If you follow my reviews, you know I’m a true Klune fan even though I’m a white cis female.  I know society has to progress in steps and one of the steps to outright acceptance of LGBTQ+ people is published and marketed literature about and for them.  I’m glad I live in these times for this reason alone; Klune writes such fascinating characters and gives us such heartfelt stories.  This one is no different in that regard.

Don and Rodney are an older gay couple; together for forty years and counting.  This is their story of the last days of the planet Earth.  Many of Klune’s stories deal with found family.  While we learn that Don and Rodney had a son that would, I guess, count as a found family, that isn’t what this story is about.  This story is about goodbyes.

The Earth is on borrowed time.  A black hole has entered our solar system and is heading straight for Earth; destroying everything in its path.  The powers-that-be had known for two years, the public only a year.  Human beings, as the unstable and weird lot that we are, have already displayed end-of-days craziness; we catch a little of that on the news.  The end is now about a month away and Don and Rodney have one last goodbye and it involves driving from Maine to Washington state is an ancient RV; but they may have waited too long to start.

Along the way they meet several people who have very different reactions to the end-of-days.  There was a young family with two small children and another on the way; people who should be glorying in their youth and the promise of their children.  I try to imagine myself at that age with my son and how I’d react.  I can’t say if I’d be much different.

As Don and Rodney try to avoid the major highways, they get some help from a group of hippies who invite them to stay the night and be chill.  This group is stereotypically happy and the couple they meet just want to get married.

In typical human irony, many are killed just because they got in the way of a crazy person or our own government imposing “order” in a world that no longer needs it. Don and Rodney see a bit of that personally but nothing as visceral as their experience in Iowa.  It started innocently at first, stopping for gas and being told that no one there cared if they paid. The good-old-boys were just sitting together and enjoying their own company; Don and Rodney were welcome to take whatever they needed from the store. It was the young girl lying in the road, in the rain.  She was obviously distressed and far from home; it was only natural that the men would want to help her get home.  It was her story that she told on the way that froze their blood; that and the heavy pistol she pulled out of her pocket.  It was a tragic story and almost cut their own story short.

Through the story we are given barest hints of the mission Don and Rodney are one.  It has to do with their son and a final goodbye.  But for the longest time we have no idea why their son is in Washington, what is in the box they protect so carefully, or why they waited until the last minute to go. We do finally get the backstory so we know why this is so important.  And then we become more invested in seeing them make it in time; the black hole is moving faster than predicted and their aging RV may not make it. 

Fortunately, just about when it seems they might fail, they find generous help.  I reckon it’s up to the reader to decide if the men’s trip was worth it and if they find the absolution they need.  Or if it even matters.

This is a microcosm of both the best and worst that humanity can provide to itself.  Not a terribly new idea but presented with more love than one usually finds in this sort of story.  His storytelling is wonderful and his characters completely human; he has a way of presenting them that is so honest. I continue to support Klune although I yearn for a more substantial story where I can wallow for longer than a day.  ~~ Catherine Book

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