The Idea that Sparked the World

By Vincent Coleman

The whole world heard that first cry. It was sharp, high pitched. This treble vibrated against the inner walls and shook nerves to the core. No one thought much of it, however. Some commented on this strange phenomenon to their friends or strangers before dropping the subject. Office rats returned to scurry within cubicle mazes. Drivers in their cars transported in and out of the black paved highways. Children continued to read and write in school and mothers were huddled together trading gossip and keeping secrets. After all, it seemed no more unusual than the constant tremors in the earth beneath them.

Then, the clouds changed. Grey dust enveloped the earth as if every particle from planes, cigarettes, factories, and rush hour traffic had all collected themselves into the big blue sky. Again, strange, but no stranger than any other impromptu thunderstorm. It was the flash of light that caught the denizen off guard. It encompassed all the land, from the lowest depths of the sea’s dark waters to the very edge of the atmosphere. For a brief moment, our little planet became a beacon, burning a signal into a the black of space.

When this global flash-bang dissipated, the human race took their sweet time to adjust their eyes. The first people who regained their senses hadn’t even noticed the bright red rain punching holes through the grey clouds. Those who noticed were the children. The adults were too worried about themselves. The children, aware of the facts, pointed their small fingers to the oncoming fall. Soon, the masses joined in as well. Discussion surfaced. “What could they be?” Fear wasn’t apparent at first, when the falling stars seemed far and few. Then, they grew in numbers like a pack of hunters. The distance between meteors and earth closed.

Chunks of man-made machinery, engulfed in cosmic flames, made impact. Satellites, drones, old aircrafts, and pieces of space stations came hurtling back home. Metal clashed with concrete, creating firework screams that drowned the cries of men. Cities like Tokyo, L.A, Berlin, and Budapest were hit the hardest, where people screamed the loudest, and afterwards, became the most silent. Buildings were like building blocks, toppled over in a childish mess. All the hard work of mature design was no match. It would have been sadder to see these places in ruin. So, the fires made sure that the flesh and bones of people and skyscrapers became a melting pot of ash.

Amongst the destruction, those paying attention could make out in the grey clouds a pulse for life. Shrouded by light, a shadow of a bird was etched into the eyes of children.

This thunderbird was the first of the many to return after a long period of exile by human superiority. Once, there were tribes that believed in her. They sacrificed children, just for rainfall to bless the crops. She would drink their red worship and through belief alone created lightshows and rain from her clouds.

Of course, the colonists killed her kind. For when these conquerors came to seize the new world, blessing the war chiefs wasn’t enough. These foreigners brought with them their own gods. And some of them were said to be all powerful and to have made man in his image.

However, it is hard to kill an idea. Even if they die in one world, they generally manage to exist somewhere, somewhen. And this Thunderbird had reawakened in desperation. For ideas like her were once revered as Gods. And now, they were suppressed in a past different from this presents, yet no better in spirit.

She released another cry and light exploded once more. It was a reminder not only to humanity, but to the Gods of old, that she too had the right to exist, even in this age when man chose to value only the “real”. An electro-magnetic pulse released from her pores and spread, like a wave, through the black of space. More satellites and old space junk became disabled by her screams, dropping dead as like cattle stunned by a pressure gun. She watched the red rain fall once more.

And on earth, only the children found the capacity to find this beautiful.