8:30 When the Stars Come Out

When my brother and I were kids, we had a routine about an extra minute that was secretly added to every day. Between 8:30 PM and 8:31 PM was an extra minute which we called "8:30 when the stars come out."

People never knew about this extra minute, because the entire world froze for those 60 seconds.

Across the street from our house was a huge lawn which sloped up to a gigantic old building at the top of the hill, a building known as the Academy Lodge. Back around 1900 it was a Presbyterian parochial school. (Yes, a Presbyterian parochial school.) In our time, it served as a nursing home, then as a halfway house for mentally ill veterans. Anyhow, at "8:30 when the stars come out," the rest of the world would stop for 60 seconds, while two bands of skeletons materialized on the lawn of the Academy Lodge, to fight out the next minute in their battle of good versus evil.

The good skeletons of Herity Lodge, versus the evil skeletons of Googa Glaga! Imagine skeletons going at it against each other in a kung fu battle! "Herity Lodge" was supposed to be a transform of "Academy Lodge." Somewhat. More or less. While the evil skeletons of Googa Glaga were distinguished by the top of their skull being perfectly flat. This was based on a friend of my brother's, who my brother and I secretly used to say had a flat head.

For one minute every evening, the skeletons would wage their martial arts battle on the lawn of the Academy Lodge, the world around them unmoving and unknowing. Then the skeletons would fade away, like Brigadoon, and normal time would resume its pace. Until the next evening at "8:30 when the stars come out," when once again the world at large would freeze, and the skeletons would appear to carry on their perpetual battle.