Falling

**Sensitive Content Warning-Animal death is mentioned (birds)**

The sky is falling. My forearm feels the sting of the sun's heat as I try to shield my eyes to no avail. A warm breeze that could only happen in the middle of a summer day brushes my pale green dress against my legs. Birds sing their daily songs in trees nearby. Another dead fly hits my wrist and I shake it off into the pile of a dozen or more scattered around my feet. People walk in the park like they usually do. No one else seems to notice the odd number of unmoving flies. Maybe the grass is still too long. 

I shift my gaze back to the sun. I can't tell if it has shifted somehow, it's too far away and too difficult to look at straight on. I have tried to figure it out, but I'm no scientist. All I know is the sky is falling. 

It has been for some time. I told someone once. A famous news reporter in our small town, because I thought it might be something people should know about. He laughed in my face, and he kept laughing as he walked away. I told my family too, said we should maybe look into some precautionary measures but I didn't know where to start. My dad, brothers and sister looked at me with skepticism. Without saying a word, they went back to their soft conversations over their meal of meatloaf and potatoes. Mom smiled and nodded, patting my head. The gesture she makes when she doesn't believe me but loves me and supports me anyway. She does love me, I know she does. Despite my oddities. Black sheep of the family is perhaps an understatement kind of term for whatever I am. She loves me anyway. She gave me a hundred dollars to spend at the general store. I shrugged and took it. 

I’m not really sure what could be causing the sky to fall, or what I could do to protect myself and my family but I can at least try. I squint up at the sky again, then lose my balance as I run into something with a loud thud. Then, something turns into someone as they make an oomph sound. 

“Sorry,” I apologize. 

“No problem.” The boy in front of me says. He doesn't look familiar to me. I continue walking past him but he reaches out an arm to stop me. “Do we go to school together?” he asks, dropping his arm when I turn to him. 

“If you go to Holden Middle School, then yes.” He smiles. 

“Yeah, that's the same one I go to. Isn’t Grimm’s algebra class hard?”

 “No.” 

His smile wanes. “Where are you going? Could I walk you there?”

 “My mom gave me a one hundred dollar bill so I'm going to the general store to try and get started on building something…” 

“Cool. What are you building? Maybe I can help?” We start to walk in the direction of the hardware store. I don't often have company, he seems nice. 

 “I'm not sure what exactly, but I think I'll know when I get there. I would appreciate the help, thank you.” A cool breeze makes me shiver, and it makes me wish I had brought a sweater. A stark change from the blistering heat just a few hours ago. I peek at the sky again. As we continue to the store I see two dead birds on the path beside us. I don't stop, because the boy doesn't notice them. They are the same as always since the sky started to fall so I don’t feel the need to point it out. I look at him sidelong. Plus, he wouldn't want to walk with me to the general store anymore. I’m sure of it. 

The bell chimes as we enter the general store. I recognize the clerk and she waves to us. The boy waves back and disappears into the store as I grab a dusty pink shopping cart. Phil, the owner of the general store, said it used to belong to an all female owned grocery chain and they demanded pink shopping carts. He never saw any point in changing the color once he took over, turning it into a general store. Nobody has complained.   

“Do we need any snacks?” The boy reappears with arms full of licorice, pretzels and two Dr. Pepper’s. All of my favorite snacks. I nod.

 “Thats a good idea, thanks.” I push the cart down all the aisles, looking from shelf to shelf trying to decide what to do exactly. I decided to go practical. 

“You have lots of stuff in there now. Do you need anything else?” The boy looks in the pink cart at its full contents. Plywood, nails, trays of canned food, gallon water jugs, batteries, and a hand crank radio. I count the money I'll have leftover, not much. 

“I think I’m done.” We push our way to the check out lane and I spot a package of face masks, tossing them into the cart. I’m not sure if we would need them, but then again, I am not sure of anything that’s going on. The radio station the clerk is listening to is on the weather channel. The weatherman is reporting strange shifts in temperature coming up next week. I strain to hear what the report is.

“How will we carry this heavy stuff back to your house?” the boy interrupts. He poses an excellent question.

