Dad"s job is to oversee the technical aspects. Making sure the video cameras and projection screens are working, that the P.A. system is loud enough, that sort of thing, so that everyone can hear when it"s safe to look at the sun without protection. Mom is on crisis duty-if anyone gets stung by a bee or faints, or if a kid gets lost, she"s the one to take care of it. And my job is to go through the group and make sure everyone"s eyes and equipment are properly protected during the partial phases. Besides listing the stages of the eclipse and telling the guests what to watch for at each stage, Kenny"s flyers have a warning in big letters about not looking directly at the sun.
The security crew Dad hired will also be overseeing all these things, and even though every guest who registered signed something agreeing to take precautions, we want to make sure everyone has a positive experience. Dad tells us to meet in the roped-off area he reserved for us before totality hits. Otherwise it will be too dark to find each other. Ryan, his grandfather, and Bree"s family are meeting us there too. I invited Jack, but he said he might have to be with his group. Then he changed the subject, as usual.
"This is it," Dad says, actually getting a little teary-eyed. "What we"ve been waiting for-planning for-all these years."
A lump forms in my throat. Kenny stops bouncing. We can hear shouts of excitement and antic.i.p.ation drift in through the open windows as two different groups of campers run by.
"We should all be really proud of ourselves," Mom says. "We"re making a lot of people very happy. We"re giving them a memory they"ll never forget."
"That none of us will ever forget," Dad says firmly. He glances out the window. "No matter what happens."
"No matter what happens," we all repeat, placing our hands on top of each other"s like a team before a game. Then we gobble down an early lunch and go our separate ways. I run up to my room to get my supplies, stepping over the empty boxes like they"re b.u.mps in the rug and nothing more. My backpack has been ready for days. Binoculars, logbook, red flashlight, camera, solar gla.s.ses, and a screen made of welder"s gla.s.s. I"ve also packed many extra sheets of the solar filters in case people don"t have them. I"m already wearing the t-shirt Mom had printed for us. It"s bright yellow and has a picture of the sun during totality. On the front and back it says, in glow-in-the-dark lettering, moon shadow staff. ask us anything.
As I turn to run back out I take one last look at my room. The next time I"ll see it, I"ll have witnessed a total solar eclipse. How crazy is that?
By the time I get up to the field, it"s half full. First contact isn"t for another two hours, but clearly people want to stake out their claim to a prime spot. Not that any one spot is really different from another. The eclipse begins at 3:09 (and 42 seconds), when the sun will be high enough in the sky that none of the trees will block it. I drop off my backpack in the roped-off area that my parents set up for us. I watch one couple set up a huge pair of binoculars on a tripod, a telescope, and a video camera. They also have a collection of eclipse gla.s.ses, handheld screens, digital and regular cameras. If everyone has this much stuff, there will be no room left for the actual people. I do a quick survey to make sure they have the right lenses on the binoculars and the scope. They do.
But the next two families have forgotten to cover their viewfinders. You don"t need the viewfinders to observe the eclipse, but someone could look through them by mistake. I give them a sheet of the specially-coated Mylar and watch to make sure they stick it on correctly. One of the families has a daughter who looks around eight years old and clearly doesn"t want to be here. I can tell because when Kenny comes by and hands them a flyer, she makes a big show of spitting her gum into it. He hands her father another one without missing a beat.
Some people have gotten really creative. Instead of worrying about protecting their eyes, they"ve built these contraptions out of cardboard boxes that project an image of the sun inside of them. Some are six feet long! I see a lot of people with two pieces of cardboard, one brown, one white, with a pinhole through the brown one. I watch one kid as he holds them about a foot apart, with the pinhole facing the sun. A small yellow glow appears on the white one.
Along the west side of the field some enterprising eclipse chasers have set up booths selling solar gla.s.ses, bottles of water, disposable cameras, and other eclipse-related merchandise. All the venders had to get their wares pre-approved by Mom though. My parents decided a long time ago the only thing they would sell themselves are commemorative mugs and two t-shirts. One says i saw the moon"s shadow at the moon shadow. The other says i saw the moon cover the sun and all i got was this lousy t-shirt.
