheered, and sang.  

Ica grabbed him by the elbow, “Don't be scared,” she said quickly, “Just come with me, and do whatever I do.”

She pulled him into the garden where the others were gathered in a circle.  Hands were held out to them and they moved closer to the centre of the circle.  They moved in and out of the centre and suddenly they were no longer on the ground.  

Nat looked up.  There was a large round light: deep red at centre.  He was  caught out of focus and he felt the hands move away.  Ica was floating  upwards.  She was singing softly.  Nat felt no compulsion either way.  The look on her face was ecstasy.
He sat down.  

The strange noises began again as if air was being pushed down and then up into and past something, and gradually the red light began to swim higher up.  He wondered if  Ica had got what she wanted finally.  He knew as most do, that she hadn't wanted him.  “Without love,” he said to the light dancing towards the moon, “Without love I am as nothing.”