It seemed to be happening once more. Knowing things that didn’t make sense but still being able to convince people to trust that he actually knew what he was talking about. He didn’t quite know if this time things would be different, that he would be right, or if he would be wrong. Again.
Driving home alone from the dance Eric wondered which was the case? And after all, did it really matter? He shook his head when he realized it did indeed make a big difference because if he was finally right on something then he still had no idea how to deal with it. If it was like the past and he was wrong again then he at least had some idea how to approach it. Or did he?
Confused, Eric drove past his house. The sky was bright tonight with a full moon and lots of stars and not a cloud in the sky. When he got to the interstate he turned south and kept going for hours until the Low Fuel signal beeped and lit up. Then he got off at the next exit and hoped that some gas station would still be open this late. But there were none to be found still open. He sat there at the third one that was closed and noticed a light for a motel next door with a Vacancy sign lit up.
He pulled over to the motel, parked, and went in to ask for a room. He got a key to one and went to the room with no luggage since he hadn’t expected to be traveling tonight. He locked the door, threw the key on the desk, and plopped onto the bed. After a minute or two, he reached for the remote for the TV and turned it on. That’s when he saw it. The news report.
According to the reporter, there had been an explosion in the event center where he had been earlier. It must have occurred just after he had left the dance. Oddly enough there were no deaths and it was stranger still that no one had even been injured. Evidently, everyone had gone outside just moments before the explosion to watch a rare eclipse of the moon.
It seems that someone had told everyone that this was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see an eclipse that was so total that the sky would be completely pitch black. At first, just a few people were going out to see it but then the rest decided to join in the opportunity of a lifetime. So everyone was outside looking up at the moon and walking further and further out in the parking lot to see it away from the lights of the building.
That’s when they felt it and then turned to see it. Not a lunar eclipse but an explosion that leveled the event center and made them all run further away from the building. People were screaming and then looking for the people they knew. Friends were hugging and crying and then the sounds of fire trucks, police cars, and other emergency vehicles were heard getting closer and closer.
Everyone just looked at each other and then realized that if that one guy hadn’t told them to go see the eclipse that they would have been inside, dead or injured. Most likely dead.
As the fire trucks started trying to put out the fire the police started talking to those outside and trying to get an idea of who might still be inside. But they were told that everyone came outside, even the people working the event. All of them had been convinced that there was going to be a lunar eclipse and that going outside would be something that would change their lives forever. Something not to be missed.
Eric turned off the TV and rolled over onto his side on the bed. He really had thought there was supposed to be a lunar eclipse that night. Just before he fell asleep he thought to himself, guess I was wrong. Again.
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