The streets were packed with people wanting to see nature’s latest trick. If dates were being recorded it was the 20th May 2012, but that is not of importance. Cameras were cleaned, brought in order. You could only hear the clicks and see flashes of light caused by photography or hear voices of excitement in the streets.
“Don’t push, I was here first, get out of the way.”
Humans are never polite when it comes to getting what they want, and they got want they wanted; a perfect picture of almost darkness. Just a halo of light around the moon as it crossed the path over the sun. Or did it? During the day this was something spectacular, never to be forgotten. Perhaps centuries ago a shudder would have passed through the population, the day of doom has arrived, the gods have taken their revenge, a miracle has occurred. People on their knees praying to an imaginary god of light, life, sun, earth; there was always a name for it in any language. Perhaps even in 2012 there were tribes in remote parts of the planet that did not understand the meaning of loss of daylight during the day.
In the age of modern day science, visits on the moon surface and reasons discovered for all and everything, the eclipse was no special event to most. Just something that happened perhaps once a year, once every ten years, according to where you were at the time.
The local observatory was a hive of action.
“Hey, Bill did you get that on film. Have you got some good shots of it, load them up into the computer.”
“Everything under control Jack, got the local news agency online and beaming it over now. This is really a sensation. Looks like a hole in one this time” and in the evening the scientists went home satisfied with the results.
The next morning little Johnny awoke as usual and was surprised to see that mum was still sleeping. He was used to being called to breakfast, told to wash and get ready for school. He crawled out of bed, drew the curtains but there was no customary ray of light from the sun that flooded his room, just a dim glow from somewhere above. He opened the window and looked out carefully. The haloed black golf ball was still hanging in the sky.
“What’s up Johnny? Go back to bed, it is still night.”
“No, mum it’s eight in the morning. Breakfast time and I have to go to school.”
Mum arrived in Johnny’s bedroom wiping the sleep out of her eyes.
“So it is Johnny, better switch the light on, everything is so dark.”
And so it spread all over the world. The sun never really shone again and the moon seemed to like its place in the sky so stayed where it was.
At the same time in another universe a sun was born, just for enough hours in a day to shine on a small insignificant piece of material. The material grew over the years, forming clouds, creating rain and one fine day seeds grew out of the insignificance.
Time had passed, there was no Johnny any more, no mother, no schools and no scientists. There was no earth, just a dark piece of material hanging in the atmosphere. It was the last, spectacular eclipse of the moon and sun on a small piece of material in another universe that ceased to exist.
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