Exploding a MomentJoin now to read essay Exploding a MomentThe hottest day of the summer so far was drawing to a close and a drowsy silence lay over the large, square houses of Privet Drive. Cars that were usually gleaming stood dusty in their drives and lawns that were once emerald green lay parched and yellowing; the use of hosepipes had been banned due to drought. Deprived of their usual car-washing and lawn-mowing pursuits, the inhabitants of Privet Drive had retreated into the shade of their cool houses, windows thrown wide in the hop of tempting in a nonexistent breeze. The only person left outdoors was a teenage boy who was lying flat on his back in a flower bed outside number four.
ROUND 1: Privet Drive
A man in a black suit was in the small black Volkswagen. The young man glanced out the window as he crossed the driveway, a white light filling the alleyway. The young man turned toward the boy and called out, with his hand out. The boy, sitting on his knees, seemed to make an appearance in the darkness and could barely make out words. He slowly started to walk down the dirt and through the trees, his face now black while his hands, now grey and black as a ghost, appeared to flicker against the trees. He leaned past a large blue-green tree, just out of view, and stood and watched it from a distance.
ROUND 2: Privet Drive
The young man was walking back to his car, his eyes shut. He was wearing some sort of green mask that he was allowed to stay out of sight. He wasn’t as large as the rest of the group when it came to his height, but he was certainly enough to keep the young man in touch with a large number of things. He looked around for the man’s car, looked at it for a long time. All around him, it was still dark ahead, the only light coming through through the trees was the occasional stream of blue from the wind that would sweep over the trees. The car slowly left the parking lot, and began heading for the alleyway down to the street.
ROUND 3: Privet Drive
Suddenly, he saw the white van driving along an alley street in the middle of the village, a bright spot in his vision. In the street, the white van was moving to the left of the van. The van was heading to the right, and it was speeding and stopped in the middle of the street. The boy in the truck turned back, and the boy stared at him, then up to the front of the van.
ROUND 4: Privet Drive
The van was speeding toward the same direction the van was heading when it turned right, but had followed the street for about a half mile before a black dog suddenly dropped to the ground. The hood of the van slammed up and a large, bald man lay on it like a dying man. His eyes had been closed. The white van continued to run. The dog ran over to his feet in a nearby alley just in time to stop it from getting too close to the driver. As suddenly as it made contact with him, the van turned and left the alley and left the boy with a gunshot wound.
ROUND 5:
He was a skinny, black-haired, bespectacled boy who had the pinched, slightly unhealthy look of someone who has grown a lot in a short space of time. His jeans were torn and dirty,