01/12/2013 14:10:00 ¶ ●

## Episode 36 - Missing

Red sky at night. Sailor’s delight.
Red sky at night, the sailors are howling and laughing.
The sailors begin to surround us, and the night sky is so very red.

Welcome to Night Vale.

Listeners, I hate to start our program off with sad news, but our new station owner – StrexCorp – handed me a Missing Child Alert right as I walked into the studio.

“StrexCorp is asking Night Vale citizens to be on the lookout for Tamika Flynn, age 13. She is described as 5'1”, stocky build, black hair and dark eyes. Dark. So dark. So wise beyond time. So deep in their understanding that to gaze into them is to gaze into your own death. It is not important where she was last seen or by whom. Why do you need to know that? Why are you asking so many questions? You are taking valuable time away from important and highly-fulfilling work at your place of employment,” the Missing Child Report reads.

“StexCorp asks that anyone with any knowledge about Tamika Flynn’s whereabouts should contact StrexCorp Headquarters by picking up a phone, and talking. Don’t worry, you’re not hard to find.”

I asked my new supervisor, Daniel, why it’s StrexCorp that is issuing a Missing Child Alert, and not Tamika Flynn’s family or the Sheriff’s Secret Police. But he just started shaking, and sparking, and humming. Then the hallway got too cloudy and I couldn’t breathe, and my show was starting, so I left him alone.

He’s still standing at the studio window, staring at me, twitching, sparks subsiding, but his mouth has fallen open revealing…is that motor oil? Tar? I don’t know. But it’s going to be hard to concentrate if he doesn’t leave.

Let’s go now to the Community Calendar.

Tuesday, there’s a false start. A mistaken understanding of time. Tuesday, we will wake, and walk to our normal places – our showers, kitchens, cars, desks – only to find the day never began. We will slowly notice an absence of all matter, all light, all time.

And then, as suddenly as we false-started, we will begin our actual day. And everything will happen the same. Only, because of our awareness of it all, it will happen differently. Less differently at first, but more differently later.

Wednesday will take forever. For-eeeeeeevvvvvveeeerrrrr. Not literally, but very near literally. Ugh! Wednesday hasn’t even gotten here, and I already want it over with!

Thursday, a faint outline of a dull face will appear in the dark as you try to sleep. You will notice its blank stare; its straight, expressionless lips; its thick brow; and the subtle hint of slow collected breaths. It will seem to be watching you, curious about you, as if it were not from here. It is not from here. You will lock eyes. You will barely be able to make out the face’s humanoid features but you will know, deep down, it is not human. Not human at all.

“What does it want?” you will think. Probably nothing. Let it go. Get some sleep.

Friday is an open house at the Night Vale Community College. Thinking of furthering your education? Considering taking winter semester classes? Well, it’s a trap! Do not go near the Night Vale Community College this Friday. Ha! Nice try, giant worms, but we know your tricks! Faking a Community College open house is very obvious, don’t you think? I mean, it was a nice touch, creating a fake press release to get into various news outlets like ours, but we see through you!

No, we really do. Your skin is translucent, and it’s kind of gross. No offense.

Saturday, everyone is their own person. You are free to disregard others and recognize yourself as one, for once. Pour some wine, draw a bath, light some incense, and grab a city-approved novel. It’s your time.

Sunday will be full of regret. Also, joy. Also, laughter. Also, conversation. Also, long stretches of unmemorable moments. It will mostly be that last thing. In your old age, as you look back on your life, if someone were to ask what happened on that Sunday – you remember, that one Sunday, with the regret, and joy, and laughter, and conversation – if someone were to ask you that, you would be hard-pressed to come up with a single memorable moment from this coming Sunday.

This has been the Community Calendar.

An update on our missing child report: We just received world that 13 year-old Tamika Flynn is not missing. This word came from Tamika herself.

