Aurora

'As predicted, the Northern Lights appear, right on schedule. Or as I like to call them, Aurora Borealis. I like that name. More romantic I think. Aurora - like a light around you. Borealis - like the forest. So I think that colored light shimmering now all about the earth caused by solar flares, those solar storms, that hit the earth at about …'

Jane rose from her blanket on the ground. She lit the blacklight flashlight.

The shimmering green and blue aurora shifted from horizontal to vertical. The colors started at ground level and rose to the stars. High pitched screeching filled the night air. Jane fell to the ground, covered her ears. That sound filled her body, blocked all senses, it made her scream with pain. Then just as suddenly, it stopped. When it stopped, the shimmering aurora disappeared. Vanished as if suctioned into the bowels of the earth at one end and the heavens at the opposite end. Pulled taut like a rope, then suddenly disappearing.

Birds started to fly from trees. Deer raced across the yard, leaping over Jane in their hurry. Jane paused to watch the animals, trying to get her ears unblocked.

‘I’ve never heard anything like that before. Not thunder. Not an explosion. What in the world could be happening? Are we under attack? Is God descending? Get in the house…’

Jane ran to her house. Then the sound of the screen door clicking shut made her stop. Then a faint tinkling sound.

‘Whoa…what was that? Did I hear something? That sounded like a window breaking.’

Jane crept on tiptoe around the corner of her home, yielding no weapon but a small flashlight. At the door, she peered inside. The blacklight highlighted eyes of a small creature, perhaps that raccoon that frequented her trash. When she opened the door, it dashed out. The window in the kitchen had a big crack.

“What the…” Touching the crack only made the glass fall out of the frame.

“I know the Northern Lights are an unusual phenomenon but, they don’t cause this kind of damage.”

I count the cost, new glass, well actually a new window would be a few hundred. Then there was a new computer. Somehow the surge or noise or whatever fried my Mac. The phone doesn’t work. So, a new phone as well.

Guess I’ll head to town in the morning. See what I can get. At least a new phone and computer. Order a new window.

Jane slept fitfully. At least the noise didn’t return.

In the morning when she went to start the car, it was dead. So no trip to town and no call to the tow truck. She was stuck. Nearest neighbor is ten miles down the road. And the bike has a flat tire.

“But the Butler’s place is a few miles over the pasture. Time for the hiking boots. Let’s go and figure out what this is all about.”


W/C 491