Night Light

My eyes open to the random flittering of a broken street lamp outside my apartment. I tried to sleep past it, but its constant flickering was flashing red and black against my eyelids and sleep was not forthcoming. I needed to tire myself out, so I pulled on some socks and my running shoes, snagged my hoodie to throw over my bare skin, and dropped my keys into my pajama pants.

The door creaked to a close under my hand. I pulled out my keys and locked the door. The night air was damp and cloying, a whispery tendril of air tickled the back of my neck. I swung around prepared for anything, but found the street empty. The lights along the street were forcing the leafless trees to hunch ominously in the shadows.

I turned and walked into the street. Nothing was stirring around me, like I was alone in a vacuum. At least that’s how it felt in the relative safety of the street lights. In the shadows just beyond I could barely make out a mass of movements, much like an orchestra preparing to play.

A scream was carried on the wind. I squinted into the distance but couldn’t make out a thing. Caution winning out I walked with a steady pace towards the sound. Why as humans do we walk toward sounds of danger? I mean I know I was doing it, but in the back of my head a voice was letting me know that this was just plain silly. Was I going to beat off an attacker with my pajama pants? No. There was little I could do anyways, so perhaps I was just being a voyeur. After pushing my way through multiple umbras I found myself in a lighted patch of pavement. A girl sitting hunched over her legs.

“Hello,” I ventured, but she didn’t even attempt to acknowledge me. “Do you need some assistance?” I tried again, immediately realizing how lame it came out of my mouth. I didn’t really want to help her. Hell, I didn’t even want to be here in the first place. I looked around and found no one to be watching. She seemed alive enough, right? She’d be fine. I melted into the shadows and found myself back in another pool of light, much less distressed with people who clearly looked hurt.

With each light I passed under heading back to my home I felt less and less upset with myself. The situation was surreal, did it even really happen? I’m not so sure anymore. I mean, it could have just as easily been an owl hooting loudly, and the might have been a fallen branch of a tree that looked like a person in the shadows.

Back on my door step I pulled out my keys and unlocked the door. It shifted open with it’s usual creaks and strains. What a night I thought to myself, as I put my head down for the night. I didn’t even notice the flickering light outside anymore.

-V-

Mongrel

I sat in a park bench by the river. I felt like nearly every other day I would do this, but today was different. Today was the first day of spring. I don’t know how the powers that be decide these things. The first day of spring, the last day of summer, I mean I know it supposedly has something to do with the solstice and length of days. But the first day of spring never feels like the first day. It’s always either way before, or way after. I can’t remember a single time it was on the same day in my life. How strange is that?

A ravenous beast of a mutt came stalking up to me. He grunted once and nosed down between my legs. It seems in my musing I didn’t notice that a torn and tattered tennis ball found it way beneath me. I leaned forward and found the mongrel was examining my every movement with delicate precision. Not a single sound around him even tweaked the slightest part of his ear.

Fearing what would happen if I broke eye contact I fumbled around the ground for the ball. Dread filled me as I must have stumbled too far away from the dog’s prize with my searching hand, he emitted a deep belly growl that sunk deep into my mind and reversed the movement of my arm quickly.

My fingers flittered on the ball and I quickly spun my hand around and gripped the ball. Pulling it up I found the dog was fixed on it like a magic orb. I slowly shifted it back and forth in front of him. He tracked each and every movement. I decided I was already playing with enough fire and threw the ball in an impressive arc into the distance.

Without delay he was kicking up plods of soil in pursuit. Every muscle in his body was pulsing with an energy and fervor I will swear to this day I have never seen again. His tongue swung wildly from his mouth as I’m sure he was heaving in every last bit of usable air around him to speed his body.

I suddenly felt a great fear as I tracked his progress and noticed a child coloring with chalk on the paved path in front of him, completely oblivious to the massive bulk advancing towards him at break neck speed. I cringed and held my hands over my eyes listening intently for a juvenile scream to fill the air. But no such sound was emitted. I looked up quickly and found the mongrel a clear two feet above the babe legs fully extended passing over him with no notice given by the would be victim.

I had nearly forgotten that the ball had since disappeared into the tree line. Good riddance I thought at the dog was finally out of view. I looked back out on the river and felt myself being culled back into my previous thoughts. Then I heard it, a plonk and a growl. Down at my feet lay the ball and just beyond it the animal with it’s head slightly tilted.

-V-

Stars

“Daddy, tell me another story!” Billy exclaimed bouncing up and down on his bed. Norris sighed, Billy had been pulling this tactic on him for the past two weeks now. He felt like he was running out of clever ideas, and nothing in his head was striking him as particularly interesting.

