Bright Lights

 

               Once upon a time there was a happy drama student, named Sara, from Thomas Edison High School. The mascot, for some reason, was a lightbulb, which most of the students thought was hilarious and extremely lame simultaneously. Sara, not being the brightest bulb of the bunch, thought it was the best mascot on the planet. She made a lightbulb costume for Halloween, begged to wear the mascot outfit during football games, and decorated her room using lightbulbs of various shapes and sizes.

               One day, while wearing her costume for no apparent reason other than the pure joy it brought her, Sara went for a walk in the woods near her house. She crossed over a bridge and wandered deeper into the trees than she ever had before until she came across tower.

               There was no door that she could see at the base of the tower, but she could hear singing far above her head so she called up to the top of the tower.

               “Hello! Is someone up there?”

               “Hello! Who is down there?” came a reply.

               “Sara,” Sara said.

               “Well, Sara, why don’t you come up to visit?”

          
     Sara looked around, worried. “But there are no doors,” she said to the voice above.

               “Let me help you.” The voice lowered a magnet tied to a rope down to her. “See the small metal plate next to you?”

               Sara nodded, then decided that the voice couldn’t see her and yelled yes back at it.

               “Stick the magnet on the plate and a door will open.”

               Sara put the magnet up to the plate but it wouldn’t stick. In fact, it felt like the plate was pushing the magnet away, and there was certainly no door that opened. She called up to the top of the tower, telling whoever was up there all of this.

               The voice sounded tired when it replied. “Turn the magnet around and try again.”

               “Oh!” Sara exclaimed when the door slid open. “I didn’t know they could do that.”

               It was very dark in the tower, but being a lightbulb had its advantages. Sara flipped a switch her father had put in the costume and she lit up like, well, like a lightbulb as she entered.

               There in front of her was a staircase which looked like it led right to the top. Sara started to climb, and climb, and climb, huffing and puffing all the way, after all, a lightbulb costume was not a lightweight thing to wear.

               When she reached the top of the stairs, a door opened above her so she climbed through, barely squeezing in.

               “You made it,” squealed a voice behind her.

               She turned to look and saw the most hideous looking creature she had ever seen – her brother.

               “Where have you been?” Sara asked. “Mother has been looking for you for three days!”

               “I’ve been right here,” he replied. “I’m running my lightening experiments. Look.” He pointed to some weird looking equipment sitting next to the window.

               “That’s great,” Sara said. “Now come home before I tell Mother where I found you.”

               “Not without my equipment,” he said as he began loading all of it into what looked like an upside down teepee hanging outside the window.

               Once he had finished loading it, he lowered it down and they both headed down the stairs and towards home, dragging the equipment behind them.