The Disappearing Sun

Lee woke up exhausted but eager to start his vacation. The college classes he took  were extremely difficult and went on for too long. He rubbed his temple, thinking about the stressful tests, the labs, the poetry readings. There were so many times he would stay up late at his desk sipping an energy drink while trying to finish work.  But, it was all over. He could relax now with a stress-free summer. He glanced at his clock, noticing that it was ten in the morning.

Rubbing his eyes, Lee slowly lifted the blankets off of himself and sat up in bed. His room was unexpectedly chilly for a day in this season. He rubbed his arms to warm himself up and felt rigid bumps pressing against the palms of his hands. There were goosebumps that formed on his forearms. 

Now more awake and concerned, he jumped off the bed and onto the floor. The wood flooring beneath him was freezing cold. It was like standing on ice. “Is something wrong with the air condit--,” Lee began to say until he noticed that a misty cloud of cold air formed around his lips. He watched it closely for a few seconds, wondering if he had lost his sanity. Walking briskly into the hallway, down the stairs, and into the living room, he approached his thermostat. It was set to 74 degrees, Fahrenheit. The temperature he usually set for warmer days. He scratched his head to cope with the stress and confusion. 

“Why is this happening?” He asked out loud desperate for help, even though he was home alone. The house temperature, the warm weather-- it didn’t make sense to him. He paused for a moment to think about what possibly caused this. 

He looked over to the windows which were covered by large, black curtains. He walked over and placed his hand onto it. Assuming that he would be greeted with bright sunlight, the curtains opened. But what he saw left him speechless. Frost was on the windows and was cold to touch. The grass had a brown and yellow tone, like how it shuts down when winter approaches. More importantly, the sky was dark gray and cloudy.

Without thinking, he ran to his front door and practically flew outside. As he ran, the chilly wind pushed against him, making the weather outside even colder than it already was. He stopped himself in his driveway and looked up. The sky looked dark and the sun was nowhere to be found. Although it was freezing outside, he didn’t care. He wanted answers.

As he continued to look up, small, white droplets slowly flowed down. 

“Is this-- Snow?” He said in disbelief. Soon, more and more droplets poured from the sky. Reaching his hand out as some fell into his hand, he looked at it closely. The solid droplet melted away into a liquid within seconds. He knew from the beginning what they were, but didn’t want it to be true. They were snowflakes. He started to shiver, not from the extremely cold weather but from nervousness. Something was wrong.

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Breathing heavily from just being in the freezing weather, Lee walked through the front door. The temperature inside was still pretty cold but not as bad as the outside. He was still shivering, though. He turned around to confirm it again and glanced at the outside. Snow was falling down heavier than before, but his hopes were falling faster. He kept repeating to himself that it was a dream but he knew it was a lie.

Lee walked over to the jackets hanging near the door and grabbed the one closest. It was a black, puffy coat. One that’s been worn and used for countless winters, yet still remains wearable. He slowly put it on over his head. He instantly felt safe and warm. His shirt underneath had leftover snow on it, which quickly melted away.

He stood there happily for a minute until his worries rushed back to him. 

“I’ve gotta check the news,” Lee said as he walked over to his television. He sat on the sofa with the remote in hand, and clicked the power button.

The screen was still black as the television was still booting up. He looked at the blank screen only seeing the dust and the smudges. This was another thing Lee had for years. It was an old hand-me-down from one of his friends. 

It eventually booted up while displaying the television’s brand name. Lee held his remote up and flipped through the channels. Most showed fast food or political advertisements. He continued to flip through until he finally found the news channel.

“--something is blocking the sun,” The news broadcaster announced. “Temperatures here have dropped 67 degrees and have shown no sign of stopping. We would like to advise everyone to stay calm and stay indoors unless absolutely necessary.”

Lee’s heart rate slowly increased as he continued to watch. 

Temperatures … dropping? That sentence kept repeating in his head. This whole situation seemed so crazy to him.

He then flipped to another channel which showed riots in stores along with preachers screaming in the streets. There were also reports of people robbing houses. The snow was falling heavily there and the wind remained strong. 

Suddenly, the screen went black. “Crap, power must be out,” Lee muttered. The misty cloud that escaped his mouth as he spoke was even clearer than before. It was getting colder now. But Lee ignored it and lifted himself up from the couch. He was determined to get out of this situation, to survive this. 

Lee continuously went up and down the stairs, fetching all of the blankets he had and clumping them into one pile. He then grabbed all of the bubble wrap he had in his house and laid it on the living room floor. Measuring it out and cutting it, he lined it up with the windows and taped it down. It was an extremely tedious task and took a couple hours but he eventually finished it. He sat down on the floor, relieved. Although it wasn’t a permanent solution to the weather, it was better than nothing. 

Lee wondered how bad the weather was outside so he walked over to his front door. He moved his eye up to the peephole and felt the coldness of the door press against his cheek. It looked like a blizzard and the snow on the ground reached halfway up to the door. It was an absurd amount of snow. He still couldn’t believe what was happening. 

He stepped away from the door, exhausted and started to walk over to his couch. His mind felt fuzzy and he just wanted to sleep. As he approached the couch and covered himself with all of the blankets, he closed his eyes, trying to sleep.

The cold prevented him from falling asleep immediately so he lay there for a while thinking about the day. After a little while, his eyes felt heavy and he drifted off to sleep.

Lee woke up to a crashing sound and the sound of the strong wind. He immediately looked at the clock and it was four in the morning. Standing up from the couch, he looked over to the location of the sound. A window was broken and the snow outside started to flood in.

“Is this happening to all of the windows?” Lee shouted as he ran to check the others. He nervously approached the windows, heart racing. He heard faint cracking noises in the distance.

 Earlier in the day, it was supposed to be a relaxing summer. Now, he was trying to survive the snow.