On the Phone

1,105 words - teen fiction

"Hello?"

"Yes, hello? Is this Brandon? Brandon Sullivan?"

"May I ask who's calling?"

"This is Miranda. From the used book shop? You were in here just earlier today."

"Oh. Yes. Hello."

"Hi! we have a book here that I think you left… When you were checking out?"

"I don't think I left anything. What book is it?"

"Um... It's black. I think it's a journal?"

"Yeah, I don’t have a journal. It must have been from someone else.”

“You sure? I could have sworn it showed up on the counter right after you left!”

“Yeah, I’m sure. Thank you for calling though."

"Of course! I was happy to call!"

"Have a good day."

"Wait!"

"..."

"Um. I just… I wanted to thank you for coming into the book shop! We don't get a lot of customers and... I mean, we get enough! You don't have to feel sorry for us or anything! It's just, I appreciate you coming in. I mean, the book shop appreciates it! We appreciate your business."

"Thank you."

"..."

"Anything else?"

"Um... Yes."

"..."

"I just… Well… I saw you bought an illustrated copy of Hamlet! Do you read Shakespeare much?"

"No. It's for a friend."

"A friend?"

"Yeah. It's a birthday present."

"Oh, that’s nice of you!"

"..."

"When's his birthday?"

"Her birthday today. She’s having a party this weekend. She's studying literature so I thought she would like it. You’re probably a book person too. Do you think Shakespeare is a good present?"

"Yes, of course! Shakespeare is always a good present!"

"That's good. I hope she likes it."

"I'm sure she will!"

"Well, thank you for calling."

"Of course! Anytime! You have the book store's phone number, right?"

"Let me see..."

"It's on your receipt next to my name. You can call whenever you want!”

"Okay. That's good to know."

“It gets kind of slow here, so if you ever want to talk or anything…"

“…”

"So, what books do you like to read?”

"Honestly, I'm not much of a reader myself."

"Oh?"

"No. I mean, I've been trying to read more lately, since Stephanie is studying literature and all."

"Stephanie?"

"My friend. The one with the birthday party coming up."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"So... Are you… I mean, is she just a friend? Or, like, your girlfriend?"

"Funny you should ask! I'm actually going to ask her to be my girlfriend tonight, after the party."

"Tonight?"

"Yeah. You sure this book is a good present?"

"Um… Sure."

"Okay. I really hope she likes it!"

"A tragedy is fitting.”

"A tragedy?"

"Hamlet. It's a tragedy. One of Shakespeare's most well-known."

"It's a tragedy? Like, a bunch of bad stuff happens in it?"

"Well, everyone is dead by the end, so yes. Bad stuff happens. Even Hamlet dies."

"What? I didn't know that!"

"Everyone knows that!"

"I can't give her a book about everyone dying and then ask her to be my girlfriend!"

"She'll like it."

"What kind of message does that send? I can't do that! Do you take refunds?"

"Well... No. But you could come in and get another one. We have lots of other plays by Shakespeare. My favorite is Much Ado About Nothing! Though, Romeo and Juliet might be more suited to this occasion."

"Romeo and Juliet? Isn't that some sappy love story?"

"It's not sappy! They die at the end!"

"That's stupid. Why do all these people die in Shakespeare?"

"Because Shakespeare understood true love. He understood heartbreak."

"I can't give Stephanie a book about a bunch of dead people for her birthday!"

"Fine. We have comedies too."

"Comedies? Like, funny stories?"

"Some of them are pretty funny. Comedy back then actually just meant that people got married at the end instead of dying."

"They all get married? I don't know about that. What does that say if I give that to her? I don't know if I want to marry her, you know? I just want to date her."

"Why are you dating her if you don't want to marry her?"

"Sheesh! I just haven't ever thought about getting married, okay?"

"Well, why do you want to date her?"

"She's really hot!"

“Okay. What else?”

“She’s not just pretty. She's like, gorgeous! Like a solid ten out of ten!”

“That's it? That's the whole reason you are going to date her?"

"I've never seen someone like her before!"

"Seriously?"

"What? Don't tell me you wouldn't like to date a guy who was the hottest person you'd ever seen."

"I thought I might, but now I am reconsidering."

"I'm seriously glad you called! This could have been a disaster if I showed up with some book about everyone either dying or getting married! Maybe a book is a bad idea. I should get her something else."

"Good idea. She's studying literature? She probably has too many books anyways. ”

“That’s true.”

“You know, I think you should get her something that shows how beautiful you think she is."

"Like what?"

