The Day the Sun Fell Out of the Sky
--J.B. Toy

The sun's a boy, you know. At least that's what I've always been told. And Mr. Sun is such a shining good boy sitting up in the sky and fixing his cozy yellow light on us every day, rolling around heaven beaming down, like a welcome. Everybody in the Earth Village loves the sun.

When Sun cannot shine his light on us, it's only because of those pesky dark clouds that get in the way. Sometimes it's even the thunder and the scary winds and the lightning that keep our wonderful round ball of Sun from shining his light on us.

One fine day Sun was rolling around heaven playing hide'n'seek with some fluffy white clouds, when FOP! his light went out. In the village below, the mommies and the daddies and the children looked up into the sky. It was just like somebody had gone and turned off a switch. In a flash, the Earth was dark and gloomy. The people started to shiver. They were so cold, they almost shivered their teeth right out of their mouths! One little boy, Samuel, was so cold his knees were knocking. One little girl, Jambo--which means hello--her lips started turning blue!

After a while of this, the people set up a howling, like a bunch of hungry ghosts, waiting for someone to turn the sunlight back on.

But nothing happened And it was dark on the land, dark over the deep ocean, and there were no more ocean waves. It was dark on the forests, dark on the mountains and across the sky. A few days of this darkness went by, the daffodils wilting, the trees beginning to droop low and lower. And a chill wind, whoooooooo, was blowing over all the land. People in the Earth Village laid right down and got under all their covers, but it was no use.

Now Samuel was a strong little light on his own. His face always made people smile. He wasn't handsome so much as he just made folks chuckle when they saw him coming down the road. And Jambo too! She had a special little light of her own. Samuel and Jambo were best best friends.

Jambo said, "Samuel, all the people are crying. What can we do?"

Samuel said, "Call on the old Sun himself."

"What do you mean call the Sun?"

"I mean just go ahead and yell for him, ask him what to do."

"We can try," said Jambo, "But how can we yell so far up to heaven?."

"Use your hog calling voice," said Samuel.

So the two took to hollering. They hollered loud, okay, and got the village dogs to bark and hooroo.

But nothing happened. Nothing at all. The Earth was still dark and gloomy and cold.

So the two friends hopped on a kangaroo named Wully who was willing to give them a ride, and commenced to hop all over Earth Village, teeth chattering, knees knocking, to tell folks to get up out of their beds and help them call on Mr. Sun.

All the people called. Everybody called the name of Mister Sun. Nothing happened. They called the name of Mr. Sun until their voices were hoarse and they could call no more.

Just then Mister Sun himself fell down from the sky, kerplunk, onto the Earth and said hello through his tears. Because Sun's light was out and he could no longer warm the people's faces and grow things, he was powerfully sad.

"What happened to your light?" asked Jambo.

"Well, child," sniffed Mr. Sun, "I, I, I was trying so hard to help that I just burned out."

"Aw," said the people.

Then everything alive became very quiet--so quiet, you could hear a feather fall. The people did not say another word. Jambo just walked right up to that huge ball of Sun and gave him a kiss. Samuel followed. The others, too, gathered around Mr. Sun and lined up to give him a kiss.

Now the next thing that happened you might not believe. But the story came down to me just this way. First it looked like a little night light went on inside of Mr. Sun, then a color like roses, then a color like morning, then a color like grass, then a color like crocuses, then a color like sky, then a color like the whole big Sun himself. Suddenly folks were very hot, and Mr. Sun had to say "Toodaloo," before he burned up the people and the Earth Village itself.

As he rolled back up into the sky, Sun called thank you to Samuel, to Jambo. All the people called thank you right back to Mr. Sun. The daffodils perked up, and so did the trees. The waves returned to the ocean and light bounced on the waters. All the people thanked Samuel, and they thanked Jambo, and everyone sang a happy song. That was the day the Sun fell out of the sky.