VISITORS

Two Lights Dancing in the Dark: by Jake Wood Evans

The day was long and filled with rain and restlessness. All Cody wanted to do was ride his bike down the street and spend time with his friends, but the sun sank as the clouds cleared and now it’s too late. He was supposed to go to sleep hours ago but it’s one of those lonely nights. Now lying in the top bunk of his otherwise empty bed, Cody fixated on the distant glow of the slivered moon through his bedroom window, wondering what was out there.

Cars passed all night on his busy street with heavy growls and bright shining lights that poured into the lunar tinted room. Headlights that started at one end of the wall and streaked across the various toys as the engine’s hum grew and faded in its passing.

There was something hypnotic in the light and sounds as the visitors came and went. Cody’s eyes remained open as his mind trailed off into another world. He could see the light and the cars continue to pass, one by one, and yet one by one something was left behind. Two tiny lights blinked on and off like fireflies that grew larger and larger in time.

“Are you asleep?” Whispered a foreign voice.

“I’m too tired to sleep.” Cody responded, dazed in his hypnotic state.

“Do you want to play?” Another voice continued.

As if all at once realizing something was in his room, Cody shot up and turned on the light to find two creatures half his size floating timidly in the corner, one holding a toy robot in front as a shield.

After careful consideration of the creatures’ meek posture, Cody’s defense relented to his curiosity. “What do you want to play?”

“We can build something!”

“Okay.”

Together they played, Cody and the visitors, building things with the toys in the room. The visitors were clever, pulling pieces apart and mixing toys with wonderful results. The toy robot and a walkie talkie became a functioning computer that translated Cody’s voice into a strange language, just like his new friends. Cody was impressed.

“What else can you make?” Cody laughed in a new tongue.

They set to take apart everything in the room. The laundry basket was turned over and disassembled, as were a pair of flashlight, only to be put back together as a helmet and visor. The visitors turned out the lights to show Cody that he could now  see in the dark just like his new friends.

"Unbelievable! Let's make more!" Cody encouraged the visitors.

They continued to make inventions.  With the clothes thrown about the room, separated from the re-purposed laundry basket, the visitors pulled apart selected items stitch by stitch and sewed them back together into a special suit fitted perfectly for Cody, just like his new friends.

"I look just like you..." Cody said excitedly.

"Almost." Stated the visitors fidgeting with another project.

They were working on something big. After some expert engineering, Cody’s book-bag and toy train were made into a jetpack that allowed him to float just like his new friends. The three of them swam for hours in the dark room, speaking in unknown words, playing through the hours. 

 

The late night had turned into the early morning, swallowed in the last gulp of darkness before dawn.

One by one the lights passed until Cody, too, became a blinking light in the room. The lights became smaller and smaller. Then, with the passing of engines humming down the increasingly busy street, the three of them were gone.