A Light Story

The police constable was on his night duty. It was well past mid-night.  He was on a special duty. These were not his usual hours of work. There was a threat of terrorist attack on the city tonight. And the particular lane he was patrolling in was a sensitive zone. He had an extra cup of tea to ward off sleep. Pacing up and down the lane he kept striking the cane he carried with him rhythmically on the hard pavement.Something made him stop short in his tracks. He saw a flash of light casting on the lane from one of the tall buildings fringing the road. Very unusual at this hour, he thought to himself. He brushed off the thought thinking that it must have been some student who had gotten up early to study. Or maybe someone who needed to catch an early morning flight. As he walked a few steps ahead, yet another light flashed, but this time it did not come from the previous source. It came from the building right opposite. Just as that flash went off, the building where the previous flash came from flashed a bright stream of light yet again. He paused to make sense of what was happening. To his surprise he saw the pattern repeating several times. The lights came from two different windows of apartments that stood overlooking each other with the lane separating them. As one light went off, the other one flashed. And vice versa. The play of lights going on and off was casting eerie shadows on the road. He narrowed his eyes to focus on the windows where it came from, one after another. But he couldn’t spot much. Looked fishy to him. There was definitely some foul play going on. He called his comrades patrolling around in the areas close by to assist him in inspecting this mystery. Was it something to do with the terrorist attack threats?

In no time they formed a plan of action, figured out the exact locations from where the lights came and stormed into one of the apartments. They were met with an astonished young chap at the door, who was taken aback with this sudden intrusion in his house. They held him with his hands tied at his back, and demanded an explanation from him about the light flashing from his room. Was it some kind of signal he was giving out to his partners in crime?

Oh that?! That was for my girl friend who lives across the road!” he exclaimed

“Oh yeah…you think we’re gonna buy that?!”

“We had a fight this evening. And she wasn’t answering my calls. So I flashed my night-lamp…just so that she notices that I was not getting sleep because I was upset for the tiff we had. We normally do that at nights to grab each other’s attention,” he tried explaining.

The constable found the story quite sketchy and dubious to believe. It was just not that simple. He had to get to the root of this matter. So next, they visited the building opposite with the young guy in tow to verify if what he was saying was really the truth. The door was answered after a long wait. She was scared of opening the door, but when she saw him from the peep-hole accompanied with police men, she panicked and opened the door. What could he have done?

When she was questioned, about the lights, she blushed and refused to answer. It was only when the constable pressed horrifying accusations on them about planning some kind of terrorist attacks that she blurted out in panic, “Oh but we were only making up! We fought this evening. But when I noticed that he was up and sleepless, flashing his night-lamp, I could see that he was missing me. So I replied back to indicate that I missed him too by flashing my night-lamp too. But he went on doing so. How could I not have responded to that?” she asked a tad innocently, looking into her beau’s eyes soulfully.

The constable had lost it completely by then. He shook his head in exasperation. Why the hell couldn’t they have just called each other or walked into each other’s houses?! What a waste of precious time! The policemen stormed out of the house in a huff leaving the modern day Romeo and Juliet to make up for whatever the flashing lights had not been able to make up for them.

Linking this to Day 24 of UBC July 2014 and NaBloPoMo July 2014.