Every few yards I see a familiar face. Most of the guests who have come to the campground over the years have returned for this event. I get a lot of comments like, "Oh, you"re all grown up!" and "Wow, the place looks great!" It makes me feel good, and proud of what we"ve achieved, like Mom said.
The time pa.s.ses in a blur of activity and noise and careful concentration on the faces of those setting up their equipment. Totality will only last for a little over three minutes, and while that"s a pretty solid duration for an eclipse, it"s not a lot of time in the grand scheme of things. One eclipse chaser wearing a t-shirt of all the eclipses he"s been to is timing himself with a stopwatch. He shifts from checking his scope to his binoculars to his cameras and back again. It looks like a frantic little dance.
With half an hour to go before first contact, there is barely enough room to walk. I"m not the only one keeping an eye on the clouds. A light breeze keeps them wafting by. I wonder if it"s too late for another anti-rain dance. I start to head back to my family"s area when a tug on my shirt stops me. It"s Bree. For once she doesn"t have her earphones on. "What"s that noise?" she asks, pointing to one of the big speakers. "Is it supposed to be music?"
I laugh. "It"s a type of music, but not the kind you can dance to. It"s the sound of the sun."
She squints. "Huh?"
"Astronomers can record the vibrations and echoes of all the activity inside the sun. The sun is like a huge musical instrument. My dad"s playing a recording of it."
Bree covers her ears. "It just sounds like static to me."
"Don"t worry, he"s going to take it off soon. It"s almost first contact."
She reaches into her shorts pocket where I see her earphones dangling. But she thinks better of it and follows me back through the crowd to our families. We get there to find Ryan, Melanie, and Kenny do-ing the anti-rain dance. Ryan"s grandfather and Bree"s parents are trying to follow along. I recognize the old woman with Ryan"s grandfather as being on Jack"s tour. "Have you seen Jack?" I shout over the increasing noise.
She shakes her head and holds up her gla.s.ses. "He handed these out about two hours ago. I haven"t seen him since." She notices Bree and says, "h.e.l.lo, future cover girl. Walked the labyrinth lately?"
Bree shakes her head. I look from one to the other, wondering how they know each other. For some reason I can"t picture Bree walking the labyrinth. It hits me that once we"re gone, it"s going to be up to Bree"s family to keep the Unusuals up and running. But will they? Bree"s parents seem really nice and responsible, but still, they could get caught up in their own work and let things slide. Right now though, they"re putting their all into the dance, arms and legs flying. It"s pretty funny.
There"s only one cloud now that can do any harm if it pa.s.ses right over the sun.
Soon the solar music turns off and Dad"s voice booms across the field. "Everybody ready?"
The crowd whoops and hollers. Kenny and I look at each other and giggle. It"s weird hearing Dad"s voice coming out of nowhere and filling the air.
"Gla.s.ses on!" he commands. In unison, a thousand people put on their gla.s.ses or goggles or hold up their solar screens. "Ten seconds to first contact!"
I look around for Jack, but still don"t see him. I don"t see Mr. Silver either.
Everyone starts counting down along with Dad. "Nine . . . eight . . . seven . . . six . . ."
My heart is pounding so fast I bet everyone can hear it, even over the din of voices. There"s no sign of the approaching moon in the bright sky. An eclipse can only happen when the moon is in the new moon phase, when we can"t see the sun reflecting off of it. So it"s like looking for something invisible.
"Three . . . two . . . one!" everyone shouts, then collectively we hold our breath. All I hear is the loud chirping of the birds. Nothing happens for an endless second. My mind races. Were the astronomers mistaken? Is this the wrong day? What"s going on?
And then I see it. A tiny nick out of the right side of the sun, like someone nibbled on it to see how it would taste.
"There it is!" people yell from all over the campground. The whoops and hollers start up again, but quiet down as everyone watches the tiny nick gradually increase into a thin crescent. It"s going soooo slowly. Kenny"s eye is pressed up to the telescope, so I peer through the binoculars. I can see tiny dark sunspots on the face of the sun. Through the welder"s gla.s.s I had attached to the binoculars, the sun looks green. I put on the solar filtered sungla.s.ses, and it"s orange instead. I check my watch. There"s still over an hour until totality, and I need to do a quick run through the crowd.
