Rare Events
"Monday I'm going to drive up to see the total eclipse. Anyone want to come with me?"
The other girls laughed when Dan, one of our housemates, announced he was going skip classes and drive almost 200 miles north to see the solar eclipse in its glorious totality,
"I thought we could see it here, no?" I asked.
"Only a partial here. You'll see a bite out of the sun, but it won't lose much of its brightness. Totality is where the sun gets completely occluded and it turns so dark you can see stars."
Obviously, I hadn't paid much attention, but on reflection it seemed like a chance to take since I didn't have class on Monday, and it wasn't supposed to happen again for twenty years. After thinking about it for a second, I said, "Wow, yeah, that sounds amazing. I want to go!"
Tom said he had a test scheduled and couldn't skip it.
"Nobody else, really? Okay Jen looks like it's the just you. Monday morning! I'm leaving at 7:30 if you're serious."
I groaned at that. He knew I wasn't an early riser. "AM? Fuck!"
"Well, be down here by 7:30 if you want to go."
"Is the weather going to cooperate? I don't want to get up that early for nothing!"
"We'll see, I guess. Got eclipse glasses?"
Of the six of us who share our ramshackle, old, college town house--four girls and the two guys, all of us seniors and graduating soon--Dan is the quiet one. He keeps to himself and rarely participates in group stuff with the rest of us, though he isn't obnoxious about it. He's cute enough, and nice, but didn't seem to have a girlfriend (or a boyfriend), or even to date as far as I knew. He'd rather spend Saturday night in the gym alone than at a party with us. He was a bit of a mystery and I'd always been a little intrigued with him. Perhaps that's why I found him so sneakily attractive. Though we'd all lived in the house together for almost two years, I couldn't read him. Tom on the other hand is an open book, always shagging some new girl, a little too noisily, and doesn't much hide his appreciation of the women in the house. He never hits on us though--that's the rules. I'm probably the closest to a girl version of Tom, with a few foibles of my own. Still, it's worked out well; we've managed to avoid housemate drama, even though we women are a pretty attractive bunch, if I do say so myself.
~~~~~~~//~~~~~~~~
Monday morning, I heard the water running at an ungodly hour, and knew Dan was chomping at the bit. I thought it didn't start until sometime in the afternoon, why so damned early? I dozed until the alarm went off at seven, laid in bed debating for a few minutes, but finally deciding I did want to go, ran in for a quick shower, half awake, pulled on some yoga pants and a sleeveless tee. I normally keep my C-cups under wraps, but couldn't be bothered with a bra, figuring a sweatshirt provided plenty of cover. Got downstairs, damp hair and all, right at 7:30. Dan was waiting in the kitchen, and didn't say anything, but handed me a Yeti full of coffee with a smirk.
"Thanks."
"I'm all loaded up, let's hit the road!"
Without further ado we climbed in his old Subaru (figures, right?) and headed north, driving in virtual silence for an hour, watching the overcast skies.
Feeling a little gloomy about the clouds, I finally asked, "Where exactly are we headed, Dan? And why did we have to leave so early just to look at these clouds?"
"Well, I don't know, exactly..."
"What?!?"
"I'm headed up to the center of the totality zone, then cutting over through the 'burg to the lake shore park. I'm sure we'll find a good spot there."
"Whatever...well hopefully that will work. But we'll be getting there like, hours early, Dan."
I'm afraid my irritation at potentially getting up too early to see nothing was showing.
"I was worried about traffic; it's probably going to be crazy. Listen Jen, I'm going to stop at the next rest area. We can get some more coffee and there's some food in the cooler in back, we can have some breakfast when we get back on the road. I made some sandwiches for lunch, too."
"Okay. Wow, that was thoughtful. Thanks." Dan
was
an awfully thoughtful guy, really, even if he never said much. I smiled at him and admonished myself to be less bitchy.
When I visited the ladies' room, I realized I hadn't thought to put on a pair of panties, either. I prefer commando under yoga pants anyway, more freeing and I like the feeling, but now I was in public all day and felt a little self-conscious. I had to check myself in the mirror. Who the hell is awake enough to think at 7 AM before coffee anyway? Well, they were black, and at least no panty lines.
When we got back to the car Dan pulled out the cooler. I found he'd gotten some of my favorite pastries from the little bakery near our house.
"Oh, I love these!"
He smirked at me. "So I've gathered!"
"Thank you, Dan!"
The rest of the drive up was quiet, Dan taciturn as ever. The traffic was getting a bit crazy, but the clouds were thinning and seemed to be sliding off to the east. A corner of blue sky appeared in the distance! I started to get excited again, thinking maybe we were going to get lucky after all. Since there wasn't a lot of talking going on, I decided to make myself useful and use the map on my phone to search for promising spots.
