A Light In The Dark - Episode 12.

- Episode 12 -

The short walk to school seemed strangely long to Jack. Each step felt like a heavy thud, his feet didn't seem to like the idea of taking the rest of him to school. But Jack was sure he had done his very best like his Dad had told him, so he was proud of himself. Having to waive goodbye to his Dad though, that kind of felt like waiving goodbye to a boat while you were swimming in the ocean with sharks.

As scary as the dark was, Mr. Graves was pretty spooky himself. Jack reminded himself that he couldn't let himself be scared, that and he had to hurry or else he would be late again. Being late didn't seem like a good thing to do two days in a row. As he hurried to class Jack noticed Mr. Graves wasn't at his desk, but he decided it best not to stop and just went straight to his seat.

It wasn't until long after the school bell rang that Mr. Graves came into the room walking so fast he was almost jogging. "Change of plans today everyone," he said as he tried to catch his breath. "I want everyone to follow me outside for a special surprise lesson." The whole class was shocked, nobody even moved to stand up. Mr. Graves had to repeat himself again, "I said, everyone will follow me outside for a special assignment." Pausing by the door he added, "Now."

Still not sure what to make of Mr. Graves' announcement the class started to line up behind him and silently followed him outside. While everyone else was wondering what their teacher was up to, Jack was still asking himself; "what about my homework?" He had worked hard on it and was proud of it. But his attention soon turned to the sky, it didn't seem to look right. Something was wrong with the Sun and the Moon, they were not supposed to be that close to each other. He couldn't help but think they might crash into each other or something.

"What we are going to see today, is a once in a lifetime event," Mr. Graves said. He seemed as excited as Jack and Walter usually was on Christmas morning. "We are going to be lucky enough to see an eclipse, and not just any eclipse either. There are even reports that during this particular eclipse we may get to see a rare kind of meteoroid."

The sky began to darken further and the darker it became the more excited Mr. Graves got. This had to be something he had always dreamed of, Jack thought. But a part of him, something small and deep inside, couldn't shake the idea that something was wrong. At first he thought that maybe it was just his fear of the dark, because if the sun was covered up it would get pretty dark outside. Even though the thought scared him a little, it wasn't what was bothering him.

And then it hit him - Mr. Graves had said meteoroid. Wasn't that what they called rocks in space that could fall to the ground and make those crater things?

Why did they have to be outside again?