“I thought I was blind at first. I mean, I couldn’t see a thing. It was completely dark.”
He sat on the bar stool with a glass of cheap beer in his hand. When he moved his arms to gesture, he kept spilling bits of the contents on Jerry, his best friend for the evening.
“Look, man, you haven’t ever seen dark like that,” he took a sip and stopped, looking thoughtful. “Well, maybe in a cave somewhere… But other than that…”
Jerry had been in a many caves in his lifetime. Every time, someone in the group always suggested, “Hey, let’s all turn our flashlights off.” Naturally, everyone did. And the result was always the same: total blackness. Yeah, he knew what Don was talking about.
“I held my hand up. Like this,” he gave a visual demonstration, hand inches from his nose. “Couldn’t see it.”
Don was getting more excited as his story continued. Every Thursday at Joe’s, he was there telling the same story: how God had taken him all the way back to when it all started, you know, “Day One.” Jerry was a newcomer, and so he was thoroughly enjoying the tale while all the others simply ignored the man.
“So, what happened then?” Jerry prodded.
“Huh?” Don put his hand back down and looked up at Jerry. “Oh, uh, well, I’ll get to that.”
He composed himself and continued, “You couldn’t see a thing, and there wasn’t a sound in all the world, errr… universe, I guess. You’ve never heard silence like that, let me tell you. It was weird, scary. I couldn’t even hear myself. Nothin’. Just dead silence. It was freakin’ me out, man. But then…” Don leaned closer to Jerry, the smell of alcohol strong on his breath. “And then… bam!”
Jerry jumped back in surprise, nearly spilling his own beer.
“’LET THERE BE LIGHT!’ That’s what it said, the voice. It pounded in my ears. It was loud, man. And I mean loud. I’m talkin’ jet engine loud. No. Stick your head in a jet engine loud. That’s loud. And then light exploded all over the place.”
By now, Don was gesticulating so wildly that Jerry reached over to steady the poor man lest he fall of his bar stool.
“It was like one massive explosion of light all around! It was wild man! Like fireworks, but on steroids! I was blown away!”
“What did it look like?” Jerry found himself asking, a smile on his lips. “The light, I mean.”
“What did it look like?” Don looked confused. “It looked like light. It was bright… white. Look, you ever stare at the sun too long?”
“Yeah?”
“It was like that image you get stuck in your eyes. You know? You close your eyes but it sorta hangs there glowing and crap… But it was all over me. I closed my eyes, but it didn’t help any. I looked away. I covered my eyes with my hands… It was bright, man.”
“I dunno, Don,” Jerry smiled, “but you sure tell a good story.”
He put a twenty on the bar and got up to leave.
“Story?” Don held his hands out plaintively, as if to show he “had nothin’ up his sleaves.” “I told you before, this ain’t no story. I was there. I saw it, man.”
“Jerry walked out of the bar, zipped his jacket against the cold, and stood at the bus stop. He found himself staring up at the sky while he waited, looking at those flickering, shining stars.
Let there be light… he thought to himself.
“And… bam!” he said with a smile and a shake of his head.
Still, as he stood, he couldn’t help but crane his neck towards those distant shimmering lights.