Witnesses said they saw Tamika standing atop the pedestal of one of this town’s most historical works of art: the 138 year-old bronze statue of actor Lee Marvin, just outside the Night Vale Post Office. Tamika told a gathered crowd that she was not missing, she has never been missing. She clarified that she has always been where she has been, she has always been from where she is from, and she will always be going where she is going.

Witnesses reported that Tamika had a canvas tote bag full of heavy stones over her left shoulder, a worn-out copy of Willa Cather’s Death Comes for the Archbishop in her right rear pants pocket, and that she was still holding the severed head of the Librarian she defeated so valiantly in August, saving our town and all of the participants of the Library’s treacherous Summer Reading Program.

As yellow helicopters began to approach her, Tamika shouted to the gathered crowd to stop looking for her.

“I am found! I am found! I am found!” she repeated dramatically, rhythmically, the crowd swaying and moved by her homiletic passion. “Stop looking for me, and find yourself!” she was last heard crying over the crescendo of helicopters landing.

The remaining crowd, still singing her phrases, still undiluted, inadvertently blocked the StrexCorp agents from reaching Tamika before she disappeared in plain sight.

StrexCorp has issued, just moments ago, several dozen more Missing Child Reports. They say children keep going missing. And they bet that if you find one specific child, one specific, very determined, and difficult child (and they mean that in the best possible way), if you find that one child, you will probably find all of the missing children.

StrexCorp is asking that if anyone has seen Tamika Flynn, to contact them immediately.

“She is a missing child. And shouldn’t you care about that? Shouldn’t you care about the children?” StrexCorp asked. “Children are the future,” they added. “I wish you felt the same way and would help us find this…this…child,” they stammered, looking slightly agitated.

More on this, soon.

Let’s have a look now at traffic.

There’s a man. Imagine him. He’s leaning on a fence, shirtless and weary. He seems wise near the eyes, but his impatient feet suggest insidiousness. He’s marked with dried mud, and maybe some very deep but quickly-healing cuts – from the tree branches, most likely, or perhaps the birds.

OK, I’m not telling you the whole truth. It was definitely the birds.

Imagine these cuts and scratches, dry and brittle now, but tender to the touch. He is certain he did not offend the birds, but he is uncertain whether his complacency was construed as equal to said offense.

Picture this. Picture the man leaning on the criss-crossing metal wires, waiting. The birds are gone, but other things are coming. He doesn’t know specifically what, but he knows it’ll come for him.

You know this, too, because I have told you.

The man says nothing.

There’s never not something that has been displaced, marginalized. There’s never not something that, when feeling pressed to the wall, to a place with no room left to run, gathers its numbers, gathers its forces, and turns, savagely, on its oppressor. Turns viciously, and without inhibition, even on those who merely look like its oppressor.

Do you catch my meaning? Can you imagine the scene I am explaining?

How much of the world makes sense to you?

What does it mean to be a hero? To be a human?

The man thinks about his heart. It beats. It beats normally. Earlier, it did not beat normally.

Think about your own heart. Is it beating normally?

Listen. I’ll give you a long moment.

How is your heart?

Do you remember the man? The one on the fence, shirtless and scarred, with the normally-beating heart? He’s not real. Take him out of the story, but leave the story. Take him out, leave the story.

Do you catch my meaning?

Do you?

This has been traffic.

And now, a word from our sponsor.

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Working hard so you can work harder.
Work harder.
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More now on the missing children story.

Several helmeted and sunglassed helicopter pilots have stepped forward to announce that they had nothing to do with the missing children.

Sheila Nowitzky, a pilot for one of the many black helicopters that are routinely circling Night Vale, said she’s a harmless spy from the World Government, and would never harm an American child without a direct order.

Marco Padilla, a pilot for one of the many blue Sheriff’s Secret Police copters, said nothing – but you could see in his face he meant no harm to our kids.

And a shadowy haze that claimed, through telepathy, to be the pilot of one of the mysterious helicopters with elaborate murals depicting birds of prey diving, admitted that, while their helicopters were the ones that took away all the children in Night Vale several weeks ago, they brought them back. “They brought them back, OK? And they’re fine. Get off of me!” the humid gray haze emphasized. “God, you take a bunch of kids one time. One time! Geez!”

