The Last Night of the World by Ray Bradbury

1950's living room décor.

Happy Family Day! We are back again with another Ray Bradbury short-story and this time the world is ending. However, this is not your typical apocalyptic tale of despair and survival. Instead, the author decides to focus on family life as a couple spends one final evening together with their children. There is an underlying sadness but also a joyful acceptance of their fate. The juxtaposition between the parents discussing the end of the world while watching their children play in the living room, completely oblivious to worldly events, is quite poignant. 

There is a great moment when the parents are getting ready for bed and the wife remembers that she forgot to turn off the water in the sink when they were washing dishes earlier after dinner. Of course, none of this matters but Bradbury is highlighting the irony of holding on to some kind of normalcy through domestic routine even though the world is on the brink of destruction. Only a few pages long, this is another  concise and well-crafted narrative by one of the best in the short-story business.