The girl flipped on a final light and ran gracefully across the front lawn to the blanket laid out and already occupied by her older sister.
“Look!”
She turned and looked, and saw the light—the craft hurling across the sky.
“Sit down, you’re in my way.”
Starlean sat down as all the lights in the city went out, and a strange silence ensued. It was eerily dark and quiet. She expected the darkness, but the silence she did not. Next to her home was the electrical substation, and she had become completely accustomed to the hum that it generated. Now, with the power cut, the hum was also gone. It felt magical to her, sitting in silence, in the pitch blackness, and watching a shooting star; but it wasn’t really a shooting start. It was a vessel with visitors from another world, and even one of their own was on board. She was mesmerized, and her crystal-blue eyes were glued to the spectacle. Then, the hum came back momentarily before all of the lights. She lay back on the blanket with her long blond hair now spread out underneath her. A smile spread across her face, a beautiful smile. As pretty as she was, her smile elevated her beauty to a new height. Laying there, looking up at the sky, with the artificial light bathing her, she was the picture of youth, and beauty, and happiness.