Neanderthal

Dispatch 8

I wake suddenly. For a moment, I’m caught between a dream and waking, but the noise comes again and residual sleep clears from my mind.

I jump from my bed, leaving the warm blankets behind and fumbling into the chilly darkness of my bedroom. Despite the darkness, I know the path to the door. It is open, and I am in the hallway heading toward the back porch in no time.

Out the back door and into the yard, I hear the chickens cackle again. A well-placed flashlight beam reveals the fox that has been trying for a chicken dinner. It is frightened by the light and runs away. The chickens are safe for now.

Adrenaline abating, I turn back toward the house. There is no moon tonight. The stars are plentiful in the sky. I take some time to savor the sight.

The familiar constellations greet my gaze. Oh, but there are so many stars tonight! I don’t know them all. I stare, trying to etch this vision into my memory.

I am just about to go back in the house when something strange catches my eye. There are two bright lights following each other across the sky. I have enough time to wonder if they are airplanes high in the sky, traveling together, when a third in line comes over the peak of the roof. Then another and another.

I have no idea what I am looking at. The lights continue across the sky in a straight line, more and more and more coming into view over the roofline. Now there are more than twenty of them. I stand with my mouth open. I am unsure if I am dreaming. No, that’s not true. It is cool enough that I am certain I am awake. Am I hallucinating? Is this some sort of military exercise?

At two in the morning, there is only one place I can go to find an answer. I go inside and describe what I am seeing to the internet.

Starlink. Of course.

I smile and walk back outside. The last of the lights are disappearing over the horizon.

I wonder about others who have seen something strange in the heavens and struggled to make sense of it.

The lights continue east until they are out of sight.

I glance toward the chicken coop. They have settled down again.

Then I wander back into the house.

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