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David Lowe doesn't belong here. He came down to the Piece to meet some friends, but somehow he didn't find them, rather than take the hike home, he joined the nearest group of people and pulled out a bottle. They took to him quite quickly, a bottle helps everywhere.
Today they have had what can be described as a perfect day. Drinking laughing and talking. The odd game of spin the bottle, in which David has done pretty well for himself. Still, he doesn't belong here. That's okay though, David has an Idea, and he thinks it might work.
"Hey," says David to the girl sitting next to him, "do
you know today there was an eclipse?"
"No," she says (he's forgotten her name) "Lunar or Solar?"
(this is, after all Cambridge)
"Solar," says David " you can only see it in Africa and Madagascar"
"That's all right," says the girl, "then I didn't miss it."
David nods.
"How would you like to see the next one?"
The girl looks at him for a moment
"Is that a chat up line?"
-"Not really.. Would you like to see it?"
"Sure, I guess. Where is it?"
-"I don't know, I'm going to find out, I have an Idea."
"What's that then?"
-"The next eclipse, whenever it is, wherever it is, we all meet up again, wherever whenever, and we tell each other stories."
"What sort of stories?"
-"True ones.. Between now and then we each have to make our own stories. They have to be about what you have done, and they have to be true. That's the only rule. We can sit there and tell them before we look up and watch the sky go out."
The girl stands up and shouts to everyone else:
"Hey guys, David's got an idea!"
It started from there...
David's life was full of 'what if's', what if he jacked in his job and course and headed for Brazil? What if he'd said no instead of yes? What if he'd gone left instead of right? He spent a good deal of time wondering and now the coin had been tossed. He'd laid a challenge down, and he's as much, if not more than anyone else was going to have to meet it.
In the 533 days between now and then he was going to have to find a story, and so were they.
From this day onward more than one life was about to make a major turn.
Eclipse..