I told Mike to record this last bit, since he had this whole idea from the start, but he insisted that I had to do it. I was in fact the first one from the four of us to see the sun shining again. The vodka did hit pretty well, I guess sharing half of a bottle with three people is the right equation. I kinda remember Thom wishing it all to be back to normal but I was too sleepy to care about it. When I woke up I needed to pee really badly, so I stood up and searched for a good place to do it.
So I grabbed my headlight, turned it on and stumbled tol this nearby bush and relieved myself. My vision was a bit blurry because I was still very sleepy, but that's when I saw part of the sky near the horizon was a little bit lighter than its surroundings. I rubbed my eyes and tried to see a little bit clearer and it was, without doubt, sings the sun was about to come out. I remember looking back to my friends and thinking how badly I wanted to wake them up, but I hesitated. Maybe the sky was just a bit lighter because of some other reason, and I know it sounds stupid, but try spending a whole day without sunlight, you'll start to second guess the most obvious things.
I decided not to wake them up, and sat somewhere I had a clear view of that part of the horizon. It was for maybe half an hour that I sat there anxiously, thinking to myself: what if it wasn't true? I think I must have slapped my face a few times to make sure I wasn't dreaming, but as the sky got lighter and lighter I knew I wasn't going crazy, the sun was actually back. I was jumping around in excitement, but it was only when I saw the tip of the sun rising on the horizon that I went to wake everyone up. But I was so nervous that I just shook Mike up at first.
He was confused and seemed very angry, but when I pointed to the sky he opened a big smile. Then he got serious again and looked back to me, then to Thomas, who was fast asleep. He looked up to me, even more confused than before.
"Come on and see." I helped him get up and he walked slowly to the far east side of the summit.
He smiled again, startled, looking at the sun and then back at me, repeatedly. Mike raised his hands to the back of his head, slowly scratching his hair.
"Shit!"
"I know, right?!" I replied.
"So it worked? Thomas really did it?"
"I don't know, but what else can we assume?"
"Shit!" He laughed and started punching the air as he jumped, it was the funniest thing. "Should we wake them up?"
Mike didn't wait for an answer, he went back to our sleep spot and started shaking both Thom and Sofy. Poor Thomas could barely open his eyes, everything was way too bright for him, even tho he probably was in pain, he shortly understood what happened.
"Oh my god..." Sofy started, but she didn't find the right words to say.
Mike helped Thomas up, who remained speechless for a while and the three of them walked back to where I was, Mike still couldn't stop smiling, Sofy was both confused and happy, Thomas looked like he was dead, he didn't express anything other than having a mild migraine. One thing I knew everyone was feeling for sure, was relief.
"Wow..." Sofy said, but again she didn't go on.
"You did it Thom-Thom." Mike slapped his shoulders, but he didn't seem to mind.
"Fuck, I really did..." He said, barely believing himself.
Honestly, I think sunrises are boring. It's just a blue sky slowly changing its shade, there is a little bit of yellow here and there, and then it's done. The aftermath is pretty shitty too, you gotta wake up, the whole day is ahead of you, it's hot and nothing very exciting happens. But the sunset is amazing, every day is a different show of colors. One day it might be orange mixed with dark blue, some other day it's a beautiful rose colored sky. And afterwards it's night time, and that's when all the magic happens.
Still, that sunrise will probably stay on my mind forever as one of the most beautiful sun-arts I've ever seen, due to the obvious circumstances. It was a moment of victory, a selfish victory since probably only the four of us will ever hear about how it's likely that Thomas fucked everything up, and then fixed everything up again using a shooting star.
"Ok, we won, yay! Now someone please take me to a café. I need some fucking breakfast." Thom begged us.
We didn't argue. Mike gave me the car keys, since I was probably the most fit to drive at that moment, and we headed back to the city. It felt weird how everything was back to normal, we even wondered if we were the only one that went through that, sort like a shared hallucination, but when we got to the breakfast place, we knew we were not.
The service was normal, the food tasted amazing, but the waiters couldn't stop talking about the events of the previous day, or previous night, however you want to call it. There were a bunch of old guys drinking their morning coffee and reading newspapers who were also talking about it. Of course the TV was on that too, but everyone would talk about it differently. We checked the internet too, and it was all sorts of theories about it.
There was a channel claiming that due to heavy solar flares, Earth's magnetic field was damaged and all living creatures got confused, which led to us humans losing track of the time and realize it has been a whole day without the sun, when it was actually just one night. Of course no one believed that bullshit. NASA stood its ground saying that they didn't know anything for sure but theorized that a gigantic thing must have blocked the sun for around 24 hours, but its satellites didn't capture anything.
Religious fanatics praised it was God testing our faith, and even the more religious fanatic said it was actually The Rapture and those who died on the lightless day were the saved ones, and all the rest of us are doomed in the forgotten world. Eventually everyone ended up calling it the day the sun didn't rise, which is my personal favorite because it sums up pretty much everything it was.
Four months have passed since that day, and the reason of the time difference between the last bit Mike recorded and this one, was simply because when he was done with it, he put the recorder in my room, next to a pile of things I was gonna take to my parent's house. I must have been on a hurry when I got the box to put everything in and ended up shoving the recorder along with all the rest. I just recently found it when I visited my parents for Christmas and we decided to bring this to a closure.
During breakfast, after we got back from that hill, we decided on a few things. First we named that meeting, since it was a special one, we decided to call it The Dark Meeting, Mike's idea of course, because it was on a dark day, and because the contents of it should not be discussed openly. That was actually the second decision, the things that happened during that meeting should remain between the four of us, and this recorder.
We also agreed on a very important meeting promise: not wishing on shooting star, ever again. Not for the good, not for the bad. Thomas and I disagreed at first, we could use this power for the good, wish for no more wars or hunger. But Sofy reminded us that both Thom's wishes were taken very literal, and maybe if we asked for any of that, humanity could disappear, ending both war and hunger, because, you know, we'd all be dead. Eventually we all agreed on it, and we also forgave Thom for breaking his previous promise, Sofy claimed since she wasn't there, it wasn't a official meeting, therefore not an official meeting promise.
The four of us still hung out for a while till the end of the summer, until everyone went back to college, we are not talking that much, but I can feel we are on better terms than before this all happened. I'm pretty sure Sofy and Thomas went on dates before they left, but I can only assume. As for society, they moved on and eventually forgot about it, around a month later, no one on the internet seemed to remember it anymore. So I'd say everything was fine in the end, without further consequences. My boss didn't even get angry I missed a day of work without prior notice.
Mike is asking me to tell the story about the day we hunted down an unicorn. I know it may sound a bit odd, but I swear there is a very rational explanation for all of it. it is a really funny story I gotta admit it, but I think we may need another tape for that.
The end.