"Hey Dan, how about if we get off the exit after next? It's the last exit south of town. From there it's only a mile or so to cut across to the lake, and it connects to a road north that looks like it runs right along the water, see?"
He couldn't really look at what I was showing him while driving and seemed a bit put off because that exit was five or ten miles short of the center of totality, but reluctantly agreed.
"Okay, I guess we can try that. We have time if that doesn't work."
As we drove along the lake shore, we realized it was quite a beautiful spot--and not crowded at all. Scattered houses, some quite lovely, lined the inland side of the road, but little on the lake side blocked the vista across smooth, blue water to the mountains rising over the opposite shore. For the most part there was an open view of the sky. We passed a small office front that appeared to be deserted, with a little dirt parking area in front, and turned back to investigate. By now the sun was shining, and when we got out of the car the calm air was warming nicely. It was turning into a perfect day for eclipsing.
"Hey Jen, check this out!"
Dan had crossed the road and was showing me a concrete pad slightly back from the shoulder of the road. It turned out to be the roof over a storage shed built into the bank overlooking the lake. Below it was an old dock.
"This is perfect! I can set up my cameras here on solid footing. I hope the owner doesn't come around and throw us out."
"Don't mean to be a party pooper, but I need to find a bathroom first..."
We drove further up the road to where we found a gas station for a pit stop, filling up while we were at it. I paid for the gas as thanks to Dan for bringing me along. When we returned, the chosen spot was still deserted. Dan dug out the camera stuff, set up two tripods on the pad by the lake, and started fooling around with his cameras. I feigned interest while he told me all about his lenses and filters, and what we should expect during the event. As the afternoon progressed the sun got quite warm, and I decided I had no choice but to doff my sweatshirt, that or suffer heat prostration. Seeing as it was Dan, I wasn't worried that he would be distracted by a little jiggling under my shirt.
Once Dan determined everything was ready, he pulled out the lunch, and we passed an hour munching, chatting, waiting for the event to begin. Now that the sky had cleared, he was evidently excited, and was a bit more talkative; it was pleasant. He told me his dad was a bit of an amateur photographer, and had shared some his nice equipment, just for the eclipse. We talked a little about where we came from, where we were bound after graduation, our plans, things I had never discussed with him before. Somewhat to my surprise he knew where I was headed to law school in the Fall. I knew he was in engineering but had no idea he was going to a grad program at MIT. M-I-fucking-T. Amusingly, I did notice him sneaking peaks below the neckline, but to be honest it didn't bother me, maybe the opposite. I mean, it was understandable, my shirt was a little snug, and I've been told they're nice. I felt like I was learning something about the guy.
Dan had the times all clocked out. At the appointed moment we pulled on our eclipse glasses and looked up to catch the beginning of overlap. Dan busied himself snapping off shots with the cameras. For quite a while we observed, and Dan clicked away, exchanging a few quiet thoughts, as the first nibble grew into larger and larger bites, but for the longest time I couldn't see any obvious changes in the daylight. Only in the last few minutes before totality was supposed to start did the sky clearly begin quickly dimming, until planets emerged in a spectacularly twilight sky as the last beads of unobstructed sunlight flickered.
Then, suddenly it seemed, the magical beauty of totality happened, darkness all around, the corona a blazing white fringe around the black hole of the moon, a few pink flickers visible at the border. Watching it with my own naked eyes was
so
much more stunning than I had anticipated. I was really and truly awestruck. People in the distance around us--who we couldn't even see--yelled and cheered as the sky went dark, the birds silent, and the air chilled. I can't really explain my visceral reaction, the thrill that coursed through my body from nips to toes, hairs raised, insides tightening, a tingling of excitement all over, even...down below...
"Oh my god!!!"
We watched, enthralled. Then in just three short minutes it was over, the moon moving on, the sky brightening, and the sun flaming back to its brilliant self as the invisible spectators clapped and hollered. I looked over at Dan, I'm sure my mouth agape, as he looked up from his camera and I caught his eye.
"Dan! Wow! That was so awesome, I can't believe what I just saw! Oh my god!"
I flung myself on him, wrapped him in my arms and hugged him tight, until I thought I felt a stirring in him, too... Here I should confess that I have passing familiarity with the male anatomy, having had a couple of boyfriends--and okay, a few miscellaneous others. That stirring I thought surely must be... I leaned back to look at his face and he reddened, looking bashful. Once again, I was a little surprised. I saw his eyes flick down again. No doubt my nipples were standing at attention under my tee.
"Sorry...I don't mean to be..." he stuttered.
