A Light in the Sky

            My father passed the bowl of planta to me. I was starving and grabbed it with both hands. I set it to the side of my plate and took a large spoon-full from the bowl and placed it on my plate. The meat and sauce were waiting. I mixed them all together before beginning to eat. I loved to mix my foods together. My sister, however, did not, which I found strange. She like to keep everything separate on her plate with each food in its own special space. I did not understand this and thought it was another reason to support my assertion that she was from some far away planet. 

            I loved planta. It was my favorite food. My mother was a great cook and made many fine meals for our family but this one, for me, was her very best. As I inserted my fork into the planta, there was a knock on our door. My father looked up from his plate, looked at my mother and then informed all of us that he would get the door. He put down his fork and rose from his chair and walked to the door and looked out the window. 

            “Its Butch from next door,” he said as he opened the door. “Hi Butch! What can we do for you tonight?’

            “Hey, sorry to bother you, especially at dinner time, but can I talk to you? It’s kind of important and all. Again, sorry folks for interrupting dinner.”

            “Sure,” my father said.

            “Outside,” Butch said. “On the porch, if you don’t mind.”

            “Sure, Butch,” said my dad as he followed Butch out onto the porch, closing the door behind him.

            My mother looked at me and then at my sister as she ate. She hated when people called on us at dinner. Dinner was her domain, her happy place. She deemed dinner time as a sacred and protected time that should never ever be interrupted: it was gold and to interrupt it meant whatever Butch needed had better be real important. I looked at my sister and she looked at me, we knew our mother was not happy. 

            “I am sure there is an emergency at work,” she announced to us as she ate.

My sister looked at me again, but she said nothing. I just kept eating my planta. I knew my father would be in trouble with my mother if it was anything other than work. As I took another bite, I heard the door open and turned to see my father come back through the door. 

            “What is it?” asked my mother. 

            “Well, I am not sure. Butch said there is a strange light in the sky tonight—up behind the school.”

            “What?”

            “Yea, he said most of the town is up there looking at it right now. It has been in the sky for a few hours now. No one really knows what to make of it.”

            “Really?” said my mother. 

            “Yea, and we should go look at it too. He wants me to see it in case it is something more.” My father was one of the three selectmen who ran the town. He was always busy doing something for our little town. My mother supported him, but, at times, she thought it demanded too much from him, like tonight.  

            “Not until we finish dinner,” said my mother firmly. “There are two other selectmen in this town. Let them look at it until you finish dinner.” 

            “Right,” my father said with a chuckle. “Let’s eat and then we can go for a walk and see it for ourselves,” he said in his usual calm manner. He knew that dinner was my mother’s sacred time. It would take a real emergency to break away from dinner without finishing it first, and he did not deem this as that kind of emergency.

I looked at my mother and then my father. “What light? I asked as ate more of my planta.

            “I don’t really know,” my father said. “Butch said it is the strangest thing he has ever seen. Let’s finish eating first and then go see it for ourselves. The rest of the town apparently is already there.” 

We ate what was on our plate as this was my father’s rule for dinner and it was always in play. My sister and I always had to eat at least one portion of everything being offered for dinner. Any complaint was rewarded with another spoonful, which we were also required to eat; nothing ever went to waste. My father grew up with very little. There were times when his family did not have enough to eat for dinner so whatever food we had was a blessing to him and he did not want us wasting any of it.

            After we finished dinner, which always included washing the dishes—my mother’s rule—we put on our coats and hats and went out the side door onto the driveway.

            “Where are we going again?” asked my mother. 

            “We are going up street to the back of the school,” said my father. “That is where everyone is looking at this light in the sky.”

            “Light in the sky,” said my mother. “It probably just a bright star.”

            “Maybe,” my father said, “but let’s take a look for ourselves.”

And, with that, we started walking up the street towards the school. It was a cold brisk night. As we walked we could see our breath in the night time air. My sister did not seem to care, but I couldn’t wait to see it. I tried to look into the sky to see if I could see the light, but I saw nothing. The trees stretching over the road preventing me from seeing the full sky. As we approached the school, we could see others walking up the sidewalk and around the side of the school. We followed the Carriers and the Newtons who were also walking up the sidewalk. 