It’s our turn next, the clerk gives me a warm smile, turning down the radio to an impossible to hear volume. “How are you on this chilly afternoon, dears?” 

“I am well, thank you. May we take this cart home? We walked here. I promise to bring it back straight after we unload.” 

She frowns just a little, placing her hand on her hip. She points an old, spotty finger right at my nose. “If you don't bring it back straight away,” she pauses for effect. “I’ll be phoning your mother, Jilly-May.”

“That is a more than fair compromise. Thank you.” I extend my hand to seal the deal which she takes skeptically, but everything about her is still warm like the sun. Not the shifting sun, but the regular one. She peers into the cart with an eyebrow raising. 

“What, exactly, are you two getting up to?” She lets out a long sigh as she starts to scan the items, “Well, whatever it is, I hope you two are having fun.” She smiles again. “I haven't seen you and Henry together before.”

“Oh, we haven't been ma’m, but I hope we stay friends for a long time.” He is grinning at her and I can't help but smile too. I don't usually smile. I haven't anything against the gesture, I just find everything to be very. Plain. Except the sky falling is very un-plain. Not a very smiling event though. Henry, is a very un-plain smiling event. I let it remain on my face until we are outside.

“How did you know my name?” I ask Henry as we both push the pink cart up the hill, side by side. 

“We have every class together in school. I sit right behind you. We even have been paired up for assignments in class before.” His smile never falters. 

“Im sorry.” I feel terrible. Or just bad. 

“For what?” He stops pushing and turns his face to mine. 

“For not noticing you before I ran into you today.” He looks up at the sky, shielding his eyes. The sun feels brighter but the wind keeps shifting, feeling more cold. 

“Sometimes we don't notice the sun, even when it's blinding our eyes” He smiles at me and starts pushing the cart again, I follow suit. “Not saying I'm a big ball of bright light or anything, but you know. The most obvious things in our paths we get so used to we just don't see ‘em anymore…or something like that.” He laughs. I like his laugh.

“I think you're exactly like the sun. Bright and full of light." He likes that I say that, I can tell because his smile grows and his cheeks flush. I think my cheeks flush too.

We don't say anything the rest of the mile and a half walk to my house. By the time we get there, we are both a little tired and open the two sodas Henry put in the cart. After a short break we unload in silence, and return the cart, practically running back home to get started. It's getting dark, but Henry says he doesn't have to be home any certain time. His mom is working at the hospital tonight and his dad is out of town for business. His grandma is at home with him but he says she is probably already asleep. “Plus, I don't live very far.” He assures me.

I’m not exactly sure how to set up a bomb shelter, or if that would even help for whatever is going on, so we put everything in the basement. We push everything off to the side so it isn't too crowded. We go outside to sit in the backyard when we finish, looking up into the sky. The stars are so bright tonight, with the sky falling, I thought they wouldn't be there anymore. Another un-plain thing to make me smile.  

“How does this thing work?” Henry interrupts my thoughts. He is staring at the crank radio. I reach over, pointing to the lever. 

“Pull that out and turn for about five minutes.” He does so happily. Unchained Melody, crackles from the radio, plastering Henry's face with another boyish grin.

“My mom loves this song,” He says.

“Mine too,” I smile. 

He extends a hand to me. “Care to dance?”

“ I don't know how.”

“Me either, we can just sway,” He laughs and I put my hand in his. He pulls me next to him and we step from side to side. He puts his arms gently around me and that’s when we notice them. All around us, hundreds, if not thousands, of fireflies pepper the cold night around us. It looks as if the stars have indeed fallen from the sky and decided to let us swim amongst them. “I’ve never seen so many fireflies before,” Henry whispers in my ear. 

“Me either.” I whisper back. So we stayed like that, staring at the unnatural scene before us. Henry gently tugs me back to facing him, swaying us once again. After a minute or so I put my head on his shoulder. This is nice, I think. The song slows before it has even finished.

 Henry lets go of me to pick up the radio, “I must not have cranked it long enough.” Undoubtedly, I think with a giggle. He stops tinkering with the radio to look at me. “Did you just,” his eyes are full of disbelief, “Giggle?” 

