A Long Time Ago

It happened many years ago, one quiet evening in June.

I was outside in the garden, playing with my dogs, Jessie and Blue. Though it was late, the sky still held the lingering light of day, casting everything in a soft, golden hue. I had been throwing a ball over and over again, and each time, Jessie and Blue chased after it with the same wild excitement as the first. Their joy was infectious, and for a while, I was lost in that simple game.

Then I saw it.

A point of light, low on the horizon, caught my eye. At first, I thought it might be a star—or maybe a plane—but it didn’t twinkle, and it didn’t blink. It just… burned. I stood still, transfixed. As I watched, the light grew larger, brighter, faster—until it was no longer a dot, but a roaring fireball streaking across the sky.

Was it a meteor? A spaceship? A UFO packed with aliens about to crash into Earth?

I didn’t know.

All I knew was that I couldn’t look away. Jessie and Blue, sensing something strange, stood silently by my side. We were alone, the three of us, staring up at a sky that had suddenly become something out of a dream.

It blazed across the heavens with astonishing beauty—a living flame with a tail of color trailing behind it. Red, orange, yellow, white, and even strange hues I had no name for. There was black too, smoky and alive, curling at the edges like the charred remains of a fire just gone out. I pinched myself. It hurt. I was definitely awake.

And the strangest thing? It made no sound. Not a whisper, not a boom. Just light and silence.

I stood there, rooted to the spot, spellbound. I wanted to run and fetch a camera—to capture it, to prove I had really seen it—but I knew it would vanish before I returned. Some things, I realised, are not meant to be caught.

Slowly, the fiery streak began to shrink, dwindling into the distance until it disappeared beyond the trees. And though it was gone, I felt something lingering in the air. A sense of wonder. A hush. A secret shared.

Years have passed since that June evening. Life moved on, as it always does—full of distractions and worries and things that seem terribly important at the time. But whenever I think back, it’s not those things I remember. It’s that sky. That fire. That silence.

That moment, a long time ago, when I witnessed something extraordinary.

THE END