Clover Eclipse

 For thousands of years, the town of Avenue has been gathering around for the eclipse for quite some time, and yet people have been waiting for it to come. All eyes were looking up at the sky. The shadow crossing over the sun was a sight to see. They hadn’t seen anything like it before.

Three years later the sky went dark and stayed dark. After the eclipse, it seems that humanity has been wiped out. Avenue-Two is a city, where buildings crumble before you can walk inside them. Stood tall and the clouds were gray. Up in the sky, there’s a building that looks like a Roman monument. Down below, overpopulated towns and houses looked like Favelas in Brazil.

That’s just their imagination. Humanity hasn’t been wiped out. Those were just rumors. A small town named Amastiada had been working on a way to fix the dark sky. Before the eclipse was able to pass through and return back to normal, everything was fine. Until the next one came. There was a ring of light around the sun that stayed there. Looking up at it seems unreal.

“Some sighting this eclipse was,” Clover lowered her binoculars down and placed them on the windowsill. The sky is blue today with very few clouds. Clover ran back to her seat and went to work on the eclipse sighting. “The next one won’t come until the afternoon…” She tapped away on her computer, furrowing her eyebrows. “Don’t worry about it, let’s just hope that this next one won’t be stuck like last time.” A girl with purple and blue hair smiled, carrying small boxes up the stairs. Clover didn’t look up from her computer. “Clover…” She dropped the boxes down near the door. “Utaemon, don’t bother her, she’s not in the best mood today.” A boy Clover’s age walked inside the room behind her. Utaemon pouted. “She’s always like this, Dayu.”

Dayu walked passed Utaemon. He came up behind Clover and covered her eyes. “Ugh, Dayu!” He took his hand away from her face. “Kimi, take a break. You need it. You have been working endlessly with Amastiada.”

Kimi brushed her pastel coral hair back with her fingers. “I’m fine...we have to figure out why the eclipse stopped.”

Dayu shook his head and shrugged, he sat next to Utaemon near the windowsill. She played with Clover’s binoculars. She looks up at the sky. “Do you think that everyone will be able to see it?”

Clover looked up from her computer, fixing her glasses on her face. “Of course, as long we are in it’s path. I just checked with Masakado and he said that we will be able to see the eclipse.”

Dayu watched Utaemon looking around with the binoculars. Clover has worked with Amastiada for years, Tracking the eclipse path of darkness. The last two entries in her journal followed Avenue and Avenue Two. She talked to one of the people there, and they mentioned that it turned into some dystopian wasteland. Clover didn’t believe it.

The three went out to meet with Masakado near the meeting spot for the eclipse. The town felt closed in with all of the houses packed in tightly. Amastiada is a traditional town with Spanish features. They all strolled down the sidewalk as the other families walked past them. “Kimi?” Dayu said. “So what’s the problem?”

“I’m just checking to make sure that it doesn’t get stuck in total darkness. The last time in Avenue Two, humanity was wiped out—”

“Isn’t that just a rumor? That guy that told you about...must have been some conspirator. You never know Kimi? It could just be a regular eclipse.”

“Dayu?” Utaemon asked. “Why do you call her Kimi?”

“Because that’s her actual name. Clover is just a nickname.” Responded Dayu.

Utaemon nodded.

At the meet-up, Masakado was standing near a group of people in the park. Clover called out to him, and he turned and waved them down.

“Glad you made it.” Masakado smiled. “Clover, did you bring the journal?”

“Yeah, I did. I kept track of the last two events.” They followed Masakado down the path, where a camera was set up to get a picture of the eclipse. Masakado handed each of them solar binoculars.

“In the last two events of the solar eclipse, did anything stick out to you?” Maskado asked as he flipped through the journal. “Nothing really, I do think that the second eclipse that happened in Avenue Two is a lie. Humanity wasn’t wiped out as they claimed. But I do think that something is happening with all of the three planets.”

Masakado looked up the journal, sighing. “I agree, but this afternoon we are watching to see if the sky will get dark. I’m hoping that something good would happen.”

Clover puts the binoculars up to her face, watching the sun. Nothing happened. Everyone in the park waited with bathed breaths.

It’s been about an hour and nothing occurred. Were her sightings wrong? As she kept looking, she saw the moon block the sun and the sky went dark. Everyone was in awe with the solar eclipse in totality. The people cheered with excitement. Dayu and Utaemon cheered as well seeing the black sun with their binoculars. Clover lowered her binoculars when the bird stopped chirping. She turned back to Masakado who was taking the picture of the eclipse. She slipped away taking Masakado’s journal off of the small table. She walked to the bench with a lamp post on and sat down.

She jotted down everything that happened: the birds chirping, the flowers closing right beside her, and the crickets as well. It didn’t make sense. She convinced herself it’s just nature and the way of the world. Deep down, she was expecting something disastrous like in those dystopian books she read.

“Maybe it’s a natural thing and I should leave it alone.” She said to herself. She looked up at the sky through her binoculars and saw the most beautiful thing ever. A bright light appeared when the shadow moved. The sky slipped back slowly into a bright blue sky. Clover got to writing everything that happened this afternoon.