As we rolled into the station, I woke up. No one was making any noise, not even that obnoxious baby that had been squealing the whole trip. Everyone was just staring out the windows on my side of the car. I followed their gazes, but had to shut my eyes and turn my back to the window. It was so bright! In that single glimpse, I noticed that the whole town was lit up by some sort of golden light coming from its center. There weren’t any shadows, that I could see. Everything seemed lit up. It was as if the sun had come down and taken residence in that town.
Was it the light that was enthralling everyone? I wondered. I figured that had to be it. With my eyes still closed, I fumbled around my feet for my backpack. Once I found it, I pulled out my brand new aviator sunglasses. Well, they weren’t brand new. My grandpa had just retired from the Air Force and he gave them to me for my twentieth birthday.
“You never know when they’ll come in handy.” he’d said. “These things do wonders when you’re flying and have to look directly in the sun’s direction.”
I hoped he was right. That was kind of what I had to do now. I had to find that light. I mean, it’s not like it’s an important town or anything, but I couldn’t just leave people standing or sitting like that: transfixed until they died. I had to do something.
Putting on the sunglasses, I carefully moved into the aisle. No one even noticed, not even the guy I tripped over. I walked over to the open door and jumped onto the platform. My sneakers squeaked slightly in that glass and steel mausoleum, but, again, no one noticed. After getting turned around inside the deceptively large station, I finally found an exit.
At any other time, I would have marveled at the quaintness of the town and the various storefronts, but today I wasn’t even paying attention to that. Instead, I was looking at all the people and animals that were standing rigidly still staring at the center of town. I saw a young family, the parent’s couldn’t have been more than twenty-five, with their young daughter and dog stiffly staring at the light. I couldn’t bear it anymore. I took off running.
I was angry. Who or what could be doing this to these people? Whatever it was, couldn’t it leave these people alone? The image of that family kept coming back into my mind vividly clear. I sprinted through the crowd, careful not to knock anyone over.
I reached a park with a fountain at the center and stopped to catch my breath. At first, I was startled by a noise. I quickly realized it was just the fountain gurgling and spraying it’s water in the air.
“Good!” I panted to myself. “At least there’s something alive here.”
I looked around to get my bearings. I’d kept my head down during my mad sprint through the streets. Everyone in this section of town had their necks craned upwards. I followed suit. There it was! At the top of the tower!
I took off again. The tower was only a couple of blocks away. I wasn’t going to wait any longer. I would not let that cute family and their dog stay that way anymore. I even missed hearing that crying baby on the train!
I reached the base of the old stone tower. I circled it twice looking for some sort of entrance. Nothing.
“Dang it!” I exclaimed.
I looked upwards again to see if there was anything I could use to get inside the tower. Above and to my right was a closed window.
“Perfect.” I muttered sarcastically.
I pulled myself up to the ledge that the window was on. A brief inspection of the window frustrated me even more. It was locked.
“Dang it!” I said again.
I reached into my backpack and pulled out my jacket. How hard could it be to punch through the glass? Guys did it in movies all the time! Just to be safe, I wrapped the jacket around my hand and arm. Mentally counting to three, I launched my fist at the largest pane of the window. Nothing happened, at first. Then came the pain. I clenched my other fist and bit my lip so that I wouldn’t let out a yell.
“That didn’t go like I planned.” I squeaked.
I took a second to think about it. On second thought, it might’ve been better to kick it in instead. I gingerly unwrapped my arm and wrapped the jacket around my ankle. My sneaker would protect my foot. I didn’t want to cut myself. After taking a few deep breaths, I glared at the window. I wasn’t about to let that window stop me! Drawing on the mental picture of that frozen family and all the rage that came with it, I drew my leg back and swung my heel as hard as I could at the window. It shattered with a loud, satisfying crash.
I quickly unwrapped my jacket and reached through the broken window-pane to unlock it. It took me a frustratingly long time to figure out what kind of latch it was. Once I got it, I threw the window wide open and looked into the tower.
I was expecting it to be dark, but it was even brighter inside! I saw a staircase winding itself around the tower only a couple of feet below the windowsill. Carefully, so as to not cut myself on the broken glass or break a leg, I jumped onto the staircase. I followed the staircase all the way up to the top of the tower. There was nothing there except a small tube in the middle of the floor. The light seemed to be coming from that tube. It was brighter than anything else around it.
I turned and sped down the stairs. At the bottom, I found a cast iron gate. I resisted the urge to ram my shoulder against it and reached in. In seconds I’d drawn back the bolt and swung the gate open on its creaking hinges. I went down another flight of stairs before reaching a long hallway.
I could hear something coming from the other end of that brilliantly lit hallway. It was like a rhythmic humming and thumping. I’d thought I’d heard something like it before, but I couldn’t place it.
I ignored the noise and, spurred on by the anger I felt, I sprinted down the hallway right into the wooden door at the end. I yanked the knob and furiously threw the door open. In the middle of the chamber was a bright glass orb, like a light bulb, only a hundred times bigger. The “light bulb” was connected to the tube I’d seen at the top of the tower.
“Really?” I groaned. “More glass?”
This time, I remembered one of my other birthday presents: a swiss army knife. I pulled it out of my pocket and looked at it. Which one of its tools could I use to break this thing? I thought of various different things, but nothing made sense. I finally decided to use a small sharp tool between my fingers while I held the rest in my fist. I didn’t learn my lesson from the window. I thought that the sharp point would weaken the glass, allowing me to punch through it easily.
I worked it out so that I wouldn’t have to put a hole in my jacket while I punched the “light bulb.” I took a few steadying breaths as I got ready to shatter it.
Suddenly, the ground bucked slightly underneath me. I didn’t lose my footing, but it unnerved me nonetheless.
“OK!” I yelled determinedly. “It’s now or never!”
Just before I punched the thing, I felt someone tapping me on the shoulder. I closed my eyes, spun around, and threw my arm at them.
“Relax, dude!” a familiar voice said. “We’re there!”
I opened my eyes and saw the inside of the train car. The baby was squealing again and the people were chatting and bustling about with their luggage. The train was slowly pulling into the familiar station of my hometown. There was no light or intense silence.
I rubbed my sleepy eyes and tried to remember what had happened. I must have just fallen asleep on my way back home with a friend, I decided. I got up and grabbed my backpack off the floor.
“You seemed to be having an intense dream, Dave.” my friend said.
“Yeah.” I shrugged. “I can’t remember it though.”
“That’s the thing with dreams,” he said, “you never can remember.”
“Nope, I guess you can’t.” I said as I put on my brand new aviators.
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