Tahiti Eclipse

That was so long ago, decades maybe, in a country of mountains and water. One evening my brother told me:

- Tomorrow morning I’ll take you to the lake, something is going to happen…
I was still a child and life was full of surprises.  I didn’t ask any question.

The following day we went to the edge of the water with Showy, our dog, and we sat down. We were not alone which surprised me. The other people turned frequently their head toward the sky. My brother gave me a pair of flat glasses of a very dark purple, held together by adhesive tape.
- Look at the Sun, he said.

I watched the big yellow-orange ball. A round shadow had already hidden it. At this time I didn’t not know that it was the moon. We were waiting… as my brother didn’t keep me looking in the purple glasses, my eyes could watch around. On the small beach where we were sitting the atmosphere was unreal. Sometimes a bird chirped, but the notes he droped seemed to express a sort of anxiety and I felt Showy’s hair bristled slightly under my hand.

Then my brother said:
- Look at the mountain over there …

A purple shadow had appeared and was running at high speed toward the lake. A strange cold fell on my shoulders. I looked at the sun and I saw that he had almost completely vanished behind the black disk of the moon. Then a dazzling light burst, the last glow of a dying sun, sparkling like a diamond… tears streamed down my cheeks, the purple shadow had covered the lake and the mountains, the silence was total, like tangible, the atmosphere was poignant. Nature retained her breath; we reached the end of all time. My eyes were staring at the black star; a wonderful halo of radiating light and yet very gentle surrounded her. Dropping minutes seemed hours, I wished it couldn’t come to an end … and suddenly there arose again the fantastic explosion of light hanging at the edge of the black disk.

I stifled a last sob; my brother kindly put back the glasses over my eyes to watch the sun, like a phoenix revivingfrom its ashes. It was over. The nature woke up again, timidly, like arising from a dream or perhaps another dimension.

Nadine Heno

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