The cacophony of sound and light slowly fell away, leaving silence and darkness in its wake.
"What the hell is happening now?" Laura asked from behind Steven's shoulder. "What's going on? I can't look."
"They seemed agitated there for a minute, sis," Steven said thoughtfully. "But I think they've calmed down now." He took a step closer to the light and watched all but one light scatter away.
"Wait!" he called out and watched the lights stop suddenly and hover. "Don't go, we don't mean you any harm."
"We don't mean them any harm?" Laura said with a shaky voice. "That's a good one."
"Look, Laura," Steven said without turning around. "I'm just trying to communicate with them. We want to feel like they are not here to harm us. Maybe they want the same thing."
"They're hovering lights, Steven," Laura said, impatience staining her voice. "Don't you think they are advanced enough that they could just make us disappear? Don't you think they're not possibly afraid of us?"
"You just don't understand," Steven said. "I think I know who these people are."
"Right, I'm sure you do," Laura said. "You got us lost, you have no idea where we're going. You are a mess. But suddenly you know what these strange lights are. Pardon my skepticism."
"It's pardoned," Steven said. "Now listen to me."
"Sure," Laura said. "Everyone is entitled to their last words."
Steven choose to ignore his sister's sarcasm. Instead, he took a deep breath and turned to Laura. "A long time ago--"
"In a land far, far away," Laura interrupted.
Steven glared at Laura, causing her to fall silent.
"As I was saying," Steven said slowly. "A long time ago, a group of people came to live in these woods. They called it a commune, but the local citizens called it a cult." Steven paused, expecting Laura to say something sarcastic. When she didn't Steven continued. "Anyway, they wore something called tie-dyed shirts that used every color of the rainbow. They wore pants that were called bell bottoms, whatever they are. The boys let their hair grow as long, or longer, than the girls wore theirs. They had no permanent spouses, they just all lived together, sleeping in large dormitory tents, eating in cafeteria style areas. They even had a slogan, well, a couple slogans."
"Slogans?" Laura asked. "Why would they need slogans?"
"I don't think they felt like they needed slogans, but just like things like that usually happen, the slogans just appeared."
"What did the slogans say?" Laura asked.
"Things like 'make love not war.' 'Drugs, sex, and rock and roll.' I'm sure there were others, too."
"Umm," Laura said. "Those slogans don't sound like they would belong to dangerous people." Laura slowly peeked around Steven's shoulder and gazed at the single light hovering in front of her and Steven. "He looks friendly, doesn't he? I mean, he's green, not red."
"Good point, Laura," Steven said, his voice growing in volume as if he was suddenly beginning to laugh. "Do you want to hear the rest of the story?"
"Yes, by all means," Laura said. "Go on."
"Okay," Steven said and gazed at his sister to see if she meant it, or if she was being sarcastic again. When she remained silent, Steven continued.
"They came from all over America, all over the world actually. People said they didn't bath regularly, but they did. The people in town saw them after they had walked many miles and hadn't had a bath is several days, several months for some of them. But they were clean. They kept the bug population down as best they could--"
"But population?" Laura said. "What does that mean?"
"I'm not sure," Steven said. "I'm just telling you about the things I heard. I remember someone saying that they had a whole bucket of what they called 'roaches' and that they burned them at night."
"uggghhhh," Laura said, then placed her palm over her mouth, and spoke through her fingers. "Sorry."
"It's okay," Steven said. "I think it's gross too." Steven took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. "So they congregated here, in these woods, and set up their living situation. It wasn't all bad, either. They kept the area free of debris by gathering fire wood, and scrub bushes to burn. They kept their trash in one place. They swam in the stream that's supposed to be nearby. It's also where they washed their clothes. They used no soap, they didn't want to contaminate nature."
"If they were that concerned, then they couldn't have been all bad," Laura said.
"Oh, some people thought very highly of them. Some people brought them food, old clothes, and even blankets and cooking utensils. They cooked over open fires, slept out under the stars, and in general respected nature."
Laura gazed at the light that still hovered just out of her reach, but she noticed the light had softened. It was almost as if, she thought, the light had become thoughtful as it listened to Steven's words. Could it be, she asked herself. Could those kind, unassuming, nature loving people have somehow become the lights that hovered in the darkness of the woods? It was a question she hoped she would one day find the answer for. But for now she wanted Steven to continue his story.
"Go on, Steven," Laura said as she stepped closer to the small, hovering light.
"Sure," he replied. "But I don't know too much more about them." He closed his eyes as if he might be able to see the memory of his hearing the tale about the people who had come to live here. It came back to him slowly.
"They weren't welcomed by everyone. Some of the village people resented them. They called the forest people bums, crazy, dirty, pigs, but eventually they came to be called by a name that stuck with them. No one knows where the name came from, how originated it, or why it stuck. But soon everyone was calling them by that name. Hippies. Do you have any idea, Laura, what that means?"
Laura tapped her finger against her lips as she thought, then she said, "No, I can't say that I know what that means. But I have heard the word before."
"Hippies," Steven said slowly. "I wonder what it means."
"Does it really matter, Steven," Laura asked. Her gaze slid through the darkness until it settled on the hovering soft green glow. "Do you really think those lights are, um, hippies?"
"Um, could be," Steven said thoughtfully. "After the forest people had been here for about a year or so, one day they just disappeared."
"What do you mean, disappeared?" Laura asked.
"Just what I said. "One morning a group of the village people strolled up here and entered the woods, expecting to speak with some of the hippies. But it quickly became apparent that the hippies had simply disappeared. There was no trace of them."
"No trace at all?" asked Laura.
"That's right." Steven turned his attention to the glowing light. "I wonder," he said thoughtfully.
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