Beginning of Darkness at Night

Mia lay on her mat and watched a large red ant traverse the ceiling. It went one way, and then another, in quick, jerking movements.

"You don’t know where you want to go, but you’re in a hurry to get there," she said aloud.

The ant stopped, as if it heard her, and then resumed its trek.

She had no clock in her room, but when she heard the high-pitched shriek of the factory whistle, she knew it was 6 pm.

"Not much longer now," she said to the ant, which finally made its way to one corner and disappeared into some unseen crevice.

In a few more minutes, the sun would set, and the last workers would leave their factories. Once the factories were locked up securely for the night, the electricity would be shut off throughout the city. Her father had told her about a time, many years ago, when electricity was available whenever you wanted it.

"You could take a trolley car downtown at any hour, to restaurants that served beautiful dishes to beautiful people. Department stores were open all night, too. I loved to look in the windows at the wares imported from all over the world. But the best thing was the lights. Colored lights everywhere. Like the very stars of heaven had come down to earth," he said.

Mia could not dream of such a thing. It was so long ago, and she lived only now. If all went well, perhaps soon she would see a place with such lights.

For now, when the sun went down, the light went with it.

But that was not all bad, because the darkness had benefits of its own. It was the darkness that brought Baye to her.