Wolves With Violent Brass

An Unexpected Encounter

Its hard to believe, but the light was on. The incessant buzz of it's 'barely there bulb' droned with a singular determination unmatched by any. It had been on all night, a cruel attempt at beating back the vicious taunts of leering shadows. Pale in comparison to the suffocating black city air, it hung like a glob of spit to the wall, just waiting for a stiff wind to send it sprawling.

Pathetic as it's illumination was, the light had not developed these skills over long years of service. Instead it had been built with the purpose of constant eye strain and therefore required purchase of additional keychain torch. If the light could talk, it would have most likely blamed the builders of it's subpar creation and renounced with the attitude of a woman scorned that, "It was a shame things couldn't have just worked out in the first place."

This was not the case however, as the creators had indeed intended to build the most unpleasant light fixture for pedestrians as possible. (Coincidently, they started their own keychain torch company shortly after the construction of the light.) Their intentions eventually fulfilled, as the light began to get the reputation of being the worst in the city, thus making its neighbourhood vastly unpopular and driving down house prices.

Passersby would often compare its grace to that of an ignorant Salesman; unwanted, but self-assured. Even the twisted metal hand that carried the light creation, ugly as that was too, hated to have its cold metal surface tarnished by the dismal street lamp. To much displeasure by all, however, it hung and it hung resiliently.

Now, it's easy to point out all the faults of the light, but it did have one redeeming feature. Unbeknown to its obviously deranged creator, this light had a simple and brilliant talent; a talent for predicting the presence of trouble. This may seem like a strange characteristic to manifest in a street light, but this was no ordinary device.

An argument could have been made to excuse this unnatural 'gift'. Perhaps the lack of adequate lighting making it hard to see and thus people more accident prone, or the now bad reputation of the street welcoming a certain type of resident. However that would be mean to suggest there was no real redeeming features for the light and so, out of respect for its feelings, the issue of creditability had never been raised.

You might ask how a 'light' was meant to predict trouble, seeing as it was a inanimate object, however things aren't as simple as that. The light would probably describe the 'prediction', as a feeling; almost as if it was more highly aware and that despite the darkness, it could still see everything happening down on the street. That was the case anyway, when Daniel Warner ran past with the frantic pace of a man in a predicament. You see, Daniel was late and had also forgotten the most important part of his outing; a present. "Shit, look at the time." Daniel stopped under the light and looked at his watch. A bead of perspiration ran down his forehead, as he strained to see the faint numbers and hands of it's face.

He didn't really need to look at it, he knew he was late. "Shit!" He cursed again and looked up the street. Where could he get a gift at 9:30pm on a Wednesday night? The answer was nowhere. The quaint little shops that brooded individuality, but really preached conformity would all be shut up; their owners needing time to visit organic supermarkets and buy specially squeezed orange juices for ungrateful kids. Superstores filled to the brim with riffraff and Saturday exhibitionists would be pushing out the last of its clingy customers and be pulling down the shutters to 'far-out' bargains. Nowhere was going to be open.

Daniel cursed himself and the situation he had undoubtedly allowed to manifest. He had been busy at work when his phone rang; a not so happy reminder shouted loudly in his ear, while he ran through the lobby of his workplace. You see, he was meant to be going out for dinner with his fiancé and her parents. It was going to be the first time he would meet them; his future parents-in-law. His fiancé, Jessa, was turning 27 and it was his opportunity to prove to her parents he was worthy of marrying their daughter. Unfortunately the whole 'being there' side of his responsibilities was forgotten when his boss came in with a whole new set of notes for him to go through.