Page 110 of Possibly Texas

Jack crooked his head to look at me over his shoulder, his brows knitted together.

“I don’t know, man,” I said. “There are some kind of lights all over the place on Liberty Lane. Like, I don’t know, fireflies or something.”

He didn’t react at first, but I could see from the cycle of expressions on his face that he was contemplating what could have caused lights to appear on Liberty Lane.

“Let’s go check it out!” I bounced in place, suddenly imbued with curiosity. “I want to know what it is!”

Jack dramatically looked up at the clock on the wall hanging over the T.V.

“Yeah, I know,” I said with a laugh. “Who cares? What else do you have going on?”

That made Jack grin. His chest rose and fell, as though a giant sigh of acquiescence rolled through him, and he pried himself up out of his chair. I bounced giddily like a kid whose parent had just promised to take them to get ice cream as Jack slipped on his work shoes by the door. As soon as he was ready for the walk, I ripped the front door open and dashed down the front steps. Glancing over my shoulder, I made sure that Jack was following.

Down in the yard, water squished under my sneakers, but the yard wasn’t as swamp-like as it had been earlier in the day. The Possibilian breeze had picked up just enough to whisper through my hair as Jack met me on the lawn. He grimaced at the sound of his feet meeting the soggy lawn, but didn’t hesitate in following me quickly to the road.

It took some urging and show of excitement, but I got Jack to pick up his pace as we walked towards downtown. When he saw the lights glowing from Liberty Lane in the distance, it took less encouraging on my part to get him to hustle. Without asking him, I knew he saw the same thing I did on Liberty Lane. The lights couldn’t have been from one of the shop’s owners turning on their lights. It couldn’t have been a flashlight or even a spotlight. It was too soft, too warm, yet the light still illuminated the street well.

When we reached Bend of the Road Graveyard, the two of us took off in a jog simultaneously without consulting each other first. Jack had a grin of pure curiosity and wonder on his face, and I knew my expression matched his as the two of us raced to the street. Jack and I slapped and pushed at each other, as though racing and trying to throw the other off their game. I laughed and swatted at him and he grinned and made his version of a laugh as we approached the corner of Liberty Lane.

I don’t know what I had expected to find on Liberty Lane; I had no idea what Jack had thought about the lights. What we found was equally confusing and mundane.

Someone had taken fairy lights and strung them up and down along the buildings on the street. Twinkling slowly, the golden-yellow light illuminated the road as though a street fair was about to be set up. Lights were wrapped around Jasper’s tram car, parked at the west end of the tracks. The trees that lined the south side of the street were covered in the lights as well. Yet no one was in sight. It was just Jack and me.

The two of us exchanged cautious smiles as we turned around slowly, taking in what had to be thousands of twinkling lights all around the street. A silence that only the calm after a storm can bring surrounded us, enveloped us, and if it wasn’t for us, and the breeze, everything on Liberty Lane would have been deathly still. Except for the twinkling lights.

I stared in wonder, curious as to what it meant. Obviously, someone had hung the lights…but why? What did it mean? Why would someone come out so late at night after the storm to do such a thing?

Is this art?

When every speaker in town suddenly crackled to life, Jack and I both jumped in surprise.

You Can’t Always Get What You Want by The Rolling Stones started to pour from the AMOR speakers all over town as the lights twinkled like fireflies around us.

Jack and I turned to each other, grins on our faces.

What is going on? Jack signed.

“No idea,” I said. “I—”

“Y’all do this?” Both of us jumped at the sound of Sofia’s voice.

We spun to find her appearing between the trees behind the post office. Possibly’s postmaster was in rubber boots and her nightgown, her hair up in a scarf. I wanted to laugh at her appearance—not because she looked bad, but because it was…appropriate. Had she been woken by the lights and the sound of AMOR suddenly coming to life in the middle of the night?

Jack tossed his hands up defensively as I responded.

“I saw the lights from my window,” I hollered down the street. “The music started when we got here.”

“Well, I’ll be,” Sofia said. “I was in bed reading and looked out the window and saw the lights.”

Jack and I shrugged in unison. We didn’t have any information that would be helpful to her.

“It’s pretty,” she said as she strolled down the street towards us, her boots squishing against the pavement. “If nothing else.”

“Who do you think—”

I didn’t have time to finish my question. Starbuck and Levi Lee came tromping across the tram tracks from the grassy patch to the south that led to the pirate ship. Starbuck was in old-timey pajamas—something Lucy and Ricky would wear on I Love Lucy. Levi Lee was clad only in basketball shorts that barely reached his knees. Levi Lee was looking around with starry eyes, as though he had never seen fairy lights before, and Starbuck was massaging his chin as though in deep thought.

“What be this?” Starbuck bellowed, though he seemed more amused than annoyed.