Just Another Day

Just Another Day



Kara woke abruptly to the beeping of her alarm. Rolling over to slam the button down, she yawned. As she stumbled to her bathroom, she stretched and flexed her muscles in an attempt to bring them to life. Try as she might she couldn’t get her eyes to focus in the pitch black surrounding her.

Pitch black?

Her eyes snapped open as she stopped dead in her tracks looking back at her alarm clock. It read 7:30 am just as it should.

“I’ll kill him.” She thought as she stomped back to her night stand. “If this is his idea of a joke, he is gonna pay.” Kara groped for her cell phone. Muttering under her breath about silly prankster thirteen year olds, she flipped it open and stared. The time said 7:32 am.

She sank down on the bed still staring at the phone. She had been so sure it would say 3:00 am or something. Surely this was another prank of Wesley’s. Changing her clock was just his style. She looked at the phone again, but it still said 7:32.

Kara flipped on the light and ran from the room. She went first to the big picture window in the living room yanking up the mini-blinds. All that she could see was inky blackness. There wasn’t any grey, shadowy light in the western sky. It was the beginning of June. The sun should be there.

She turned away completely perplexed, running again, this time to Wesley’s room.

“Wake up, sweetheart! Wake up!” She yelled in his ear. He could sleep through anything.

“Come on, honey, wake up. This is serious!”

“Wha....what is it? Mom! I don’t need to get up for another half an hour. Go away!” Wesley glared at her and pulled the blankets back up over his head.

“Get up! Something’s wrong. The sun isn’t coming up or something.” Kara cried, desperately pulling at the blankets.

“Oh Mom. Don’t you remember? The Sun went on vacation today.” He yelled through his comforter. “Now go away and let me sleep.”

“But....”

“Oh, never mind. I’m awake now.” He snapped, as he threw back the covers and stomped to the bathroom leaving his mom to stare helplessly after him.

“Remember? It was on the news last night. They said today was a vacation day for both the Sun and Moon. They left together. Don’t you remember?” His words were muffled by the bathroom door but Kara could hear him anyway. She just couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“OK, then how are we going to stay warm? We need the sun for that, you know.”

“Mom, you’re being silly. They went over that last night. The temperature should only drop about ten degrees. There is enough energy stored up in the atmosphere to last for at least one day.” His tone turned sarcastic, like only a teenager can do, making her feel stupid for asking. He opened the door and stood there, fully dressed with his hair slicked back. Catching sight of the look on her face he backed up a step.

“Sorry, Mom. Didn’t mean to be mean or anything, but you’re acting weird.”

“I’m just .....surprised. That’s all. I just don’t remember all this.” Kara walked to the kitchen in a daze. “What do you want for breakfast?”

“Cereal’s good. I want to get to school early. I’m meeting Lawrence in the ......”

“School!” She interrupted him. “No way, not today. I need to figure this out, and I want you here.”

“Mom! You never let me stay home unless I’m drop dead sick, and I want to go. There’s gonna be all sorts of cool things today. You are acting so weird!” He emphasized each word of his last sentence as he flopped into a chair.

Tired beyond words and unable to argue further, Kara gave in after firmly insisting on driving him instead of his usual half mile walk. She tried to collect her thoughts during the five minutes it took to reach the school. As Wesley planted the perfunctory kiss on her cheek, he reminded her to pick up the things for his science project. With that he was gone, blending in with the stream of kids entering the building. They were all laughing and talking. Other than the velvet blackness, everything appeared normal.

Walking through WalMart a few minutes later, Kara shook her head at how calm everything seemed. The other shoppers were smiling and chatting as usual. Catching snippets of conversation here and there, she thought her eyebrows would fall off from being lifted so many times. She listened in disbelief.

“Well, I hear they are going to the other side of the galaxy....”

“You know Moon has been after Him to do this for months. They really need....”

“About time He took some time off. Been wanting....”

Afterward, Kara couldn’t face going to the office supply store for the rest of the list. She drove home muttering to herself about scientific impossibilities. She still hadn’t worked it all out by the time she got there, so she did the only logical thing. The house had never been cleaned like it was that day. Ever so often she made a little squeaking noise and shook her head.

Trying to appear normal for Wesley, she was quiet for the rest of the evening until he kissed her goodnight, wishing her sweet dreams.

“Yeah, right.” She thought holding him tightly.

Kara settled in for a long vigil of watching her window. Her eyes grew bleary as she stared out into the moonless night. The last thing she remembered was giggling as she thought how pathetically single she was, and even the sun and moon could find each other for a romantic get away.
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Kara woke abruptly to the beeping of her alarm. Rolling over to slam the button down, she yawned. As she stumbled to her bathroom, she stretched and flexed her muscles in an attempt to bring them to life. The morning sun streaming through her window lit her way. She smiled.

Later, at breakfast, she brightly chattered to her son about how nice it was to have the sun back. Wasn’t it wonderful that everyone gets a break, and where did he think they went for their vacation? Turning with a plate of eggs in her hand, she caught sight of his horrified expression. It clearly said “Oh-my-gosh-she’s-flipped!”

"Mom, what are you talking about? The sun and moon couldn't go anywhere. It is a scientific impossibility. Are you feeling OK?" He was looking at her intently with a little bit of fear in his eyes.
As she put the plate down in front of him, Kara just smiled. She didn’t care. It was a beautiful day.