"Do you want to come check people"s eyes with me?" I ask Bree, who is standing very still. "We"ll be back in time."
She shakes her head, not tearing herself away from the sun.
"Okay. Be sure to give your eyes a rest though. The sun"s still very bright."
She nods, half listening. Melanie and Kenny are excitedly going over the flyer and Bree"s parents are holding hands and giggling like teenagers. I snake my way through the crowd, careful not to b.u.mp into anyone"s scope. Under their gla.s.ses, one eclipse-chasing group is all wearing eye-patches over one eye. They look like a bunch of pirates! I"ve heard of people doing that, but didn"t expect to see it. It"s supposed to help your eyes adjust to the dark better when you take it off. "Ahoy, matey," one of them says as I pa.s.s.
"Ahoy!" I reply.
I pa.s.s by the girl who had spit her gum into Kenny"s flyer in time to hear her say, "I don"t get it. What"s the big deal?"
It"s true that besides the fact that the sun is slowly being eaten away, nothing looks any different on the ground. The light is just as bright. I"m forced to chastise two people shielding their eyes with their hands, but other than that everyone is being really safe. I pa.s.s the mother of the red-haired twins trying to calm down one of them, who is insisting that his brother is somehow responsible for what"s happening above. I can"t imagine living in a time before eclipses were predicted and suddenly the sun disappeared. How terrifying!
About half of the moon is covering the sun now, and the shadows of the people around me are starting to get shorter and sharper. The light still seems as bright, but the birds must sense something"s going on. Their usual gentle tweeting and chirping is becoming more erratic, almost pleading.
I pa.s.s by the shrine to Ho and Hsi. It is now covered with little tokens, including a green Matchbox car, and about twenty of Kenny"s flyers.
I climb up onto a bench near the side of the field and scan for Jack. My heart gives a leap when I see Mr. Silver racing across the field. A shout goes up from his tour group when they catch sight of him. Jack"s not with the group though, nor with Mr. Silver. Where IS he? He must have found someplace else to view the eclipse.
I make my way back to my family. Mom is there now, looking in the scope. Bree is still standing where I left her. The sky is turning a darker, almost navy blue now, a color I"ve never seen it before. I feel a slight chill in the air and shiver. It"s definitely at least ten degrees cooler. The sun is about eighty percent covered and it"s noticeably darker now. My heart starts pounding hard again, as Dad gets back on the loudspeaker.
"Ten more minutes till second contact," he announces. "And what does that mean?"
"Totality!" the crowd yells.
"Right! And when that happens, you can take off your gla.s.ses. You won"t hear from me again until it"s time to put them back on."
He steps off the podium and hurries over to us. A bundle of energy, he squeezes my shoulder before joining Mom at the scope. It"s getting darker now by the second. The sun is slipping farther behind the moon. The clouds are still fluffy, which means they won"t block our view. Our dances must have worked!
Kenny and Melanie are scrambling to check things off their list. The air is dark like dusk, but it has a greenish-yellowish cast that is totally unfamiliar. I know I"m supposed to be following Kenny"s checklist, watching for changes all around me and scanning the sky for stars. But it"s like I"m in a dream or something, and I can"t think straight. I"ve imagined this moment my entire life, and now it doesn"t seem real.
Suddenly it"s dead quiet. The birds have completely stopped chirping. Tiny b.a.l.l.s form a glowing circle around the black sun like a necklace of pearls.
"Baily"s Beads!" people around us exclaim.
And as I watch, breathless, the beads fade into one thin circle of light. Gasps go up from around the field, and I hear people shouting about the moon"s shadow pa.s.sing over us, but I don"t see it. I"m too busy watching the last bit of sunlight shine like a beacon through the deepest valley of the moon. It looks like a huge diamond engagement ring hanging in the sky where the sun used to be.
