Free A Voice In The Night by Brian Matthews

tell about him coming to me last night. It’s true and I know it, and people have a right to hear it. I can’t bottle this up, even if I take a lot of heat for it.” Luke swung by Zack’s office. “I wanted to give a heads up on this. You’ve seen the sky thing and the airline reports, and I’m gonna drop another bomb tonight.” They sat with the office door closed for more than an hour. Zack prodded and probed Luke’s conviction and in the end was convinced that he was, at least, sincere. And he’d be convincing on the air.
    “I’ll have to call the network on this. We have to give them the chance to not air it, just as a courtesy. I think they’ll run it, with everything that’s been happening, but we owe them a chance to bail out. Probably ought to call our friends at the phone company too. They could get buried in calls again tonight.”
    The newspapers and airwaves were filled with stories of turbulent flights, peaceful light and scientists who had nothing to offer. The zealots were scampering for center stage while the established religious leaders offered measured statements that tried to say everything and nothing. Luke knew he was about to unleash a firestorm, but he didn’t care. The anguish of the months past was gone and he was immensely happy. Nothing bad could happen to them now.
    He sat alone in the announcers’ lounge, leafing through the wire service reports and newspaper articles Jake had clipped for him to read. But he didn’t focus on the stack of paper in his lap. He didn’t know exactly what he was going to say, but he knew it would be fine. He was excited about the news he would be putting on the air. He found himself smiling broadly, but feeling a little foolish about it, in the empty room.
    Jake slipped in and tumbled onto the fake leather easy chair. “So what’re you gonna say?”
    “Don’t know. But call your guys back at the network and tell them to dump the commercial load. I don’t think we should be hawking aluminum siding and cigarettes tonight. I cleared it with Zack and he’s talking to the network people. But word may not filter down to the engineers and there’ll be a big hassle.”
    “Maybe we should lose the call-ins too. Gonna be all the crazies. You should just talk about what you know and believe. And maybe, maybe we can get that first airline pilot on the phone.” Jake dove for the paper pile Luke was holding, rifling through them, scanning for a name. “Here it is. Flowers. I’m on it.” He whipped through the door, suddenly as graceful as a long-distance runner, weaving his way down the narrow corridors, dodging people without a misstep. He found an empty sales office and started dialing. This is what Jake knew how to do. He had Flowers on the phone in just five calls to his web of contacts across the country, reporters mainly, who knew the guy who knew the guy that did the interview in the Washington Post who had the pilot’s number and yeah he’d make a call to open a door. Twenty minutes later, Jake had convinced Flowers to do the interview. He would go on with Luke tonight.
    Luke remained in the announcers’ lounge, not thinking about anything in particular, in fact, not thinking at all. But something was becoming a part of him. He felt a new level of awareness sweeping over him, but nothing that formed into words or thoughts that he could articulate. Nor did he feel the need to. He had ascended to a place few had ever reached. A place within himself where in knew the answers to every question. It seemed like perfect knowledge.
    He felt a power to reach into any part of his mind and body and heal himself. All the wounds and damage accumulated in his short life, the pains and small neglects of his youngest recollections and the deep, deep loneliness of those brief years alone, before Eileen.
    He slipped into the studio ten minutes before airtime, half listening to the network news reports of continued phenomenon in the skies around the world.