Angels Over the Bay

Dr Stow Miller was in the middle of a very sensitive experiment. His team had been at a conference in San Francisco all day, so he was alone and enjoying the peace and quiet. He had worked at Serrano Technics Development Horizons for ten years now, and was one of their top senior scientists, quite an achievement for someone who was still only forty four. Stow rarely kept track of time, and usually only knew it was time to go home when he noticed it was dark outside. Fortunately there was no one waiting at home for him every night, and Stow liked it that way. He had always been a loner, which was one of the reasons he had moved to America from the United Kingdom over twenty years ago. An opportunity came up in the States, and Stow had never looked back. He loved San Francisco, and he had a great view of the city from his lab in Alameda.

The experiment Stow was currently working on involved holographics and lasers. They were trying to find a new way to project television images that would be completely three dimensional. It wasn't exactly life changing work, but Stow enjoyed the change of pace. He had worked on projects ranging from NASA Mars landing missions, to cancer research technologies, but from time to time he preferred a project that was more, fun.

As he fine tuned his latest holographic projector in preparation for another test, he heard a faint rumble. He looked up and glanced out of his window. Over in the direction of the Golden Gate Bridge he noticed a quick flash. “A storm,” he muttered, thinking how unusual it was for a thunderstorm to occur in the Bay Area. He watched for a moment, but there were no more rumbles or flashes, and he assumed the atmospheric disturbance had already passed and went back to his work.

About half an hour later, the door to his lab suddenly came flying open. Stow jumped and turned around, glancing at the clock on the wall to see if this was security coming to throw him out for the night again. It wasn't. It was Villa Oliver, one of his co-workers.

"Stow," she said, "turn on the news."

"Why?" asked Stow, not someone who liked being told what to do, especially in his own lab.

"There's some kind of cosmic event going on at the Golden Gate Bridge," said Villa. "There's going to be a report on the five o'clock news. Channel Six."

As she left the room Stow glanced at the clock again and saw that it was only a few minutes to five. He walked into his adjoining office, switched on the flat screen TV, then flipped to Channel Six. He sat down in his big leather chair and relaxed, not expecting to be interested. There was always something going on at the bridge, suicides or protests or something.

"And now," the news anchor was saying, "we go live to the Golden Gate Bridge where our reporter Alison Scott Bell is waiting to give us a report on the phenomena."

"Phenomenon," muttered Stow, annoyed again at how many people got that wrong.

"Thank you Dave," said Alison, as she appeared on the screen with the south tower of the bridge beautifully framed behind her. "What started as a typical evening commute this afternoon turned extraordinary about half an hour ago, when three towering golden angels appeared directly over the Golden Gate Bridge here in San Francisco." The camera panned away from Alison and zoomed in on the figures hovering over the bridge. Stow sat up in his chair and leaned forward a little, frowning. "Witnesses claim there was some sort of disturbance in the sky,” said Alison, “followed by a loud bang and a bright flash. When they looked back the angels had appeared out of nowhere."

The realization quickly dawned on Stow that what he had thought was thunder and lightning over the Golden Gate Bridge earlier was actually the arrival of these angels. He watched as the news report began playing interviews with witnesses on the bridge. A short, dusky woman with long strawberry blonde hair appeared on the screen, and a caption indicated she was Maria Saunders from Oakland.

"What were you doing here today Miss Saunders?" asked Alison.

"On my days off I often come here in the afternoon to walk my dog, Bouncy over the bridge," said Maria. The camera zoomed out a little to show the Labrador sitting at her feet. Upon hearing its name, it barked and jumped up at Maria. "Down boy!" she said. The dog sat down at her feet again and the camera zoomed back in on Maria’s face.

"So where were you when this happened?" asked Alison.

"I was about three quarters of the way across the bridge, heading towards San Francisco," said Maria.

"And can you tell us exactly what happened?" asked Alison.

"It was weird," said Maria. "I just felt an urge to look up. So I looked up, and the sky sort of, wobbled."

"It wobbled?" asked Alison, sounding a little surprised.

"Yeah, that's the only way I can describe it," said Maria. "Then there was a bang and a flash and I looked away, and when I looked back, there were the angels."

"Did you hear any other noises, or notice anything strange anywhere else?" asked Alison.

"No," said Maria, "everything else seemed perfectly normal. Even Bouncy didn't react."

"What do you mean?" asked Alison.

"Well, normally he barks every time a bird flies past him, but he's acting as if the angels aren't even there, like he can't see them or something."

"Interesting," said Alison. The image of Maria disappeared and was replaced by that of a Hispanic looking man sitting in a battered white car. The caption indicated he was Iago Juancarlos Caballero from Mexico.

"Can you tell me what happened this afternoon Mr Cabellero?” asked Alison. “What did you see?"

"I was just driving onto the bridge heading south," said Iago, "when the car in front of me suddenly stopped and I saw a flash in the sky. I braked and looked up, and there were those angels hanging in the sky. Cars all around me were stopping and running into each other, and people were jumping out of their cars and running around screaming."

"Did you see or hear anything else at that time?" said Alison.

"No, but I wasn't really looking at anything else," said Iago, “and I had my music turned up pretty loud. I do remember thinking what a beautiful afternoon it was right before it happened though."

"And how long have you been here now?" asked Alison.

"Since it happened, about 45 minutes I guess," said Iago. "The police showed up about ten minutes ago, and the traffic finally started moving again. I think I would have been here all night otherwise!"

"Thank you Mr Caballero," said Alison, and the image switched back to a live picture of the reporter, this time with the angels in the frame behind her. She continued. "The angels appear to be glowing from some internal light source, and have not moved since they appeared. At the moment it is not clear whether they are some kind of projection, or something truly paranormal."

"And what is the situation on the bridge right now Alison?" asked Dave the anchor.

"Well Dave," said Alison, as the camera panned to show the view of the traffic on the bridge, "as you can see the traffic is moving slowly now. The police are on site and are directing everyone to return to their vehicles and vacate the area immediately. People are gathering at points overlooking the bridge on either side to watch this spectacle. We are told that the bridge itself will be closed until further notice, and all roads surrounding it will be backed up for some time."

"That's going to cause quite a few problems with the evening commute," said Dave. "We'll have more on that from Ted our traffic correspondent shortly. Alison, is there any word from authorities on what is causing this phenomena?"

"No Dave," said Alison. "So far we have not been able to get any official comment from authorities on this. We're hoping to have more information in our six o'clock report."

"Okay,” said Dave, wrapping up the report, “thank you Alison Scott Bell, on site at the Golden Gate Bridge where earlier this afternoon three angelic apparitions appeared in the sky. We'll have more on this breaking story later in the show, and an in depth report on our six o'clock edition. In Livermore today, shop owners began a two month..."

Stow clicked the TV off, and sat in his chair thinking. His immediate reaction was to drive up to the bridge to see the event for himself, but he knew that was what half the people in the Bay Area would be doing right now, and he would be lucky to get anywhere near it. He ran his hands through his dark shaggy hair, then over his rough chin, and wondered absently how long it had been since he'd last shaved. He sat thinking for a few more minutes, running his brain over the possibilities that could be causing the angel phenomenon, then reluctantly sighed and went back to his experiment. He set a timer to go off in one hour so he would not forget to watch the six o'clock news report.