Fireflies in the sky

7 March 2018

The road was getting darker as she drove further into the wilderness. Looking back into the rear view mirror she could see the city fading behind her. Soon the city lights would all be gone. She pondered whether she should continue on this road as there were no street lights. She realised that if she got lost here there would be nobody to turn to help for as not many people chose to go through this road, especially at this time of the night.

As if in answer to her internal question, a small light flickered ahead and she thought it to be a good omen. Surely there would be a few people ahead of her whom she could ask for help if she were to get stranded on these external routes. She pressed the pedal and sped toward the source of the light which flickered before it went out. Her doubts returned again but she decided to carry on all the same. All around her she could feel the desert slowly closing in on her as the road branched into smaller desert paths.

She drove on in almost pitch black except for where her headlights cleared a path in the black of the night. At times she was not even sure anymore that she was still on the path except for the fact that she could feel hard ground under the wheels. She decided to pay special attention to the feel of the road and to return in case she felt the front wheels touch any sand. She was aware that if she got stuck in the sand here there would be little chance of her getting out of it before the morning.

She marveled at how just a few kilometers away from the heart of a buzzing city full of nightlife one could go to such pitch black silence. In the distance she could hear the hum of the electrical posts that were relaying life saving electricity to the residents of the city. She thought to herself that while people could use candlelight to replace the bulbs in case of an outage nobody could do anything against the heat if such a thing were to happen. She remembered the month in July when her air conditioner had been out of service and the landlord had taken weeks to repair it. Each day had then been like a journey into hell and her helper had had to change the bedsheets every day.

She noticed a flicker again in the sky and decided to drive in its direction. The tiny flicker grew a bit and was joined by other flickers that started to grow in size as she drove nearer. She could see in the distance an outline of trees with the flickers just above the treetops. She hastened towards the point where all the flickers seemed to converge, anxious to find out where the flickers came from. Soon she reached the end of the desert path which then turned into sand. She took out the torch light from the glove compartment and proceeded toward the source of the flickering light.

After a few meters, she came into what seemed like a growth of several palm trees and other trees she could not identify. At the top of the trees she could see hundreds of them flickering in the sky. It was like a cosmic dance of light and she realised that the flickering was from fireflies. The sky was full of them. She wondered how the fireflies had gotten here and then decided to enjoy the sight without further questions. She raced back to the car and took out the mat that she kept there. She unfolded it on the ground and lay on it, gazing up at where the fireflies in the sky competed with the light of the stars. It was the first time in a long while that she could actually see the stars. The fireflies with the backdrop of the stars was so beautiful it brought tears to her eyes as she lay back gazing at the illuminated sky.

Fireflies – Owl City

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psuRGfAaju4