This I Believe

A Piece of the Sun

It was one of those summer days, so hot that you could see the air shimmer. I was sitting with Granddad in the shade of his front porch listening to a Detroit Tiger baseball game as he read a paperback book. Looking out across the yard I noticed what seemed to be a piece of the sun. I could see it shining on the gravel road behind my house across the street. It scared me; what if another piece came off and it hit our house or a person; it would hurt or kill them. Granddad reading his book as he listened to the ball game didn’t seem to notice it. I got up from the steps and walked slowly toward that bright yellow radiance. I did not want to get too close to it because I knew that the sun was very hot, and I didn’t want to get all burned up. From watching “Captain Video” on television I knew all about how hot the sun was. He never let his spaceship get too close to the sun.

Curiosity soon overcame my fear, and as I shielded my eyes with one hand, I crept closer. The light seemed to intensify, becoming so bright that it hurt my eyes. I turned my face away and crept closer. I wondered, “Why isn’t it hotter? The sun should be hotter than this.” I moved again. There was still no heat coming from the piece of sun sitting in the road. What was wrong?

A cloud passed between the sun and the earth as I peeked between my fingers again. Why! It wasn’t a piece of the sun at all! It was just a bottle that someone had thrown into the street. The light was the sun reflecting from it. I had really wanted to have a piece of the sun. It would really have impressed my older brother Lester. I idolized him and would do about anything to impress him. He knew everything, but he didn’t have a piece of the sun. Disappointed and a little angry, I picked up a rock and broke the bottle. I left it lying in the street and went back to sit on the porch with Granddad. As I got closer to the house, Granddad looked up from his book and asked, “Why did you break that bottle and leave it in the street? Don’t you know that a car might run over it and get a flat tire, or someone with bare feet might step on it. Go clean it up.”

“I don’t want to,” I said. “I thought it was a piece of the sun and all it was, was an old bottle.”

He told me, “If you don’t clean it up, I am going to beat you with my cane.” That was a threat he always used when we had done something wrong. I never saw him carry out his threat. However, just the thought of that heavy brightly painted cane hitting me made me move. I ran across the street and field to the other street and picked up the broken bottle.

I never told anyone about finding a piece of the sun lying in the street. Lester would have teased me unmercifully, and my older sisters would have been in hysterics laughing at me. Granddad must not have said anything either because no one ever mentioned it to me. Then as now, I would do little to draw attention to myself. Sometimes no matter how we change, we remain the same.