I wrote science and how-to articles for a living. I ought to be able to figure out what was making the moon do that. Could the moon be suddenly larger?
...Inflating like a balloon? No. Closer, maybe. The moon, falling?
Tides! Waves fifty feet high ... and earthquakes! San Andreas Fault splitting apart like the Grand Canyon! Jump in my car, head for the hills ... no, too late already...
Nonsense. The moon was brighter, not bigger. I could see that. And what could possibly drop the moon on our heads like that?
I blinked, and the moon left an afterimage on my retinae. It was that bright.
A million people must be watching the moon right now, and wondering, like me. An article on the subject would sell big ... if I wrote it before anyone else did...
There must be some simple, obvious explanation.
Well, how could the moon grow brighter? Moonlight reflected sunlight. Could the sun have gotten brighter? It must have happened after sunset, then, or it would have been noticed....
I didn't like that idea.
Besides, half the Earth was in direct sunlight. A thousand correspondents for Life and Time and Newsweek and Associated Press would all be calling in from Europe, Asia, Africa ... unless they were all hiding in cellars. Or dead. Or voiceless, because the sun was blanketing everything with static, radio and phone systems and television ... television: Oh my God.
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