What Happened to the World

One night, while billions of people all over the world were sleeping (and billions of others where not), there was suddenly a loud noise like thunder, a big flash like lightning, and a great shaking like an earthquake, and everything went black. No one could see anything at all, whether they where in Croatia, China, Chile, Canada, or any other place in the whole world.

It was scary, and yet exciting, and nobody knew what happened. The first thing most people did, sensibly enough, was turn their lights or light a fire. Those who lived where it was evening or early morning where lucky; they're lights where already on! I was in bed when it happened, and the first thing I did was grab a flashlight and go out side to see what was happening.
Nothing looked very different; there were trees all around, my house was in the same place it always had been, and there were millions of stars. But suddenly, as I gazed on the millions of little sparkling lights over my head, I realized that they couldn't be stars! There seemed to be more and more of them, and occasionally one or two would disappear. The brightest of them where just above the trees and they got dimmer as they went. In some spots, there were no lights at all, and in others there were huge clusters. As I puzzled over this strange new group of constellations, it dawned on me that perhaps they would be talking about it on television or the radio, so I went inside to see what information I could gather.

When I went inside, the first thing I did was to turn on the lights in the living room. Fortunately, the electricity seemed to be working fine. I sat down on the couch and turned the television to the local news channel, just in time to here the speaker say five words that nearly froze my blood in my veins: "The World has turned inside-out!"

Although it explained the "stars" turning on and off (they were the electric lights of houses), that horrible fact nearly caused me to panic before I remembered that nothing really could happen right away. I was still alive and everything seemed peaceful outside, so I decided to settle down and see what the speaker had to say. "So far, no casualties have been reported," he said, glancing at some notes a porter had just handed him. "The damages are those you might expect with a small earthquake: weak buildings fallen over, a few roads damaged, and things like that. However," he stated, "it will be a major problem trying to decide how to get our planet back to normal."

With that, the screen turned to a commercial, and I shut off the television. I sat down to think of a possible way to turn the world right side out again. I thought for a long time but couldn't think of anything at all. Finally, about two a.m. according to the clock, I had a splendid idea.
"I've got it!" I cried as I rushed over to the telephone. I picked up the receiver and called the President of the USA. "Hello, Mr. President?" I said. "I have an idea as to how we can get the world right side out again!" I proceeded to tell him that if we turned on all the heat in the world all the way, and turned on all the stoves and hair dryers and things like that, perhaps the world would right side out again like a kernel of popcorn!

The President thought this was a fine idea, and he instantly drove in his big black limousine to the TV station to tell all the people on Earth to turn on all their heat generating appliances. Pretty soon it began to get hot outside. Then hotter, and hotter, and hotter until it was so hot, I could hardly stand it. Suddenly, there was a big POP and the world was right side out again, and it has been that way ever since.

THE END

--Aaron, two or three years ago