            As we walked around the back of the school, we were surprised to find that almost the entire town was there. Butch saw us and motioned to my father. He pointed up into the dark nighttime sky, towards the hill just over the trees. I followed his finger and looked up in the sky and then, I saw it. Bright, round and clear with no movement. It was not a star. It was too close. It just hung in the air and did not move. It was like a moon, lucid and clear but so close and low in the nighttime sky. As I looked at it, I began to get a little anxious. What was this thing, I thought? Butch walked over to us and pointed at it.

            “That thing … right there … has not moved in three hours,” he announced. 

            “You don’t say,” said my father with his eyes glued to the round object in the sky. 

My father moved us to an open space on the bank behind the school, which inclined up leading to a flat field the town used as a softball field. There was snow on the bank but not too much as we had not had any large snowstorms yet. As I moved up the bank, I could hear the snow crunch under my boots.  

            As I looked up into the sky, there it was just sitting there. It was so round and bright, and white but not too white, sort of milky white and stationary. I did not know how else to describe it. It just continued to hang there in the sky like a small secondary moon but much closer than our real moon. It seemed like it was watching us as much as we were watching it. I couldn’t take my eyes off it. Most of the families from the town had now joined us behind the school. They were looking at the light in the sky, pointing and talking to each other. My father walked over to where Butch was standing.

            “Butch, that thing is no star,” said my father. “I am not sure what it is, but it’s no star.”    

“It’s not, that’s for sure. What do you think it is?” asked Butch in a low whisper. “Is it something to worry about? Is it … you know … a UFO?”

            “I have no idea,” my father whispered back, “but let’s not get too excited. And let’s not say that out loud right now.” 

I kept looking at the circle in the sky. I looked at it through the trees. I could see it between two branches that formed an X directly on it. I looked back over my shoulder at the families that had assembled behind the school. Some were laughing and having a good time. Others were whispering to each other and appeared concerned. Some just stood silently starring a that light in the sky. It was clear to me that no one was sure what this thing was and what we should do about it if anything. I was not sure what it was either, but I knew one thing … It was there, it was real and I was watching it.  

            I looked around and saw that two of the three selectmen were behind the school with us looking at the light in the sky. My father, of course, was one of them; Tillie Manago was the other, but that was not a surprise. Tillie never missed anything in this town. So, that was two of the three. Where was the third? Where was Bruno Mowe and why was he not here? His house was almost directly across the street from the school. Maybe, he knew what this thing in the sky was? Bruno was the elder statesman of our town. He knew everything about our town and always had an answer to give us. I began to wonder why he was not here. 

            Our little town was situated across the river from one of the very first nuclear power plants built in the country. We benefited greatly from the location of this plant, but not as much as Towson, the town in which the plant was located. The plant bought our little town the finest fire engine in the area and charged the town $1.00 for it. Our town had gotten used to seeing bizarre things related to that plant. Helicopters, investigators in dark suits and dark SUVs had all visited our little town at one time or another, but this … this was different. Was this related to the plant across the river? I began to wonder then I heard a little commotion behind me and turned to see Bruno Mowe in his rubber boots and hunting hat walking up the bank. 

            “What’s everybody doing here?” He asked.

The crowd said nothing at first, then, my father spoke up.

            “Bruno, look,” my father said pointing to the sky. “What do you think that is?” asked my father continuing to point to the light in the sky.

            “You know, I don’t know,” Bruno said rubbing his chin as he did when he was thinking, “but I am sure it is nothing to get too excited about.” I am sure there is a very good explanation waiting to he heard,” he said with a smile. He was always positive and said everything with assurance. I looked up and it was still there … in the same spot, right between those two branches of that one tree. 

            It was getting late and getting much colder. I was starting to get cold, and I could see others were getting cold too. The younger kids who were playing on the playground on the side of the school started to wander back to their parents, complaining of the cold. The adults who were talking among themselves began to shift back and forth to stay warm. I was looking at my mittens and wondering how I could generate more heat for my hands because the mittens were no longer working. Then, I heard someone gasp and a little scream. I turned and looked up and caught a glimpse of the light as it moved quickly to the top of the mountain and disappeared over it. There was a moment of silence and then everyone started talking at once. 

            “Ok, everyone, calm down,” Bruno said walking through the crowd. “I am sure there is a good explanation for what this was. We will make inquiries. I promise you that.”

            “It is like nothing I have ever seen,” said Tullie. 

            “Me neither” said Olga who lived between Bruno and Tullie. “I have never ever seen anything like that in my life. I think we just saw a UFO!”