Listeners, Today I want to talk to you about the dangers of deer.

Are they beautiful? Yes. Are they graceful and picturesque, even borderline majestic beasts? Yes, yes, and yes. And, are they helpful to the community because real estate agents live inside of them? Of course!

But deer are also dangerous creatures. They are terrible, deceitful, and vile animals. I’m not being mean, this is just basic science.

Look, I know deer are cute and friendly-looking. We all remember adorable little Bambi, from the classic animated movie, with his sweet voice and white freckled rump. But we also remember the bloody end that he wrought on the humans at the end of the film, the graphic beheadings, and trees streaked with gore during the famous revenge-fueled climax.

The lesson of that movie, as in life itself, is that nature is gorgeous, and it is horrible, and it will kill you.

This has been the Children’s Fun Fact Science Corner.

This just in:

Oh my, uh, some disastrous news! Quite terrible! There has been a helicopter crash out by the old Car Lot. Witnesses report hearing youthful shouts and screams, followed by loud metallic clanging. They saw smoke trailing across the cold, dark afternoon sky (because, of course, the sun again did not rise today). They saw a yellow mangle of metal, and rotors, and–

Um, listeners? Daniel is still standing at my studio door. He has stopped staring. He is now yelling, but…without noise. He looks very upset. I can read his lips. He is saying, “Turn it off. Shut it down. No more news today. We are shutting you down?”

They’re going to turn off my microphone, Night Vale!

Um, I’ve locked the door, which will buy me some time while Daniel goes to find a security guard with keys. So let me take you now, for as long as it can last, to the weather.

[“Peanuts” by Sam ‘n Ash]

Listeners? I do not know if you can hear me. I am only trusting that I did this right.

I wired my phone into the soundboard, and then wired the soundboard into the radio tower, which is running on auxiliary power. It’s, um, a cool trick my childhood best friend Earl Harlan taught me back when we were in Boy Scouts together, earning our Subversive Radio Host badge.

I doubt Daniel, or any of the new station management, can hear me as they do not like listening to radio shows. Also, I’m hiding up on the roof with my makeshift studio.

During the weather, I got word from some witnesses at the helicopter accident. The Sheriff’s Secret Police found several large slingshots and heavy stones nearby that matched, in size and shape, the dents on the helicopter’s engine casing.

They also found a well-worn and heavily-notated copy of Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather.

Inside the book was a bookmark, marking page 267. On that page was the underlined phrase, “I shall not die of a cold, my son. I shall die of having lived.”

And on the bookmark was a handwritten note. It said, “Your pilot is fine. She is ours now. She will return when she is ready, but she will return better. T.F.”

I do not know if that T.F. Stands for our missing girl – our brilliant, and bold, and missing girl. If station management is listening, I, of course, hope we find Tamika Flynn and bring her home safely.

I hope that she will find you first, that is.

Remember what I said, listeners, about the traffic? About the birds? Think on that. Think on lots of things. Think about heroes, and whether we should even need them.

The answer is, we do not.

I sometimes wish I could tell you more, but I cannot. I cannot tell you everything I think you should hear because it is…boring. Or, it is unnecessary. Or it is very necessary, but unapproved.

There are many reasons I cannot always tell you what I want to tell you, but the main reason is that you need to find it out for yourself. I could preach, and teach, and shout, and explain, but no lesson is as powerful as the lesson learned on one’s own.

You can do it! You don’t need old Cecil telling you what’s happening in town. No. I just report the news. I just arrange it. You figure it out. You learn from it. You take action. You create the meaning. It is all up to you.

And, given my current broadcasting situation, it may be up to you for a long time.

I’d better get downstairs before they discover what I’m doing. Stay tuned next for silence, self-reflection, and a long pause to hear yourself think.

Use that silence well.

Goodnight, Night Vale. Goodnight.

Today’s proverb: Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s just the Void. Infinite and indifferent. We are so small. So very, very small.