Pinch the Sun from the Sky

The sun's final sliver hovered over the Ibiza horizon as James pinched Shauna's knee to his right. They watched from the roof of a 20-story hotel three blocks from the beach. The two of them sang together:

"Oh, tell me why, do we build castles in the sky? Oh, tell me why….".

"I would pinch the sun from the sky for you if I could," James whispered.

Shauna began to laugh as James belted the female vocal with eyes closed to disastrous effect. The ecstasy pills from the previous night were still lingering, and both were keen to embrace the moment before an evening in the hotel. James' high note and Shauna's laugh were stopped dead by a short but jolting rumble to the Earth beneath them.

"Terremoto!!!" a distant voice screamed.

The couple jumped up and leaned against each other to maintain balance. The sliver of sun in the distance began to flicker like a disco light.

"That was beyond an earthquake," James said to Shauna. A violent thrust sent both of them to the ground. As they sat there trembling, the sun rose again above the horizon. James and Shauna held each other while those on the beach and ground beneath did the same or darted off in various directions.

"James, what is it? Is it the pills?" Shauna cried.

"No, my head is clear", he replied.

The sun quickly rose to a late afternoon height and stopped. The Earth rumbled again, and the sun shifted down to the position of early evening. As Shauna looked through squinted eyes at the misplaced star, she could make out a hand holding the sun in place. "Can you see that, James? This has to be the drugs!"

"James looked closely, his eyes partially shielded by his Oakleys. "No, it's there; that is a hand." Two fingers are pinching the sun like a ping pong ball…."

As he spoke, the surrounding screams rose to deafening levels as an enormous finger parted the sky and entered gently into the sea. The finger shone a brilliant turquoise, and scrapes and bruises decorated its surface. Following a more incredible rumble, the Earth was rotated back and forth by the finger, throwing people 10 feet either way. James and Shauna were kept on the roof by a 5-foot-high parapet.

The Mediterranean Ocean flooded the beach before flushing the town beneath them further inland. Screams of the drowning could be heard, while the sun's movement manifested to the terrified crowds as a dimming and brightening of light. The air temperature fluctuated ten degrees up and down again and again. James and Shauna held each other and couldn't look. Somehow, the hotel remained standing.  

Shauna found the courage to look again at the giant finger. She saw its multiple sections pulsate as it twisted and shifted the globe in one direction after the other. As she observed more closely, she witnessed the gravitational pull as boats and swimmers flew to its lower region.

"James, what is going on? Smiley faces are sick, you said. This isn't a smiley comedown."

"This isn't the damn drugs," James cried back."

A second finger then lowered from the sky to position itself further inland. It began to sweep buildings away side-to-side as if clearing a space. Still, their hotel remained untouched.

Booms and crashes accompanied the screams as waters sounded beneath like a power shower to the ear. James got gazed upwards. The sky had dimmed. "Look!" he said.

The couple focused to see the intricacies of a giant palm of a hand as the lone finger wreaked havoc around them. The cold air had hit sub-zero temperatures, and they trembled now for warmth, and not only with fear.

"What is happening?" Shauna said. "Is this a dream? Whether I am dreaming or just tripping out, don't ever let me swallow anything small and round ever again!"

"I wish it were sweetheart," James replied. This giant hand, this rumbling Earth, that sun, it's all real…"

 Shauna felt herself being pulled backward along the roof's surface by the gravitational pull of the unidentified hand. As this happened, James wrapped his arm around a nearby pipe and held onto Shauna. Their screams were drowned out by a slow crackling with intermittent taps from above.

The people around all seemed to quieten as if in anticipation before a booming audio bellowed over the landscape in a strange, high-pitched language. The blocks of sound scratched and squealed before a semblance of English emerged from the din.

"Apologies, species. One of our young misplaced its favorite rock. We are currently searching for it. Your side of this galactic body is currently the least affected, as your opposite is the site for the thumb in what you call a pinch. All efforts are being made to minimize long-term damage."

The couple became entranced through shock and seized to acknowledge their surroundings. Their minds wavered between the previous night's dancefloor and the harmonies they felt and sang during the world's last conventional sunset.

As they lay trembling but calming, the chaos around them quietened. The floods began to recede, and the screams reduced in number. Shauna opened her eyes to see the sun finally set for good from cloud height to over the horizon. A second agonizing scream, reminiscent of an infant, bellowed from the sky.

The fingers rose, and the hand moved away.

"We could have gone to Blackpool," Shauna sobbed. "Why did we have to party in Ibiza?"

"I think they're gonna hear about this in Blackpool, sweetheart,"

James replied. "Just hold me. Everything is going to be over soon."

"You don't know that!!!" Shauna shouted.

"I don't know what over means, but it's gonna be over," he added.

James and Shauna slept.

Hours later, they awoke as the sun rose from the inland east. They stood and walked to the roof's edge, looking down into the demolished city. James pinched Shauna's shoulder.

"No more pills, James," Shauna said.

"Not much more of anything," James replied.

They watched in the distance as the Mediterranean swished itself to a calm.