I am a lineman for the county. When you do line work a large rural county like I do, there’s a lot of driving involved, lots of late nights, lots of early mornings. I’m able to take care of my family just fine and I don’t mind the actual work itself at all. I been a lineman 20 years, had the same boss as long as I been there and I can’t remember the last time he said anything even remotely critical of me. I’m a free man, just me and whoever I’m working with and my truck. I wouldn’t show up to work if I wasn’t getting paid but I love my job as much as I imagine most people are capable of. Now I’m pretty sure I’m going to have to quit.

I work with one of the same 3 people all of the time but my favorite person to work with is Joe. Joes almost 20 years younger than I am, lives a life I never got a chance to. He’s single, makes good money, and has a girl at every exit on this highway. My wife got pregnant when we were 21 and unmarried so I never got to be out on my own like Joe was. He has a lot of great stories, I live a little through him. He never goes into graphic detail about any of his encounters and I like that too, he’s good guy, Joe.

Joe and I were on a long job late at night a couple of weeks ago. 80 percent of what we do is repair power lines when the wind takes them out and this job was exactly that. About an hour or so to the jobsite, emergency hours and emergency pay because it was getting cold and the area couldn’t be without heat for any extended period of time. Now when we stepped out of the truck nothing looked any different than every other job. Funny thing about linework at night though is that you only get to see pieces of what you’re in for as you set up the spot lights to get to work. Headlights from the truck didn’t catch anything strange, first set of spotlights everything was normal. Second set of lights pointed at the pole where the line sits and that’s when Joe noticed something strange.

“Hey Gus, come take a look at this. I will be god damned.”

I strolled over to where he was at expecting to look up and see something fried on the wire and he pointed his flashlight to the pole just below where the box should have been and in that moment I was god damned too. There was a perfect cut going straight through the pole. When poles broke because of the wind, it was jagged and broken, this looked like someone took the world’s sharpest chain saw and cut right through it.

“Well I’ll be god damned. You think someone did this on purpose?”

“Now Gus I just don’t know. You gotta have a sack made of steel to climb an electric poll with what would seem to be the world’s sharpest giant chainsaw and cut down a power box. The chances you have of surviving that ordeal are slim to none.”

“You’re absolutely right. I imagine this is about a mile above our paygrade, I’m gonna make a call to the boss.”

Before I could get the call of there was a light in the field beyond the poll. It was violet and then it was a light blue. It was pulsating and changing between the colors and me and Joe must have looked like flys on their way into the bug zapper cause neither of us said anything at all. Until we did.

“What do you suppose that is, Gus?”

“I have no supposition at all, Joe. I’m just as lost as you are.”

We stared for a moment more and then in a flash all of our lights went out. The truck lights faded but the spotlights blew and then we were in complete darkness. Out of the field rose a brilliant light, something so bright I had to look away. I yelled at Joe to get in the truck and we both ran and then locked the doors. The light stayed in the sky for about 30 seconds and then just like that it was gone again. Left us in the pitch black I could barely see my hand in front of my face.

Now I can’t explain why or how, but that light made me feel things I had never felt in my life. I was absolutely terrified, Joe was too he was in a full panic. That light or whatever it was hiding got into the darkest parts of my soul and brought them to life. I remembered things I’d forgotten on purpose, I felt every bad feeling I’d ever experienced. It came through in waves, I was screaming and then I was crying and then I was numb. Joe and I sat there for hours before we called for the boss, we had to compose ourselves enough to make the report.

We didn’t tell the boss what we had seen. He wasn’t going to believe us and I’m not sure he cared much once the report was over and the box was back on the pole. I’ve been a lineman for 20 years, I wouldn’t know what else to do with myself so I still go to work but Joe quit. He went back to tending bar over at Milly’s said he could only sleep during the day anyhow, leaves all of his lights on at night. I’m not sure what happened or how it works but I don’t think that’ll save him if the light comes back. Anyway I got kids to feed and a wife at home so for now, anyway, I’ll stay on the line.