One summer afternoon I saw an odd thing at the babysitters place.In fact,it was to be a few years before I understood what it was that I saw,and,even at that I'm not certain I really completely understand it.But I was reading a magazine one day,and I happened across the clearest explanation I'd ever heard of what it was I'd seen.It wasn't so clear as to allow me to be certain that it was the exact explanation though.
It was getting on to late afternoon,and it had been a reasonably nice day,though kind of muggy.Close and hot,and not really sunny.We were out playing in the sitters driveway.I was about the only place we could play at her house,as the front yard was newly planted with grass,and she didn't want us running about in the back yard either.So,we were in the driveway,playing and waiting for my mother to pick us up.
Then,at some point,the weather got bad.Another thunderstorm rolled in,and there was quite a bit of lightening,and some thunder.The sitter came out,likely with thoughts of gathering us into the house.But she didn't because there was no real rain falling and she was saying that our mother would be along any minute.It was spitting just a bit of rain,but only a drop or two,not enough to get wet in.
We were walking up the driveway,towards the back yard when I saw it.Just before,the sitter was asking if I was afraid of lightening.My sister,I think was already inside,having most likely answered that question in the affirmative. I didn't tell the sitter I was afraid,because really,I wasn't. I'd seen a lot more violent storms than this one,but I guess she though I was afraid regardless of what I'd told her.So we were walking up the driveway when this thing came shooting,flying really,down the driveway from out of the back yard.Whatever it was,it seemed to be made of light.It could have been a light bulb flying by.That's sort of what it looked like.I was a bit bigger than a golf ball,but smaller than a tennis ball,but it was all lit up.And it went flying past so fast,between us and the house,right out to the end of the driveway,and into the street likely.When I aw it,what I really thought that it was was a moth,of a butterfly,because it really wasn't round,you could have said that it had wings,like a butterfly.That's how I'd always thought of it as being like.I thought to reach up and catch it,but it went by too fast.And it was followed by a clap of thunder.
I always remembered seeing that thing,I can recall it vividly today,just like I'm still standing in that driveway.I don't know if the sitter saw it.If she did,she said nothing about it at all.But I never really knew what it was,so I never talked to anyone about it,except maybe to call it a butterfly.I'm sure nobody would have given a second thought to butterflies,and it would never have crossed anyone's mind that I was describing something unusual.But a few years later,maybe as many as eight years,I was reading an article in a magazine about something called "Ball lightening." Ball lightening described what I saw that day fairly well.Not perfectly,but it was more logical than anything else I could think of.The problem was,the thing wasn't really a ball.It was just more like a ball than it was anything else that I had words for.
It was getting on to late afternoon,and it had been a reasonably nice day,though kind of muggy.Close and hot,and not really sunny.We were out playing in the sitters driveway.I was about the only place we could play at her house,as the front yard was newly planted with grass,and she didn't want us running about in the back yard either.So,we were in the driveway,playing and waiting for my mother to pick us up.
Then,at some point,the weather got bad.Another thunderstorm rolled in,and there was quite a bit of lightening,and some thunder.The sitter came out,likely with thoughts of gathering us into the house.But she didn't because there was no real rain falling and she was saying that our mother would be along any minute.It was spitting just a bit of rain,but only a drop or two,not enough to get wet in.
We were walking up the driveway,towards the back yard when I saw it.Just before,the sitter was asking if I was afraid of lightening.My sister,I think was already inside,having most likely answered that question in the affirmative. I didn't tell the sitter I was afraid,because really,I wasn't. I'd seen a lot more violent storms than this one,but I guess she though I was afraid regardless of what I'd told her.So we were walking up the driveway when this thing came shooting,flying really,down the driveway from out of the back yard.Whatever it was,it seemed to be made of light.It could have been a light bulb flying by.That's sort of what it looked like.I was a bit bigger than a golf ball,but smaller than a tennis ball,but it was all lit up.And it went flying past so fast,between us and the house,right out to the end of the driveway,and into the street likely.When I aw it,what I really thought that it was was a moth,of a butterfly,because it really wasn't round,you could have said that it had wings,like a butterfly.That's how I'd always thought of it as being like.I thought to reach up and catch it,but it went by too fast.And it was followed by a clap of thunder.
I always remembered seeing that thing,I can recall it vividly today,just like I'm still standing in that driveway.I don't know if the sitter saw it.If she did,she said nothing about it at all.But I never really knew what it was,so I never talked to anyone about it,except maybe to call it a butterfly.I'm sure nobody would have given a second thought to butterflies,and it would never have crossed anyone's mind that I was describing something unusual.But a few years later,maybe as many as eight years,I was reading an article in a magazine about something called "Ball lightening." Ball lightening described what I saw that day fairly well.Not perfectly,but it was more logical than anything else I could think of.The problem was,the thing wasn't really a ball.It was just more like a ball than it was anything else that I had words for.
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