Something lands on my head, I brush it away. Then another, and another. “What’s wrong?” Henry asks, then drops the radio to frantically brush his arms of seemingly invisible threats. My attention is on the ground now. The fireflies are not around us anymore lighting us with their ethereal glow. They are covering the ground with their lightless, lifeless bodies like a carpet made for the outdoors. Henry steps closer to me and I hear a sickening crunch under his feet. His face screws up with discomfort. I look up at the stars to see if they have fallen too. Thankfully, they still remain in the sky. A chill in the air makes me shiver. 

“This is what it was for,” I say, still looking at the sky. 

“What, what was for?” Henry picked up the radio and had a hand on my arm. 

“The sky is falling. It has been for a few days now but no one will listen to me.” He doesn't say anything. “I wanted to be prepared for whatever it is.” 

I feel his hand fall from my arm. He sets the radio on the patio, backing away from me, careful not to crunch anymore fireflies. He still does, but not by any fault of his own. There are too many on the ground to miss. “I think I hear my grandma calling me,” he whispers. “Bye, Jill.” Without another word, he runs in the direction of his home. I try not to let it hurt.

I don't know how long I keep staring at the sky. Only going inside when I'm too cold to stand it anymore. Eerie blue light is coming from the living room, making me frown. My family usually goes to sleep very early, with the exception of myself. My mom turns as she hears me approach the living room. “Oh, Jilly, there you are. Come here sweetheart.” Her shaky hand encircles my wrist pulling me next to her. She doesn't let go. 

On the screen is the news reporter I tried to talk to two days ago. The one that laughed at me. My entire family is strewn about the living room, eyes intensely looking at the television. 

“Just twelve hours ago, unprecedented occurrences have happened across the nation. Some, I don't even believe it myself…” The camera pans to somewhere in Asia, people scraping hundreds of dead birds off of their cars, and trying to avoid their bodies on the streets outside. 

Another clip shows thousands of bumblebees strewn about a city street in New York, birds and other insects dropping from the sky. “We are still unsure of what is happening, but the president is advising everyone to–” The news reporter is abruptly cut off and the screen goes black. We all stay frozen in that moment, until a loud thud hits the roof of the house, making my sister scream and my mom hold my wrist more tightly. Then another. And another. 

The TV clicks back on. An all blue screen with a red banner across it appears. A loud beeping sound coming from the broadcast. The same words move across the screen saying the same thing over and over in an infinite loop. 

THIS IS A NATIONAL BROADCAST: REMAIN INDOORS UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. 

THIS IS A NATIONAL BROADCAST: REMAIN INDOORS UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. 

THIS IS A NATIONAL BROADCAST: REMAIN INDOORS UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. 

THIS IS A NATIONAL BROADCAST: REMAIN INDOORS UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. 

THIS IS A NATIONAL BROADCAST: REMAIN INDOORS UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. 

Mom cries. Then the sirens start to go off at the same time the television goes blank one more time. The same sirens you hear in movies when its the end of the world. You wonder what those people in that fictional world must be thinking and feeling and how terrifying. Then you feel comforted that is not real. When you hear them in real life, its like your entire body freezes with the announcement of impending doom. Because what else could that terrible sound be signaling? We all look out the windows as the sky suddenly turns red. Despite the warning to remain indoors we all were somehow standing in the front yard staring at the red night sky. 

“There is something falling from the sky!” Someone a few houses down shouts. My family turns their heads to me. I don't look away from the stars. They aren't as bright as they were earlier. They look closer to the ground too, if that's even possible. Someone else screams and I hear dad whispering to mom frantically. I can't hear what they say. 

A warm hand intertwines with mine, taking me by surprise. I look to see Henry next to me. Staring up at the sky. “Is this–” He starts to say, but I know what he means. His grip on my hand tightens.

My gaze is drawn back to the sky, the sirens still droning on with their eerie song alerting us of terrible things to come. Another flare lights up the sky, and thousands of birds, insects and other unidentifiable things are seen coming toward the ground. 

“The sky is falling.”