Glow

Well, I never seen anything like it in my whole life.

One morning, I went out to the south 40, and saw a big circle in the wheat. I waded through and saw everything was flat down to the ground. I paced it off to be 14 paces, about 42 feet. I felt a little tingly.

I went back to the house and called Betty and the kids to come see. They were all amazed, and felt tingly, too. Betty said “Maybe Indians did  it.” But there hadn’t been any Indians in Kansas, for 50 years.

When we blew out the lantern and went to bed, Betty said: “Jeb? look under the covers” I lifted them up, and I could see ourselves, in a soft glow. Same with the kids. That kept us up all night.

We went back the next day. That night we was a little brighter.  I thought: “Well, a good thing is a good thing.” I thought that it could be a real saving on kerosene.  Us and the kids brought blankets and slept in the circle for a week straight.

We didn’t need no kerosene lamps after that. We lit up the whole house at night. It was not as bright as sunlight, but damn bright.

It wasn’t us that glowed. We looked normal. it was the area around us that got bright. Like everybody was carrying a big  lantern. But we didn’t cast no shadows, just an all around brightness.

It only worked at night. During the day you couldn’t tell nothing. We only went to town  or visited during the day, and got back before night.We didn’t tell nobody.

I was 42, Betty 40. She said: ”Jeb. you know, you’re looking a lot younger.” She was too. But our kids were getting older, quicker than they should.  We prayed hard, looking for an answer. I felt it was God’s hand on us. No one would come near us. Said that we was witches.      I said: “Ya damn fools. Anyone could see it was god’s work.”

Well, they weren’t too happy about that. We sold off and moved to Oregon where no one knew us, and kept to ourselves. Did some logging. In 6 years, both Betty and I looked about 25 years old. So did the two oldest. Our two youngest were getting there fast. Soon everybody looked 25, and stayed there. Not changing.

We moved to Southern California, and started the ‘Church of Youth and Shining Light.’ We put our birth certificates under glass, to prove how old we were.   I took up preaching, and did a fine job.

We didn’t hide our light anymore, but advertised it. At the end of each sermon, we would pull down black curtains and turn off the lights and walk around in all our glory. People fell on the floor. We enlarged the church four times and couldn’t hold them all.

The money just rolled in. Scientists tested us and couldn’t explain it. We were in all the papers. We toured the country selling out at every event.

Back in Kansas, we visited our old farm, which had become a shrine.  We slept in our old house. The next morning we looked out and found a new circle. We stepped inside.

A voice said: “You are perfect and will never age. Your new home is ready.”

I said: “Are you taking us to heaven?”

The voice laughed and said: “No. You’re an exhibit in our new zoo”.


(Written Aug 30, 2016)

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