Night of the Purple Moon overview:

The epidemic strikes everyone who has passed through puberty.

Abby Leigh is looking forward to watching the moon turn purple. For months, astronomers have been predicting that Earth will pass through the tail of a comet. They say that people will see colorful sunsets and, best of all, a purple moon.

But nobody has predicted the lightning-fast epidemic that sweeps across the planet on the night of the purple moon. The comet brings space dust with it that contains germs that attack human hormones. Older teens and adults die within hours of exposure.

On a small island off the coast of Maine, Abby must help her brother and baby sister survive in this new world, but all the while she has a ticking time bomb inside of her — adolescence.

PAGES: 11 – 14

Abby herded everyone upstairs and into Jordan’s room. She bit her lip to keep from crying, to keep from falling apart. Someone had to be strong now, and she was the oldest.

“We’ll stay here,” she told them. “Sooner or later the police will show up, or we’ll see a neighbor. Melrose Street is one of the busiest on the island. Someone will drive by. Mr. Couture will come outside when he wakes up and sees the truck in his front yard.”

Had any of them heard a word? Emily, who was sitting on Jordan’s bed, still hadn’t spoken. Kevin paced with a vacant stare. Jordan slumped in the corner, covering his face to hide his tears.

Abby crouched beside her brother and placed a hand on his knee. Usually he’d pull back from any type of contact she initiated, or would slap her hand away. He looked up with red-rimmed eyes.

“The Coutures are dead, too,” he said.

“Don’t say that.”

He lowered his head.

“Jordan, Mom’s arriving on the noon ferry. She’ll know what to do.” Abby thought that if her mother took a cab from the harbor, she’d reach the house at 12:15. If she had to walk, she’d be here at 12:30. “She’ll be here before we know it.”

“What if Mom isn’t on the ferry? What if there is no ferry?”

Abby couldn’t remember hearing the ferry horn this morning. She must have slept through it.

Toucan grinned. “Mommy! Mommy!”

“Touk needs to eat,” Abby told her brother. “I’ll fix her breakfast. Can you change her diaper?”

Downstairs, Abby sat on the kitchen floor and hugged her knees. What if Mom wasn’t on the ferry, as Jordan had said? What if there was no ferry? She wept as quietly as possible. She avoided looking at the breezeway entrance, but the image of her father kept flooding into her mind. She checked the signal on her phone. Three bars, strong. She tried to call Mom again, the police, her friend Mel—none of the calls went through. She grabbed Touk’s favorite cereal and a banana.

Upstairs, Abby dragged her damp eyes across her shoulder before going into Jordan’s room. He was changing Toucan on the floor. His tears, for the moment, had dried up.

Fresh and content, Toucan sat on the bed next to Emily and ate Cheerios.

The sky had turned a deeper shade of violet over the past hour. Mr. Emerson had told the class the space dust would saturate the atmosphere for two whole weeks. After several months, the moon, sun, and stars would return to their normal colors as the dust settled into the ocean and ground. But the particles of space dust, her teacher had said, would remain part of the Earth’s environment forever.

Abby pressed her nose against the window pane and peered to the right and to the left. Up and down the street there were no signs of life. The sky was empty of birds and airplanes. She couldn’t see inside the truck cab, but deep down she felt that Mr. Marsh was behind the wheel. She had an unsettling feeling that he and the Coutures and many others all across the island had met the same fates as her father and Mr. and Mrs. Patel.

If space dust hadn’t killed them, what else could it be? It seemed like an obvious answer.

Abby started to speak, but her throat crimped shut. She took a sharp breath and managed to swallow. “Do you think…the space dust is poisonous?”

“It didn’t kill us,” Jordan said with a sniffle.

“Maybe some people are allergic to it?” she said.

“Who? Old people?”

“The comet tail is twenty million miles long,” Kevin said in a listless tone. “The earth is completely inside of it. The dust is everywhere. People are dead everywhere.”

“Shut up,” Jordan said.

Abby felt her knees wobble. “Mom will be here soon,” she said.

The clock radio caught her attention. Abby turned it on and spun the dial, but got only white noise. Experts had predicted the space dust might affect cell phones, so it made sense it would also affect the radio.

