BLACKENED DAYS OF SUNS
I don't know what the big deal is. Mom's making me miss my show, dragging me by the elbow out to our front yard. She's all excited and just keeps saying, "Come, come!" I hope she can hear me grumbling. I'm not happy. But I hope she can't hear what I'm grumbling. She'd get mad.
Tugging me out the door she looks up and searches the sky. "There!" she exclaims, pointing to the sun. It's the sun. I've seen it before. "Not like this, you haven't."
Suddenly everything hushes, even me, as blue burns into a red fire around the moon, casting black ashes across the sky and fall upon the world.
"What--"
"Shhh. Just watch." So we watch, from the rocking bench on our front porch, holding it steady, the creek of its labored swing too intrusive to bear. We watch the night consume the day, stealing the bottom of the pit from right above us then melting away as if it had never been. The moon hovers beside the sun, like a good friend, an innocent silver rock.
It had been a moment born of chance and timing. And it changed the world.
Tugging me out the door she looks up and searches the sky. "There!" she exclaims, pointing to the sun. It's the sun. I've seen it before. "Not like this, you haven't."
Suddenly everything hushes, even me, as blue burns into a red fire around the moon, casting black ashes across the sky and fall upon the world.
"What--"
"Shhh. Just watch." So we watch, from the rocking bench on our front porch, holding it steady, the creek of its labored swing too intrusive to bear. We watch the night consume the day, stealing the bottom of the pit from right above us then melting away as if it had never been. The moon hovers beside the sun, like a good friend, an innocent silver rock.
It had been a moment born of chance and timing. And it changed the world.