THE LIGHT By Kayleigh
The man stood on his porch in the dark. It was always dark here, but he liked standing on the porch looking out into that inky blackness. Not for any particular reason, he mused, deflecting himself from the true reason for his regular vigils. He lived alone, as, he assumed, did everyone else. It was pretty impossible to go out and meet people, no one could see anything out there. But he did know that there were people out there, he spoke to them on the Network, he connected to them and they all shared their own similar experiences of this place, they all danced around the word he dared not say. The word that would describe his aloneness. He dare not say it, lest he shine an impossible light on it, giving it no quarter to hide. So he stood out here. It wasn’t cold, or hot, it was pretty comfortable despite the stark lack of illumination. He would stand there, sometimes with a drink, just staring out in the nothing, eyes darting back and forth not looking at anything, but always looking for something. He was standing on his porch when it happened, it was subtle, he barely noticed it at first. But it soon became blindingly obvious, as a massive ball of fire arose to his left, it made a slow lazy arc across the sky, it was so bright it illuminated everything! He could now see out beyond his porch, he could see other houses! He could see other people! They were just now coming out of their houses and looking towards the sky. He rushed over to the nearest one, exclaiming excitedly as he got there, “I can see you!” His neighbour turned, her smile almost as bright as the fire ball. “I can see you too!” “May I, uh,” he ventured, “Give you a hug?”
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