Kevin sprang to life. “Try FM. The wavelengths are longer.”

“How do you know that?” Jordan said in a tone of disbelief.

Abby had seen her classmates react the same way when Kevin first started sharing scientific facts in class. After a while, everyone just accepted that Kevin was some kind of genius.

“When it’s foggy,” Kevin added, “have you ever tried to listen to an AM station? They don’t come through. But FM is always clear. That’s because—”

“Yeah, yeah,” Jordan said.

On FM Abby found a station, KISS 108, with a strong signal playing pop music. It was the only station on the air. Only one station was troubling. But one station was better than no stations. She was desperate for news.

Two more songs played and then a commercial came on. Nobody spoke as they all waited anxiously. But a new song followed the commercial. No deejay introduced the song.

“Some stations are computerized,” Kevin said. “They don’t need people.”

For the next half hour they heard music and three commercials. No news, no weather.

Jordan stood. “Let’s go up to the roof. We can see what’s happening at the harbor.”

“There’s too much space dust outside,” Abby said. “It’s not safe.”

“We’re not allergic to it. You said that yourself.”

“Jordan, I didn’t say that.”

He headed for the door. “Where are the binoculars? Well? You’re always telling me how messy I am. At least I know where things are. You had them last!”

Abby inched closer to her brother, ready to grab him. “Jordan, stay inside.”

He scowled. “What makes you the boss?” He glanced at Kevin, hoping for an ally, but Kevin lowered his eyes.

Abby suggested a compromise. “If Mom’s not on the noon ferry, then we’ll go up to the roof.”

Jordan looked at her, at the door, back to her.

“Please,” Abby said.

He grunted and moved to the window. Abby breathed a sigh of relief, but she was certain he would soon challenge her again. Until her mother arrived, Abby knew that they all needed to stay together and work as a team. She’d do whatever was necessary to make sure that happened.

It was easy to forget about Emily. She sat like a mannequin on the bed, saying nothing, staring straight ahead. It was not so easy to forget about Toucan. Her sister was bored. Confined to a small room, understanding little of what was going on, what toddler wouldn’t be antsy? Abby got out Jenga to play with her. As Abby was removing a block from the tower, Toucan said something that caught her off guard. “Wake up Daddy.”

Abby dissolved in tears. The tower toppled.

She felt the tension rising as noon approached. They should hear the ferry horn any minute. Over and over again, Abby pictured the ferry motoring into Castine Island harbor and the captain pulling the cord that sounded the horn.

By noon the ferry horn had not sounded. “It’s running late,” Abby said, knowing the ferry never ran late. By 12:15, still nothing. “I bet Mom will take the five o’clock ferry.” Her fake cheeriness did little to raise the somber mood of the boys.

The afternoon dragged on. Abby put Toucan down for a nap. Soon after that the radio station went off the air.

Jordan and Kevin went downstairs to try the TV and computer. The boys reported every TV channel had a test pattern. Kevin was able to make a connection from the computer to the server—located somewhere on the mainland—but he couldn’t access the internet.

“We have a satellite connection with a wireless network,” Kevin said. “If I get my laptop from my house, I can work from here.”

“Let’s wait,” Abby said. “Our mother will be here soon.”

“She might have sent us e-mail!” Jordan said.

“Jordan, she’ll be here at five-thirty.”

“What if she isn’t? What if…” Her brother lowered his head.

Just then tires squealed outside. Jordan reached the window first. By the time Abby looked out, the car had sped by the house.

“It was green,” Jordan stammered. “I couldn’t see the driver. It was going really fast.”

Abby felt her spirit lifting. If someone else was alive, it meant than her mom was probably okay, too.

“The mailman drives a green car,” Kevin said.

“His is dark green,” Kevin said. “This was light green.”

“Who else drives a green car?” Abby said.

They all paused, thinking. They hardly knew anyone on the island. Dad, who’d grown up here, always said, “It takes a long time to get to know a local, but once you do, you have a friend for life.” Since moving here Jordan had so far made one friend, Eddie Egan. Abby had zero friends, and she was sure that Kevin and Emily didn’t have any friends, either.

“Whoever it was, I bet they’re going to meet the ferry,” Abby said.

The five-thirty ferry never arrived.