Meteor

Meteor

A big flash bang woke me up. The wind blew the tent away, left us uncovered in the wilderness. A previously starlit sky now shone like day.

I stood shivering in the night. John crawled out of his bag, rubbed his eyes.

“What the heck? Did a bomb go off?”

“Beats me! Are you okay?” I patted myself down. Nothing broken.

All around trees lay like matchsticks.

“Heck of a wind. Where’s the tent?” John put on his boots.

“I think it’s in Canada.” I couldn’t stop looking at a strange glow further down the meadow.

“What do you think happened?” John stood beside me. He had the binoculars aimed at the glow.

“I think it was a meteor. Like the one that exploded in Siberia in 1908. Exactly like it.”

“Mary, really? Come on. You didn’t learn that in school. I went to the same school and didn’t learn that. You’re nuts. We would’ve known about it. It wasn’t on the internet.”

“Let’s hike over there, check it out.” I started putting on my boots.

“Are you kidding? What if it’s a UFO?”

“You’re insane, John. There are no UFOs. I tell you, it was a meteor.”

We debated the point for some time, deciding that whatever it was, adventure was afoot.

Finally, John begrudgingly agreed. We shouldered packs, now lighter without the tent and poles.

After hiking about three hours, we came to a forest of flattened trees as far as we could see. The trunks were charred, some still smoking. That would explain the glow we saw.

In the middle of the forest, a depression caught my eye. We headed in that direction, over burnt trunks of trees, over still burning branches. What we found was a small hole, no bigger than a ground squirrel’s den.

I found a jagged rock. It was the size of a baseball and very heavy. When I tried to pick it up, it burnt my hand.

“I told you it was a meteor,” I said to John, pointing to the rock.

“Lucky guess. That small rock caused all this? Get out of town.”

“Well, the one that impacted Siberia in 1908 exploded in the sky. And good thing, since they estimate it was 164 feet in diameter. This one is only about 6 inches.”

We looked at the rock in amazement for some time.

“And remember that 2013 asteroid that flew through Russia? Weird.”

“Perhaps some alien is trying real hard to get in touch with the peasants there.” John stood scratching his head.

“You’re hopeless.”

“No really, the aliens. They keep trying. Mark my word. Some day they’ll make it. It’s just a matter of time.”

I sighed. It’s just a matter of time and space.

W/C 456

Meteor Information ▼

https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/i-think-i-found-a-meteorite-how-can-i-tell-sure?
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/additional-details-on-the-large-feb-15-fireball-ov...
https://historyofyesterday.com/the-tunguska-event-b01de20b90c5