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Speaker 1: Welcome to Kids Short Stories. Today's story is called River

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Speaker 1: and the Disappearing Sun. River was in kindergarten and loved

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Speaker 1: going to school. He loved his teachers and his friends,

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Speaker 1: riding on the school bus, playing on the playground outside,

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Speaker 1: learning how to read and how to count. There were

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Speaker 1: so many things about kindergarten that River loved to do.

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Speaker 1: Oh no, this morning, he woke up with a fever

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Speaker 1: and was not able to go to school. He had

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Speaker 1: to stay home, and so all day he laid in

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Speaker 1: bed because he didn't feel good and had to take

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Speaker 1: medicine to help and feel better. And his mom would

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Speaker 1: read him a story every once in a while and

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Speaker 1: would tuck him in with really warm blankets. What do

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Speaker 1: you like to cuddle with in your bed? Is there

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Speaker 1: a favorite stuffed animal or favorite blanket? River had a

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Speaker 1: very special blanket that he called Blankie, and that helped

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Speaker 1: him feel a lot better when he was feeling sick. Well,

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Speaker 1: after lunch he started to feel a little better, and

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Speaker 1: he there was a knock at the door and he

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Speaker 1: answered the door and it was one of his friends

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Speaker 1: from school. It was Scottie, and Scotty said, River, you're

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Speaker 1: not gonna believe this. River said what and Scotty said, well, wait, actually,

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Speaker 1: where were you at school? We didn't see you at

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Speaker 1: school today, really missed you. Rivers said, well, I'm actually

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Speaker 1: sick and so I had to stay home and said,

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Speaker 1: oh man, well I hope you feel better, and Scott

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Speaker 1: Scotty said, hey, the thing that I'm meant to tell

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Speaker 1: you is you won't believe this. But I don't know why.

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Speaker 1: But at school the teachers were talking about how today

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Speaker 1: the sun is going to disappear. What. Rivers said, what

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Speaker 1: are you talking about? It's gonna disappear? Scotty said, I

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Speaker 1: don't really understand what's going on or why. But they

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Speaker 1: said at four thirty this afternoon, the sun is going

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Speaker 1: to disappear. And then River's mom said, River, you need

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Speaker 1: to say bye to Scotty. It's not a good time

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Speaker 1: right now to play because you're not feeling well. You

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Speaker 1: need to go back to bed. He said, okay, by Scotty,

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Speaker 1: I'll see you later and he shut the or. River

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Speaker 1: began to think, what in the world is going on

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Speaker 1: with the sun If it's going to disappear at four

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Speaker 1: thirty afternoon. He looked at the clock. That's only one

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Speaker 1: hour away. I only have one hour left of the

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Speaker 1: sun for my entire life. It's what what if it

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Speaker 1: never comes back? The sun? We need this on the

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Speaker 1: plants need the sun. I need the sun. The play outside,

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Speaker 1: all right, everyone, What do you need the sun for?

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Speaker 1: What makes the sun special? It's warm, right, it helps

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Speaker 1: plants grow, um, it makes it light outside so that

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Speaker 1: we can play, right, all those things. River was starting

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Speaker 1: to think about and was really scared and sad. If

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Speaker 1: the sun was going to go away forever, he had

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Speaker 1: to go back to his room and look for clues

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Speaker 1: of who was going to take the sun? Done done,

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Speaker 1: done so. River was up in his room, took out

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Speaker 1: all of his spy gear and began looking around outside

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Speaker 1: to see if there were any clues of who would

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Speaker 1: have taken the sun. You see, he still wasn't allowed

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Speaker 1: to go outside because he saw out a fever so

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Speaker 1: good thing. His bedroom had some big windows in it

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Speaker 1: so that he could look outside. He wasn't seeing any

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Speaker 1: clues anything unusual, but it was starting to get dark

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Speaker 1: and there weren't There wasn't a single cloud in the sky.