He stared off into the clear night sky. The stars twinkled bright as if they had something to prove. Norris felt vindicated in his choice to move out to the country. His wife had complained non-stop about the inconveniences of being so far away from everything. But, his front door was unlocked and all his windows were open. He had no fear of intruders or idiots trying to bust into his house and, well, be idiots. City life was good for them, but the breeze pulsing through his house was invigorating. They were miles from their nearest neighbor and the property was so inexpensive.

“Daddy!” Billy cried out, his eyes pleading desperately for more imagery. This snapped Norris away from his reverie.

“Of course Billy,” he started, and then gave the same disclaimer he had been touting for the past fortnight once more, “but this is the last night we get to have a second story. You need your sleep.”

“Yay!” Billy was positively bursting with excitement. Norris shot him a stern glance. Billy snuggled down into his undersized bed. Norris pulled the comforter at the base of the bed and tucked it all around Billy giving a very slim chance of escape, or any movement for that matter.

“Tonight Billy I will tell you the story of the blind stargazer.”

“What’s a Stargazer?”

“A person who looks up at the stars and uses what they see to determine future events.”

“But if he is blind how can he see the stars?” Billy said thoughtfully. Norris was used to this type of questioning from his son. He encouraged it. He felt to many people his age had stopped questioning in general. That they just got as much information as the could glean from what was around them and assumed the rest without really trying to understand anything, or even worse, blindly believing what other people told them, even if it made little to no sense whatsoever. He would not raise a son who ended up like that. That would be his mark on society, or at least bringing up a more sophisticated next generation. He could really only hope at this point.

“An excellent question Billy. You see he didn’t need sight as we know it. He felt the stars in the universe. He knew exactly where each one was at any given time. No one was sure how he did it, or how he even knew in the first place, but sure as the day is long if you asked where a particular star was he would be able to point directly to it.”

“That sounds fascinating!” Billy yawned.

“It is Billy. This world is infinite and there are so many different ways that people can be. It’s just one big wonderful place filled with…” Norris looked down and saw that Billy was fast asleep. His job done for the night he crept out of the room turning off the lights as he went. As he closed the door behind him the story he was building up in his mind evaporated into the aether. It was a long night and he felt sleep pulling at himself as well. He wondered down to his room and was asleep within seconds of his head brushing his pillow.

-V-

Start Over

I found myself driving mindlessly. The road in front of me, meaningless. The road behind a fading and forgotten memory, like an elusive fly. I tried to figure out where I had been for the past few months, but every grasp at the past ended in a thick fog in my mind. Snow flurries we in the sky now; slowly dropping in the distance and whipping by my car as I approached them. In the rear view mirror I could seem them settling back on their path to the ground as if I had never been there.

The cityscape seemed so far behind me now, nothing but fields around. I swear I was just immersed in tall buildings, making fast sharp turns. Feeling the extra gravity press me back into my seat. The excitement imprinted on me like a kiss from a long lost loved one, felt forevermore. But now, there were no curves, nothing to add to the feeling of movement. The world was passing around me at what felt like a snails pace.

The sun glinted and blinded me from something on the horizon. My mind raced around all the possibilities of the cause. A companion for my ride? A bridge to a new land? A town? The drive to the object seemed to last forever. And, alas I was broken to learn it was a simple sign posted on the side of the road. It read, “10 smi to Forgict.” I wasn’t entirely sure what to make of this. The sign was a cool metal, but the text on it looked hand written, it was sort of elegant and sloppy at the same time, if that’s even possible.

I looked down at the gages in my car, it seemed this was the first time they had any meaning. The fuel gage was strangely dropping fast to ‘E’. Something was pulling me towards this place. Who am I to go against a greater plan? On top of that, what else could I do? I drove on.

As I crossed into the town the snow abruptly stopped. It almost looked like summer outside of my windows. I chanced it and lowered the driver’s side. A blast of fresh warm air slapped across my face. It forced it way up my nose and pressed on directly into the back of my mind. Wildflowers and clouds were the only thing I could focus on for that moment. I drove right into the center of the town and found myself stopped in front of a statute of a beautiful women with expansive wings extended behind her.

Compelled I exited the car and walked up to the sculpture. Her hands were above her holding a sword that seemed to be engulfed in flames. I locked eyes with hers, and in that brief juncture the sword burst into real flames. Her face broke free of the stone; I could see tears streaming down her face. And then she brought the sword down.

-V-