And then that last bit of light winks out. Totality! Everyone whips off their gla.s.ses. A flash of vivid red swirls around the outline of the moon, glorious in its contrast with the dark sky around it. This is the only time I"ll ever see the sun"s chromosphere, the thin atmosphere normally hidden to us. A second later it is fully engulfed by the moon. And then the main attraction arrives. The pearly white corona suddenly streams out from behind the dark moon in all directions, pulsing, looping, swirling, glowing, a halo of unearthly light. I feel like I could die from the beauty of it.
"Great Galileo"s Ghost!" Kenny yells.
Then two things happen at once. The sounds of screaming and clapping and crying fill the air.
And someone slips their hand into mine.
BREE.
7.
The only other time in my life I"ve gotten up this early was the day the new shoe store opened in town and the first twenty people in line got a free pair of sandals. I had expected there to be roosters crowing at the crack of dawn, but apparently that"s only on farms. I hurry to dress, grabbing whatever"s nearby. I run my brush through my hair and then tie it back in a ribbon. Slipping on my sneakers I notice they"re almost as dirty as the ones Ally loaned me when I first arrived. I bet Claire wouldn"t even recognize me. I barely recognize myself. Melanie is just starting to stir as I slip out the door of the cabin. The eclipse is this afternoon, and I have a lot to do before then.
First stop-the labyrinth. I"ve tried every day since the day I met that old woman, Stella, but I haven"t been able to step inside. Today I"m determined to change that. With the huge crowds of people here now, I figure this might be the only time I"d be alone.
But when I arrive, I see a woman in the center of the labyrinth, her head bowed. She"s wearing a long black robe and a black shawl that even goes over her head. Doesn"t she know white is the new black? She"s saying something, but I can"t hear. I move a little closer. It almost sounds like she"s chanting, or praying. I turn to go because she"s freaking me out a little, but manage to step on a twig. It cracks loudly under my foot. She lifts her head but doesn"t stop chanting. I debate running off but force myself to sit on the bench and wait for her to finish. I might not get another chance for a while.
A few minutes later the woman threads her way back out of the labyrinth and heads toward me. I have no idea what I should say to her, so I just say an awkward "h.e.l.lo."
"Are you here for the eclipse?" she asks with an accent that I don"t recognize. She lowers the shawl from her head and drapes it around her shoulders. She"s younger than I had suspected, not older than twenty-five or so. It"s hard to tell under all those clothes. She must be hot, too.
"Yes." And then since she"s still standing there, I add, "My family is actually moving here. We"re going to be taking over the campground once the eclipse is over." This is the first time I"ve been able to say those words without feeling like throwing up.
"You are a lucky girl," she says. "This is a very beautiful place."
Rather than commenting on my luck or lack of it, I ask her where she"s from.
"Egypt," she replies. "My family sent me here. My brother went to the last eclipse, and my sister will go to the next."
I blink. "You came all the way here from Egypt? Your family must really love eclipses."
She smiles. "We have never seen one."
"But I thought you said -"
"We come to pray during the eclipse. We pray for the sun"s return."
"But you don"t see it at all?"
She shakes her head. "I will keep my eyes to the ground."
Ally will NOT believe this. In defense of the eclipse I say, "But it"s supposed to be really cool."
She laughs. "Yes, I have heard that. But this tradition goes back to the Prophet Muhammad. If he can miss it, I can miss it. It is for the greater good."
"Well," I tell her, "I"ll tell you what it was like after, if that"s okay."
"I would like that," she says. "Now I will leave you to your own task."
"I"m Bree, by the way," I call after her.
"Bellana," she says.
I watch her head back down the path and wonder what "my task" is supposed to be. Maybe the labyrinth will tell me. I step up to the opening and take a deep breath. This time my feet actually obey me and I take a few steps inside. But then they stop again. This is really starting to bug me. Why can"t I walk the darn labyrinth? What am I afraid of?
