Page 105 - English_Spark_8

Slipping a pebble out of his pocket, Parker carefully lifted his desktop a quarter of an

inch and slipped the rock in. It made a tiny clink when it dropped to the bottom. He
leaned the desk away from him until he heard the pebble roll towards the sun, followed

by the tiny hiss that meant the rock had vanished into it.
Two days ago, he had opened his desk to put his lunch in, but instead of the pencil box,

tissue box, and books he expected to see, a cloud swirled in the space. At its centre
was a dull, pulsing red glow. He shut the desk and looked around to see if anyone else

had noticed. An hour later, the dusty swirl in his desk had contracted to a bright spot in
the middle. He cautiously moved his hand towards it. At first he felt only the heat, but

when he got within a few inches, the skin on his palm began to sting, like the flesh was
pulling away. He snatched his hand back and then tried a pencil. When the point moved

close enough, the pencil tugged towards the sun. It then snapped out of his fingers into
the tiny light, brightening it slightly in the process.

Now the sun was as large as a golf ball. When Parker rolled a marble across his desk,
its path would curve towards the sun within, sometimes circling several times before

resting exactly above it.
‘Parker,’ Mr Earl said. ‘Your reading group is

waiting for you.’ In the back of the class,
his three reading partners sat on the

mats, their books on their laps. Parker
pushed away from his desk and joined

them.
‘Where’s your book?’ Mr Earl sald,

his eyebrows contracting into a
single line above his eyes.

Parker shrugged. Mr Earl growled.
‘You need to be more responsible,

young man. Go get your book.’
The other students looked on,

relieved that Mr Earl’s attention
was on Parker and not on them.

‘I don’t have it, sir,’ said Parker. It had
disappeared into the sun along with everything

else.

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