Invisible Band

Night falls on a diner at the edge of a small town. The tables rest empty - the few customers present opt to sit at the bar. The kitchen falls silent without orders to fill. Aged fluorescent lights flicker.

Suddenly, though, the lights cut out. The hum of the air conditioning quickly fades. Patrons and employees alike look around, bewildered and startled. An eerie silence envelopes the diner.

But then, a sound slowly began to pierce the darkened silence. A drum beats life into the still setting. The occupants of the diner run outside to locate the source. When the door shuts behind them, a chiming guitar begins to cry away with a haunting melody. Vocals, though not words, ripple through the atmosphere. The voice evokes fear and awe, like the wailing of a ghostly choir.

Neither the customers nor the employees of the diner can find the source. A violin joins in harmony with the guitar, and the invisible band echoes their song around the moonlit town. People begin to leave their houses and apartments, mesmerized and awestruck. The song changes through keys and scales until the moon reaches its highest point in the sky, when the music suddenly stops.

The lights in the diner flicker back to life. The mystified population returns to its homes. The people of the diner return to their now-cold meals.

Atop the diner, the drummer whispers to his band mates, "They never look up."