I guess I could say I didn’t really know her. But that is no reason to conclude that I had no feelings for her. I learned very quickly you can become attached to someone quickly; especially with a beautiful girl. So even though I didn’t know her, I still felt close to her. Closer than I’ve ever felt with a girl.

Our meeting was entirely accidental. It all happened on a train in downtown Chicago. I was on my way to my mother’s house for Thanksgiving dinner with my family. When I got on the train I grabbed the first seat available (right next to the doors). Three stops later, I noticed a nice looking girl board. My eyes followed her secretly to where she was sitting. When she took the seat across from me I was terrified; I had no idea what to do.

My eyes fixed to her and wouldn’t move. I struggled to shift my glance to the right a little so that if she asked, What are you looking at?, I could say, Just something behind you, out the window.


Her eyes rose from looking at her hands clasped together and stared directly into my eyes. Staring Contest.

“Are you ready?”

“Pardon me, ready for what?”

“The 12’o’clock eclipse, of course.”

I proceeded to tell her I had no idea such a thing existed, then asked what it was.

“It’s a rather strange occurrence, actually. When the sun reaches it’s highest point in the sky, at 12:00, noon, the sun turns black for a quick second. If you blink or lose concentration or anything, you’ll miss it. Most people don’t believe it exists because they can’t focus long enough or be patient for one damn minute and enjoy the view.”

Now, normally I’m not one to believe such ridiculous claims. But this girl sitting across from me could have convinced me of anything. Her beauty had me lost; convinced that all reality could be disorientated at her command.

“Well,” I asked, “Have you ever seen this eclipse?”

“I’m on my way to my house now to watch it. My deck offers the perfect view.”

The train came to a halt at my stop. I said my goodbye to this beautiful girl and as I stepped off the train she said:

“My name is ?”

Right before she could finish, I mean literally right as she was making the first letter, the train doors slammed shut and the train took off. So here I was, cold and without a name on the platform of the railway. I could make out the first letter; her mouth made the shape most mouths make when they are going to spit the letter “L” out.

Even though I didn’t know this girl, I felt very close with her. Emotionally, we had a very strong connection to the point of, dare I say it, love. No, no, that’s a foolish thing to say; nobody really falls in love that quickly. I was merely infatuated with this girl, even though I didn’t know anything about her. Not even her name.

I arrived at my mom’s house at 11:30. I went inside and greeted the family: aunts, uncles, cousins, and nephews. While talking to my uncle Jim, my eye caught the clock from its corner; 11:59. I rushed outside into the backyard and stared directly upward into the sun’s glaring face. My eyes grew sore from the burning rays but I was determined to catch the 12’o’clock eclipse; something inside told me she was looking for this eclipse just as I was. In my mind I felt that if I watched the eclipse at the same time as her, we would have that connection again, like we did on the train.

Right as my eyes felt as if they couldn’t take the agonizing brightness, something happened. As if by some unnatural magic, the sun turned black, but only for a second. The sun actually turned black.