I turn around and walk back out, staring at the circle of rocks before me. Ever since I saw the moon through that huge telescope, things have been so weird. Our parents had asked me and Mel about our night in the shed, and I"d wanted to tell them about seeing the moon, but what could I say? That in that one minute, I saw what they see? That the universe really is full of mysterious and amazing things? That we"re on this piece of rock hurtling through s.p.a.ce for this really tiny period of time and we better make the best of it? Which means whether or not my lip gloss matches my pocketbook really doesn"t matter? How was I supposed to explain I got all that from looking at the moon through a telescope? They"d think I was crazy. And they might be right!
Well, no use sitting here anymore. I get up and go to the next stop on my list-the Art House. I have decided that I"m going to ask my parents if taking care of the Unusuals can be my job. It might help my case if I"ve actually spent some time in them. The Art House is empty when I get there, and I"m shocked to see that three walls are now completely covered! I guess with all the people here now, it shouldn"t be that surprising, but it still is. I wouldn"t have thought so many people could paint. No two are alike, even though a lot of people have painted different things in the campground.
I"m about to leave when one of the squares catches my eye. It"s of a group of kids sitting inside a small, brown room. A big silver object in the middle takes up most of the s.p.a.ce. I run up to the wall for a closer look. The kids are all laughing. I can see a rain-streaked window behind them, with a sliver of moon. One of the girls has shiny brown hair and blue eyes and she looks happy to be there. Is that me? Who painted this? Melanie"s really good at art, maybe she did it. I have to force myself not to touch the scene with my fingers. Only one person has their back to the viewer. Jack. And he had said something about liking to draw when we were up there that night. The fact that the moonlight illuminates Ally"s face so she looks like an angel confirms it. He did this, for sure.
I take one last look, then hurry off to the next Unusual-the stream where people pan for gold. People are starting to mill about now, and excitement is thick in the air. I"ve been noticing things like air lately, how it feels and how it looks at different times of the day. And the sounds of the campground, the birds constantly chirping, and the squirrels and chipmunks scampering through leaves and up trees.
When I get to the stream it"s packed with kids dipping their pans in the water and bouncing the gold nuggets in the air. Kenny must have put a ton of nuggets in there, because no one is coming up empty. The Star Garden is next, but when I get there a few guys are loading the telescopes on carts. I haven"t had my iPod on all morning, and I suddenly feel the need to take a break from all this nature. I put on my earphones and settle down on the slope to watch them. One of the guys slips on the still dewy gra.s.s and almost drops a telescope. I jump a little. I guess I must already be feeling a little territorial.
After listening to one more song, I head over to the Sun Garden. I haven"t been there since I first got a tour of the place. As I wander through, I let my hand trail over the tops of the different sun dials. I wonder who made all these. The memory of making one in third grade out of a pencil and a paper plate comes floating back to me. I remember bringing it home from school and setting it up in the backyard. I"d keep running out to make sure it was still keeping the right time. Then a few days later it rained, turning the plate into mush. I threw it in the outside trash can and haven"t thought of it since.
I want to stand in the big sun dial and see what it"s like to tell time by my own shadow, but a guy and his son are in there, and I don"t want to bother them. As I turn to leave, Melanie comes running toward me. "There you are!" she says. "I"ve been looking for you everywhere!"
"Looks like you found me."
"Mr. Silver called. Our experiment was a success! We"re going to be written up in some scientific journal! Can you believe that? We"re famous!"
No, I really can"t believe it. This is what I"m famous for? I didn"t even do anything, not really.
"Aren"t you excited?" Melanie asks, her smile slacking a bit.
"I guess so. But I didn"t really do anything. I just read off some numbers and tried to keep Ryan from throwing up on your data."
"That"s important stuff!" she insists. "We were all in it together, and we all played an important part."
I think about that for a second. Written up in a journal. Me. Us. It"s crazy. But not crazier than being here in the first place. I smile. "You"re right. It"s pretty cool."
"Hey," she says, "I almost forgot." She reaches into her back pocket and hands me a folded piece of paper. "This fax came for you while I was in the office today. It"s from Claire."
I hurriedly unfold it. Life without text messaging has been soooo hard. Melanie heads over to the sun dials while I read the typed letter.
Hey there Breeziest Bree!