            “Now Olga let’s not jump to conclusions,” said Bruno with a chuckle. “We don’t know what that was, but we will find out.”     

Did I just see a UFO? My 14-year-old mind equated a UFO to a flying saucer from another world, but the reality was a UFO was any Unidentified Flying Object, which could be something from the government and this world. I had just read that last night in a science magazine. 

            Everyone was cold and with the light in the sky now gone people started to head back to their homes. My father collected us and ushered us back down the bank, across the playground and back on to the street. It was time to go home. As we walked back home, I kept looking behind me, hoping to see the light in the sky again, but I never saw it again that night nor any other night after. 

            For the next two weeks, I looked up into that night sky every night hoping to get one more glimpse of that light in the sky only to be disappointed again and again. As weeks became months, I stopped looking in the sky and started to forget what that light actually looked like. Other things became more important and soon spring was upon us. The townspeople stopped talking about it, and it faded from all our collective memories. After a year, I forgot about that night all together. That is until one Christmas when I was once again reminded about the light in the sky. 

            I was at a Christmas party with Alice, who lived in Connecticut with her parents but visited our area often because her grandparents lived next door to mine in the tiny Vermont town my grandparents called home. Alice was my age and every Christmas she came with her parents to stay with her grandparents. We usually hung out with each other because there was no one else our age. We were at a party at her grandparent’s house when someone ask if anyone saw the light in the sky from a year ago. I perked up to see who was asking the question. It was Mike, Alice’s uncle.

            “Mike,” I said confidentially. “I saw the light in the sky that night.”

            “Yea, how long was it in the sky,” he asked. 

            “Well, when I got there someone said it had been in the sky for about 3 hours.”

            “How long total? He asked. 

            “Probably, about 4 hours or so.”

            “Four hours,” said Mike. “You sure?”

            “I am. My family was there too. You can ask them.”

            “Did you see it disappear?”

            “Sure did! It went over the mountain.”

            “Well, I saw it too and it’s been a year, and I still can’t get that light out of my mind. It is driving me crazy. What do think it was? Was it a UFO? Was it something to do with that plant down near you guys?

            “I have no idea. I kind of forgot about to be honest until tonight,” I said as I looked over at Alice who just shrugged her shoulders, knowing nothing about the light in the sky. It was funny to me that Mike saw that light and still could not get it out of his mind, and me, well, I had completely forgotten about the light in the sky and that night. I was surprised that it had slipped my mind. I tried to remember what it looked like, but even that memory was faded. 

            Alice asked me about it later. I told her about that night and how the whole town came out to see this strange light that hung in the sky over our town. I told her about Butch, my father and Bruno. I told her about the cold and snow crunching under my boots, but the light, I couldn’t really tell her what it looked like. I told all that I could remember, which was not much. Mike, on the other hand, remembered everything about the light like it was last night. He saw it from Towson, just across the river. His memory was different. It was not as bright to him and much smaller. It was white and a perfect circle, and as much as he tried, he could not forget it. I, on the other hand, had forgotten all about it. I had to go ask my father about it. My father did remember it. He related the evening to Alice, told her who was there and what the light looked like. As he spoke, my memory of the light started to return to me. 

            Later in the evening as the people began to go home, it was time for me to say goodbye to Alice. I knew she was going back to her home in Connecticut tomorrow. We said our goodbyes. She gave me a hug and left with her parents. Alice and I were very much alike. We enjoyed each other’s company when we could, but then when it was time to go back to our own lives, hers in Connecticut and mine here, we had no issues doing that. 

I never saw another light in the sky again and as far as I know, no one in our town did either. We never found out what the light was, and you know what, that was fine with me. It was a UFO, by all accounts. Was it from this world or another? I do not know, and I probably never will, but I am comfortable with that. As the years went by, I thought less and less about the light in the sky, and more and more about other things like baseball, college and life, but every once in a while, something would trigger that memory and I would, once again, pull it back out of the recesses of my mind and think about it. 

I could still recall the tense mood of the people there that night. I could remember the whispers and the cold, and then I would wonder, again, what that light in the sky was, but I am not Mike, who still talks about it to this day. I resigned myself to the very real fact that I will never know, and I decided that I am fine with that. It bothered me for the first few weeks after seeing it, but every week that went by something else filled its void. As I grew older, I realized that life is about mysteries, and becoming comfortable with them. You can’t possibly know everything and that is fine with me. Everyone has mysteries; if you don’t, you need to get out more.