Suppose an Unexplained Phenomenon Appeared in Your Neighborhood

This is a true story about a true incident. I was assigned to write a narration, magic realism that depicts an entity or event appearing or occurring in a neighborhood. In turn, I was supposed to describe the people's reaction to the incident.

Of course, the truth can be stranger than fiction. For example, see the O. J. Simpson's criminal jury and its verdict. Worse yet, see the O. J. Simpson's civil jury and its verdict.

On a serious note, the following narration occurred in Jamaica on March, 1984. This story was well documented in "The Gleaner" and "The Star." Bear in mind, I'm not using "The Enquirer" nor "The Globe" as sources of reference.

It was on a bright Saturday morning. The preacher performed his regular 'fire & brimstone' sermon. The kids slept. Teenagers nodded as they fought to stay awake. Young adults feigned alertness. Other adults' mouths were agape while they contemplated their eternal fate.

Suddenly, a winged entity appeared in a burst of magnificent light. The visitor, a lucent being composed of blinding light, rotated on its axis as it surveyed the audience. The Seventh Day Adventist congregation looked at the creature in amazement. The mercurial preacher cowered behind the rostrum as he adopted the Golden Rule: the tongue is silver but silence is golden. In a crisp and measured voice, the celestial being remarked that the Seventh Day Adventist doctrine is the only true doctrine that must be adhered to. Then, he disappeared as if he was just a dream: a mass hallucination.

Thereafter, the crowd spilled out of the church. Some were wailing to God in prayer while others were dumbfounded. The rest were convinced God had blessed them with a sign.
The next day, the story appeared on the first page of the leading newspapers. There was a picture of a vague object. It made me wondered if bad lighting or the luminous quality of the angel caused it. Sarcastically, skeptics, agnostics and atheists thought the story was as 'credible' as 'The Weeping Mary' or 'The Bleeding Christ' witnessed by fanatic onlookers around the world. Religious pundits theorized that the end of the world is near and the appearance of the angel was a warning for us to be prepared.

Personally, I curiously inquired of myself. Was it an angel or a fallen angel? Was it an extraterrestrial alien misrepresenting himself as an angel? Did they have communion with a drug-laced wine (aka, Jim Jones's Kool-Aid Light)? Or did the local voodoo priest played a practical joke on the parishioners because the new ambitious pastor was converted his clienteles? We may never know, but be assured, whatever is clouded by the mystery of darkness will be exposed by the truth of light.