He went out into the garden, just to stand and admire the stars.
This time of year the night sky was at its best. He had his favourite constellations that he liked to search for. Some nights that was made difficult by clouds, but not tonight. Every tiny pinpoint of light dazzled against the black. He stood looking up wide-eyed for a few minutes, allowing his night sight to adjust to the dark. The longer he held his gaze, the brighter the patterns above him became. He found a particular constellation and began drawing imaginary lines from star to star, the way they are shown in books; drawings in the sky.
He was doing this when he found a dot missing and he couldn’t connect the dots. It was one of the brighter stars that appeared to be gone. He wondered at this because there was not the slightest evidence of cloud around, yet the star that he had just seen and admired for its brilliance was simply no longer there. Although he knew just about all of the constellations by heart, he was no expert about any other aspect of astronomy. It was quite possible that stars, even bright ones, lose their luminosity on certain occasions.
He was thinking this when, in a different part of the night sky, another star suddenly blinked out, leaving a solid blackness where something should be shining. To his amazement, as he looked on, more and more stars began going out, just shutting down! He was losing count; they were switching themselves off so fast. Then, it seemed to stop. No more were disappearing. Instead, stars started to reappear, but reappear where they just shouldn’t be! They were coming back across the sky making great swirling patterns, huge curved lines of vivid pin points. As they formed he could see two curled shapes with a great circle forming between them.
He literally staggered back when he realised what he was looking at; what he was reading. Right across the heavens, he read ’SOS’! It was a sign. A gigantic message painted across the firmament for the whole of human kind to see! Was someone in trouble up there? Was this done to tell us, no, warn us, of some stupendous impending disaster? Have others seen this? Was it meant for him alone?
Who’s he going to tell?
He staggered back again, belched loudly and went back in for another beer.