I was standing partway up a hill, looking down on a town. The town was on a flat plain before me, and ended at the sea. It was residential in nature and neatly organized with straight roads and hundreds of modest houses, all one story and similar in design. The homes all appeared to be typical three bedroom ranches with attached garages, and all neutral in color. In the very center of the town was an empty field, like a barren courtyard, that didn’t seem to serve any purpose despite its central location.
It was shortly after sunset, and the sky was darkening – and yet no lights came on in the town, all the houses were dark. As the sky continued slowly to darken I could see utility trucks, like an electric company would own, driving all around the town trying to get the lights back on. I got the impression from the way they were out in force through out the town, driving around at a frenetic pace, that they were worried.
I turned slightly to the left and next to the town but somewhat separated by a chain link fence was a sprawling industrial building built next to the sea. It was unattractive, utilitarian and black in color and on its flat roof in the center was a large, gray symbol – a simple triskelion in a circle similar in design to the seal of the USDOT. I pointed at the ugly building and noted to myself, “Here is where the town is the darkest.” I sensed that this was the power plant of the town on the plain and that it had previously drawn power from the sea, and was no longer able to do so. Since the power plant was no longer operational, I knew the utility trucks would fail to get the lights back on.
I then received a message on my cell phone from an acquaintance. I looked down at my phone and read the message. “Some of the houses on the hill still have their lights on.”
I turned all the way around to look up the rest of the hill I was standing on. Overlooking the plain was a long hillside and the lower edge of it was quite steep in most places, although not a cliff. Along this treed hillside ridge were scattered the lowest houses, all in widely varying styles with some one story and some two story. I could see several homes, at least fifteen, spread out through the trees without apparent pattern and going farther up the gradual slope of the hill above the lower ridge. The windows in these attractively styled homes were lit up brightly from within, except for a few homes among them that were still dark.
None of these homes were very large other than the one directly in front of me on the lower ridge. It was three stories high, the size of a mansion, and built of natural materials with many windows large in size and all brightly lit. I could even see that it had two stories of decks. The road I was on led directly to it as all the rest of the hillside was much too steep to climb – but directly before this stately home the road ‘Y’ed into two roads, with a road on either side of this mansion.
I received another message on my cell phone. I looked down at it and saw a new message from the same person. “But my house has gone dark and I can’t get the lights to turn back on.” He also sent a picture of his home to my phone. I looked back up at the hill before me and could see his house to the left and behind the stately home on the hill. His house was one of the few on the hill without the lights on. I headed up the road to see if I could help him, and I took the left path around the three story mansion. I found myself back on the road below where it ‘Y’ed looking up at the largest house. Puzzled, I tried again – climbing the road and taking the left path around the mansion. And as I once again found myself on the road below looking up at the stately, brightly lit home I realized that if I wanted to get up the hill I was going to have to take the right path.
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