The Sun is Gone by Janiya Hodge-Cruz
Fenix was exceptionally happy today. She was promoted to project manager and had another trip coming up, this time to Honduras. As she was nearing her small apartment building, she noticed that her surroundings were darker than usual, that’s weird, she thought, but continued about her day. “Maybe it was daylight savings or something?” she mumbled to herself. Fenix swiftly pulled out her keys and waved to her elderly neighbor before stumbling into her living room. Fenix flipped her shoes off by the door, yawned and cracked her back, heading to her couch to watch the evening news. She was mid-yawn when she heard the words. “The sun has disappeared, please be prepared, run while yo—” the television shut off, actually it wasn’t just the T.V. but the lights, the oven warming her dinner, and the running water from her bath. Fenix’ first reaction was to check her fuse box until she heard the screams from her neighbors. Fenix was delirious; she wanted to race outside and see what was going on but her feet were frozen to the ground, Why didn’t her body listen to her? Why couldn’t she help? Her breathing got shallow, this was a joke right? There was no way the sun, which she was annoyed by because it irritated her eyes every morning, was gone. Fenix breathed in, gathering all her courage as she peeked her head outside of the door. The pitch black darkness almost seemed to engulf Fenix, the scene almost seemed serene, there was nothing to look at which convinced Fenix that this was in fact a dream. I mean, it had to be, things like this only happened in movies. She convinced herself that if she just turned back and went to sleep this would all be over, and that’s what she did. After ten minutes of twisting and turning, she gave up, the bellows from outside cursing at the sun and blaming the government had become unbearable for the woman. The headache Fenix had almost made her sick, forgetting the incident from yesterday, Fenix raced out the door to tell everyone outside to quiet down. “Hey, come on guys, I have work in the morning and it’s too early,” she croaked out, finally taking the crust out from her eyes she noticed she was once 29
