There was something ethereal about the day.
It was almost noon but the sky had a strangeness to it. The ancient ceremony was to happen today.
Something that had seen lamb, cows and even humans slaughtered in many places of worship in the past.
Thankfully, those days were long, long gone. Some still believed it was a sign of the end times. If it was, I chose to enjoy them comfortably. I sat on the porch with a mint julep containing a single cube of ice and watched as the shadows turned. The light fading and intensifying simultaneously.
It was one of those days you dream about from your childhood. The grass was a foot taller, the trees twice as large and the distance to our house from the end of the yard immense.
The seasons had just begun to change and the various species of trees in the yard were vivaciously strewn with ivy and wisteria. The grass making up the bulk of the yard was carefully manicured with the rare leaf or stick scattered about.
Something was odd today.
There was almost no street noise yet I could hear the murmuring of a soft stream in the distance but knew of none. As the leaves fell from the trees in the yard, they moved strangely in slow motion towards the ground.
They caught me.
I didn’t study religion, I was more an atheist than anything else so I could not explain what was happening. I had no grasp of reality at that moment while I was watching them twirl to the ground.
I could feel the icy cold glass in my hand and smell the fresh cut grass trimmings and the mint in my julep. Filling my lungs with the fresh air gave me a vibrance I had never before known.
Everything half-light illuminated was brighter than ever before…
The Waltz of the Eclipse
The sun laid behind the moon as quiet leaves razored through the air. Light glimmering off the edges of each as they danced to the ground.
The lilting sunlight trickled through the branches leaving half-moonlit shadows.
Birds weaved in and out of the trees. A buck strode right to left across the yard. No less than four chipmunks darted up the rough edges of the large oak tree. A rabbit dashed past and into the neighbor’s yard.
Something was different.
The sound… it woke his senses.
Almost the same as that of running water, yet no trace could be found.
He took in the glamour of the eclipsing day and realized it was the wind rustling carelessly through the leaves, making them pirouette…
As they danced to the ground.
Jack Rupple
