Saturday

Last Thursday night, at about 8:40 p.m., it was a little rainy. I happened to be looking out the window and I saw a couple flashes in the night sky. The sky lit up as bright as daylight, kind of like when there is lightning, but these flashes lasted a few moments longer than lightning would have. The sky flashed turquoise. The lights in the house flickered. Other people in the house had seen it, too, and we all rushed to the windows to see if it would happen again. It did, and this time the sky flashed pink. I thought perhaps there were fireworks, but there were no loud fireworks noises, and no reason for them, since it was a weeknight and I was pretty sure nothing was going on to have precipitated a fireworks show in the rain in December. Two of us decided to take a walk toward the area where the flashes seemed to be coming from. It was dark and rainy outside, but most of the sky was glowing pink. I briefly considered the scene from National Lampoon's Christmas vacation movie, the one where Chevy Chase's character lights up the house and blinds the neighbors, but I didn't see anybody putting up Christmas lights. We walked to the top of a hill, where there is a huge overlook over a small part of the town. We saw nothing. There were no more flashes. There was a man walking up the hill by himself with a backpack and an umbrella. We asked him if he had seen the flashes. (It reminded me of my friend Michealdiegolo, when he used to ask me every Thursday morning in art class if I had seen The Flash last night. He meant on TV, but I didn't take it that way.) The man was out of breath, and he looked at us carefully. I was feeling sick and unsocial, so I didn't speak; it was the 10-year-old with me who asked him very politely if he had seen anything unusual that led to the strange flashes in the sky. He said, "Actually I did see what happened. There was some type of electrical malfunction, or a short, in the power station for the school, and that let off a lot of sparks." He seemed kind of upset. We thanked him and he walked on. The power station that I think he was talking about is about two miles from my house, and on the other side of a very steep hill.
Last night, or perhaps this morning, I had a dream about the downtown where I live being attacked by bombs and taken over by the enemy. I happened to be in a crowded restaurant, and everyone decided to stay inside. There was food there, and my family was all there, so I felt safe. We had a nice table. I peeked outside a few times and the buildings were in disarray. One of the buildings at the top of the hill was picked up into the sky and then brought down to rest in another spot, completely intact. I decided to clear everyone's dishes and take them to the kitchen. When I got back into the dining room, a woman came in and she was telling everyone what to do. She asked me if I wanted a son to take care of because she had two boys with her who had lost their parents. I said no, I already have two daughters of my own. (Last night I was watching a news show in which a woman suspected of kidnapping a child said that she had six of her own children, so that supposedly proved that she couldn't have done it.) The woman was trying to tell everyone what to do. She locked the door so no one could come in or go out. She made everyone pay her $4, for what I am not sure. It was kind of like a bully demanding lunch money. Even though she didn't seem cruel or mean, she was just intimidating and scary. Later in my dream I realized I had given up my beautiful condo in someplace called Pleasant Valley. It had its own deck and a small, outdoor pool. All the front rooms, the living room, the dining room and the kitchen, had walls of glass. It was always sunny and bright there. I realized when I woke up I only have five windows in my house, but I like it.