any harry potter fans out there? remember back to 2001, when we first laid eyes on Professor Albus Dumbledore? who was this strangely dressed man with the long white beard stealing the light from the streetlamps? the opening sequence, to the first installment of the harry potter movies, filled me intrigue and wonder. confession: i never finished reading the series, nor did i watch any of the movies past number three or four, but i remember the first one vividly.
the other night my son, ash, and i were driving south down the main drag in our town, state street. it was dark and kind of foggy. in essence you could say it was perfectly spooky for this time of year.
our adventure started on 116th street. this is a main intersection on state street. it has a stop light with a large shopping center on the northwest corner, a gas station with a car wash on the northeast corner, a closed down, boarded up grocery store on the southeast corner and a hokey looking computer recycle place that sometimes peddles flags and blankets (not at the same time) on the southwest corner. now that you have the lay of land let's get on with the story.
as i was saying, ash and i were traveling south down state street. there are streetlights that line the west side of the road, all the way to the other end of town. we drive under the first streetlight and it goes out. now, i have a sunroof in my 4Runner, and i noticed that all of the sudden the brightness above my head was gone. i looked up, yes pulling my eyes from the road, and saw just the sky.
we travel a few more feet down the road and just as i pass under the next streetlight, it goes out. again the brightness above me disappears. i look up again and see just the sky. at this moment i look down the road. all the streetlights on the west side of the road are lit ahead of me. i look in my rear view mirror and it is dark behind me, no light from the streetlights.
we travel a few more feet down the road, approaching the next streetlight. at this time i am watching the light and not the road. it seems strange to me that the last two lights have darkened just as i pass underneath them and i want to watch this light. just as the two lights prior, this third goes out as i drive underneath. that is three streetlights.
i ask ash, "hey ash, watch the streetlights tell me what you see."
we are still maintaining the same speed and still traveling south down state street and quickly approaching the next light. it is lit up, shining like a beacon in the night, spreading its glow on the ground below. just as we pass underneath it, yep you guessed it, the light goes out.
ash says, "hey, the light went out."
i say to him, "that is the fourth light to go out when i drive underneath it. look behind us." he looks, there are no lights behind us. the only light we can see is the intersection stop lights that we traveled through, which is continuing to fade into the night, otherwise it is dark.
now we are both watching the lights. the lights are still lit up as far ahead as we can see, and none of the lights we have passed under have come back on. we come to the next light and it turns off.
ash says, "we have a magic car!"
he is totally thrilled with our 1996 magical 4Runner. i, on the other hand, am kind of creeped out. what in the world is going on? i have turned off the radio, for some reason my thinking says, "stay on your toes, heather". i keep looking all around waiting for something, i have no idea what, but something to happen, but there isn't anything out there. just a perfectly spooky night. the lights behind us still haven't come on and the lights ahead of us are still lit.
our entire adventure started at 116th street and ended at 100th street, when we took a left and headed home. for those 16 blocks, every light we drove under turned off, leaving the road behind us black. we never saw Dumbledore. we never figured out what was going on. we just watched in amazement as the lights blinked off as we drove under.
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