Cherry stood at the edge of the branch looking up into the darkening sky, he could feel the anxiety for what was going to happen tonight rising up in him, but it was a good sort of anxiety, he couldn't wait, and he just knew that by the time it ended, it would be the greatest thing ever.
He'd run all the calculations, speed, shape, mass, rotation of the Earth, atmospheric dissipation, all that mumbo-jumbo, and the results were conclusive, the small piece that remained of the meteor that was set to burn up in the atmosphere tonight, was going to land right here in this area – Cherry climbed down the tree and mapped out the ground in his head with his calculations – right about – he picked up a stick and drew a decent sized target on the ground - here.
Cherry sighed just thinking of what he could do with the space rock when it landed. Not everyday you gained a souvenir from out of this world, he knew it would be a special prize.
"Still expecting that meteor tonight?" Said a voice coming up behind him. Cherry turned around to see Sap and a couple other squirrel's come up. Among them was Selah. Cherry felt his heart grow light just by looking at her.
"Yeah," said Cherry, turning his attention quickly back to Sap, "Want to come watch it land?" He pointed to the target, emphasizing it's exact place of impact.
"Sure, if I have nothing better to do." Sap said. "Doubt you're right about this though, but we'll see." He looked at the others, "Come on guys, let's go, if we're lucky, the trees down by the river might still untouched."
As they scurried off to the river in their acorn collecting, Sellah stopped and took one last glance at Cherry, giving him a smile before she hurried after her brother.
Cherry felt his heart flutter. Every time he looked at her, he could feel it inside, tell that what she was going to witness tonight was going to be spectacular, that somehow, this meteor would just bring up in her special feelings for him that she couldn't even process. He didn't know how, but he could already feel the strings of destiny beginning to pull, and just the thought that she might be feeling special feelings about him tonight made him feel special feelings he couldn't even process. He wanted to giggle, they just felt so amusing, he didn't know why.
Hold it, he reminded himself, you don't want to rush into things. If she's going to feel...he tried to suppress his tittering... giggly feelings about you, then fine, but it has to be in her own time.
But he knew she was going to, he just knew, he just didn't know how.
As Cherry and a few other squirrels gathered around looking up at the night sky through the wide opening in the branches, Cherry couldn't help but feel the renewed excitement. A space rock, how special.
"Now remember everybody, stay away from the circle here, that's where the meteor's going to land. It's not going to be big enough to do real harm, as long as we stay out of the way."
Cherry looked at his target on the ground, standing as close as he dared, but not too close. As much as he hoped for a bullseye, he knew that even with his advanced calculations, that was a longshot. Anything could happen on the way down, and even the slightest miscalculation could send it far off target. But he was confident in his abilities. Taking into account the margin of error, as long as everything stayed on course, the piece of the meteor still should land somewhere in the circle.
"Look!" Selah suddenly cried, fascination in her voice, and there it was in the sky, a shooting star, the meteor entering the atmosphere, flashing through the sky one moment full of beauty, then winking out of sight. Cherry looked at Selah, warmed to witness such a wonderful event with her, the strings of destiny pulling them even closer to what was about to happen.