"Hmm. How about you get her a workout DVD, or maybe a gym pass. I bet she'd love that. It would show that you know how dedicated she is to looking good."

"That's not a bad idea! I love working out! We could work out together!"

"Yeah. Throw in a diet plan too. She'll love that. You should offer to go on the diet plan with her, to be her support."

"I'm actually already on this really awesome diet plan! It's a body building one. I've gained ten pounds since I started."

"Wow. That is so great."

"I know! I don't want her to bulk up, but girl's always like to diet, right? Get skinnier?"

"Oh, yes. Girls love loosing weight. Girls especially love it when guys help them lose weight."

"This is perfect!"

"Yep. It will show her what you really think of her. So much better than Shakespeare."

"Thank you! I'm so glad you called!"

"You have no idea. I'm the one who should be thanking you. I'm so glad I went out of my way to get ahold of you. I have discovered so much."

"A win-win situation, I guess!"

"Oh yes. On second thought, you should probably throw out the receipt we gave you. You won't be needing my phone number, and you wouldn't want Stephanie to see what you almost gave her for her birthday."

"Good thinking. I'll have to donate this book too."

"We accept donations."

"Perfect. Well, wish me luck tonight!"

"Oh, all the luck in the world wouldn't make any difference."

"You think?"

"I’m positive."

"Thanks again! See you around."

"Good-bye."

"Bye!"
*click*

Totality

726 words

The sun was gone.

In its place was a negative of it - a bright white ring of light surrounding the hole where it used to shine. I stepped closer and stretched up my hand like I might be able to touch it. The sky all around had turned twilight dark with a golden glow along the entire horizon. Stars glittered through the gloom.

People were gasping in delight and wonder,. Children were laughing. Someone set off a sparkler fountain. The lights flashed and fizzed in the corner of my vision, but I could not take my eyes off the place where the sun should be. That gaping hole into the universe. The sun was still there. I knew that. But even in the few seconds it had been obscured so far, the temperature had dropped palpably. It felt like it was never coming back.

I stepped forward again, feeling like I was getting closer, but of course that was impossible. My stretched out hand met something cool that shimmered in the air before me. I drew my hand back and focused not on the missing sun but what was happening feet in front of me.

We had come to view the eclipse at the dead center of the line of totality where complete coverage would last the longest: 2 full minutes and 40 seconds.

The middle of the path of totality bisected the crater we were in, an invisible line of darkness. Except that the line was no longer invisible.

People’s cries of delight were changing pitch, turning higher and more frightened. The mist before me extended in a perfectly straight line down the middle of the crater, dividing those on one half from the other. It swirled like oil on the surface of a puddle, trapped in a flat plane perpendicular to the ground, stretching high into the syk - a wall stretching from us to the moon.

I stretched my hand out again.

“Get away!”

“What is it?”

“Do you see that?”

A child started to cry.

My hand met no resistance, going through the mist with nothing more than a cool sensation like reaching into a refrigerator.

“Don’t touch it!”

“Is it a solar flare?”

“No one said this would happen!”

On the other side of the mist, I could see people I didn’t recognize. More than the people who had come with us. Strangers. New comers. They looked different somehow.

One of them, a little girl with short hair a missing tooth, smiled at me and held out her hand for me to take it.

“Are you filming this?”

“I’m not the only one seeing this, right?”

“Oh. My. Gosh!”

The other side of the mist looked darker somehow. Not night time. But off, like when a tornado is coming and you can’t place what’s different about the light. The girl with the missing tooth came right up to me and took my extended hand. Her’s was warm and solid. I let her pull me the rest of the way through the mist, the coolness brushing my arms and cheeks and finally the back of my neck as I passed through.

The sounds around me became muffled, like I had water in my ears.

“What’s happening?”

“Isn’t it amazing!”

“Nobody go near it!”

The girl grinned wider and swung our joined hands back and forth, looking up at the moon again. It wasn’t black, but a deep colorless blue. White hot light streaked out from behind it.

As we watched, the sun flashed into existence again, first a flicker and then a flame. I reached for my eclipse glasses and put them in place just as the glare overtook the moon once more. The darkness lifted. The sliver of sun I could see with the glasses on grew back. The eerie chill subsided.

I realized my hand was empty and looked down, lifting the glasses away from my eyes to see the rest of the world. The girl was gone. Everyone else had their dark glasses back on, blind to everything but the sun. I looked them over, wondering where she had gone. But all the people I’d seen - the newcomers, the strangers - had vanished. It was only us left.

I closed my empty hand, feeling like I had lost something important. Putting my glasses in place, I looked back up at the sun, glad that it at least had come back.