Would you wait for 5?

What if you sat on a hillside overlooking a city?

And what if the city was full of skyscrapers and it was night?

And what if you decided to stay for half of that night watching the lights in those skyscrapers? Wouldn’t they slowly go out as people finished work and returned home to their dreams?

But what if you noticed that the lights weren’t going out, just changing?

And what if you stayed watching for half of the half of the night that remained?

And then realised that the changing was something more?

And what if you stayed for half of the half of the half of the night that remained?

Wouldn’t that be a quarter?

What if you stayed for half of that, and knew that the changing lights were a code? Wouldn’t you stay for half of the little time that remained? Wouldn’t you try to understand?

And mightn’t you discover that those skyscrapers were not just skyscrapers and the lights not just lights?

What if those lights were the launch code and the skyscrapers transporters?

What if you waited a little half of almost dawn to make sure?

And what if you noticed in one skyscraper ten lights, and then nine, and then eight? And then seven?

Would you wait for six? Would you go and tell someone?

Or would you wait for five?

And sit on the hillside watching the city?