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May 2, 2007

5.2.07

"Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's ..."

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Jim: Celestial Signpost

Grampa squinted, following my pointing finger. “Oh, that!” he grinned. “That, my boy, is a comet.”

“A comet,” I whispered reverently. It’s wispy tail shone clearly in the indigo sky of early dusk. Then, “What’s a comet, Grampa?”

He continued to stare at it while we walked side-by-side up the stony trail. “Mostly a giant ball of ice,” he explained. “The sun makes them melt.”

I stopped walking. “Uh. Grampa?”

He plodded ahead, eyes fixed skyward. “Folks used to think they were evil omens,” he mused. “Harbingers of Doom, they were called.”

Without looking down, Grampa stepped off the cliff.

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David: Strange Visitor

“Superman!” Timmy cheered along with the TV. Sitting inches away from the grainy black and white screen, wearing his Lone Ranger mask, and clutching his official Roy Rogers Cap Pistol in one hand and Little Orphan Annie decoder ring in the other, Timmy’s eyes glazed over as he recited the introduction to the Man of Steel’s latest adventure, oblivious to everything beyond that 15-inch window into the world of the amazing. The world where good guys won, bad guys got foiled by the end of the hour, and justice prevailed.

It helped him ignore the sounds from his mother’s room.

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Dave: Family Reunion

"So -- why are we meeting, um, who here?"

"It is an open space," Chrys told him, "and away from prying eyes.  While none can see my uncle without his consent, it is simpler for him to deny his august presence to as few people as possible."

"Huh."  Roger refrained from comment on augustness.  He'd met some of her relatives before, but -- "So where is he?"  He looked back toward the road.  No other cars were in sight. 

"Ah!" Chrys said, smiling broadly.  "He comes!"

"Where --?"  He followed her gaze -- upward.

A shadow fell across them.

"Oh," he said.  Then added, "My."

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