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Speaker 1: That's really weird with was Scottie telling the truth? Where

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Speaker 1: was he joking. I don't know, Rivers said, but I

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Speaker 1: gotta figure this out. And so Scottie ran downstairs said mom,

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Speaker 1: what in the world is going on with the sun today?

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Speaker 1: And the mom said, River, it's called an eclipse. Have

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Speaker 1: you ever heard of an eclipse before? No. River said,

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Speaker 1: I have no clue what that means. And River's mom

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Speaker 1: began to explain something pretty crazy. She said that every

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Speaker 1: once in a while that something blocks the sun from

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Speaker 1: us being able to see it. And River was having

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Speaker 1: a hard time understanding how this would work. And but

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Speaker 1: then it makes sense. Just think if this if you're

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Speaker 1: looking at the sun, well, you shouldn't look at the sun,

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Speaker 1: but if the sun was in the sky and something

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Speaker 1: moved right in front of it, would it looked like

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Speaker 1: it disappeared? Yes? And River asked, what is the thing

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Speaker 1: that blocks the sun? His mom said the moon? What

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Speaker 1: the River said, the moon blocks the sun? Really? His

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Speaker 1: mom said, yes, there's only it happens every once in

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Speaker 1: a while and the moon moves right in front of

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Speaker 1: where the sun is and blocks all the light, and

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Speaker 1: so just for a little while it goes dark in

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Speaker 1: the middle of the day. The River said, oh no,

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Speaker 1: but will the sun ever come back. Is this forever?

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Speaker 1: I want to be able to play outside. This is

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Speaker 1: very scary. I don't like the dark. I only like

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Speaker 1: the sun in the day. Uh. River was a little scared,

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Speaker 1: if he can tell. And his mom said, oh, River,

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Speaker 1: it's okay, it's okay. The sun is only going to

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Speaker 1: be gone for about five minutes. What that's all, Oh,

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Speaker 1: that's that's nothing. And she said, it's actually very fun

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Speaker 1: and very cool. I have these special sunglasses for us

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Speaker 1: to wear outside during the eclipse, sunglasses. River said, why

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Speaker 1: do we need those? His mom said, Remember, we should

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Speaker 1: never look directly at the sun because the sun is

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Speaker 1: so bright that I can hurt our eyes. And so

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Speaker 1: we have to wear these very very very powerful and

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Speaker 1: special sunglasses. They're like superhero sunglasses for us to be

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Speaker 1: able to watch the eclipse. And they looked at the clock.

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Speaker 1: It's about to start right now. Let's go outside, And

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Speaker 1: so River and his mom put the sunglasses on and

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Speaker 1: went outside, and boy was it strange. It was the

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Speaker 1: middle of the day when the sun should be out,

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Speaker 1: but it was getting very dark, very very quickly. They

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Speaker 1: looked up at the sky with their sunglasses on. Sure

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Speaker 1: enough they could see something that looked like the moon

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Speaker 1: moving in front of the sun, but the moon wasn't

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Speaker 1: glowing this time because it was the daytime, and just

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Speaker 1: like that, poof the sun was gone. Have you ever

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Speaker 1: seen an eclipse? This was River's first eclipse, and he

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Speaker 1: thought it was amazing. It looked so funny for it

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Speaker 1: to be in the middle of the day and it

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Speaker 1: was very dark, and just like that, a few minutes later,

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Speaker 1: the sun started to come back again. Oh good, River said.

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Speaker 1: I was getting nervous that, oh, that the sun would

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Speaker 1: never come back. I'm very glad to see it, he said.

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Speaker 1: Then they went back inside and his mom said, all right, River,

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Speaker 1: you need to go back to sleep and lay down

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Speaker 1: in your bed because your body needs to get healthy

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Speaker 1: so that you can go back to school tomorrow. So

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Speaker 1: River went back up to his room, curled up with

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Speaker 1: a special blankie, and went back to sleep. The end