Summary

In a world plunged into perpetual darkness after the sun's disappearance, a single individual, the Spark Bearer, rekindles the sun's light by holding a torch towards the sky for eight minutes, restoring life and color to the desolate earth.

Abstract

The narrative "The Spark Bearer (Full)" unfolds in a world where the sun has inexplicably vanished, leaving society in a state of eternal night. People adapt to this new reality, relying on artificial light and distant starlight, as the planet loses its vibrancy and depth. A poignant moment occurs when a silhouetted figure, longing for the sun's warmth and light, ignites a torch out of nostalgia. This act of remembrance reveals the sun's silent presence as a silhouette in the sky, devoid of light. The sun confesses its loneliness and loss of light, believed to have been forgotten by the earth. The silhouette, moved by the sun's plight, offers his light to reignite the sun. After an eight-minute vigil, the light from the torch reaches the sun, restoring its brilliance and, in turn, bringing life back to earth. The story concludes with the Spark Bearer's daily ritual to ensure the sun's light never fades again, a ritual unnoticed by the rest of the world, which has returned to normalcy without acknowledging the sun's rebirth.

Opinions

Some people initially deny the sun's disappearance, suggesting it's a natural occurrence or overreaction.
The world's adaptation to darkness is seen as a resignation to loss and a surrender to a new, diminished reality.
The Spark Bearer's act of raising a torch is driven by a deep yearning for the past and a belief in the possibility of restoration.
The story conveys a message that even when something is lost or forgotten, it may still be present, waiting to be rediscovered and revived.
The sun's absence is portrayed as a loss of identity and purpose, both for the celestial body and for the people on earth.
The act of looking for and recognizing the sun's silhouette is crucial to its rekindling, symbolizing the power of acknowledgment and remembrance.
The Spark Bearer's compassion and determination are highlighted as the catalysts for the world's transformation from monochrome desolation to a place teeming with life and color.

The Spark Bearer (Full)

One day, the sun didn’t rise.

The world fell into chaos. Some people said, “we have never seen anything like this.” Others said, “well actually, this has happened once before, about a hundred years ago — my grandparents told me about it.” Yet others said, “what do you mean the sun didn’t rise? We still have light, you’re whining for no reason.”

For a little while, people did what they could to get by. They used batteries and lit fires and stocked up on candles. They waited for the sun to return, but she didn’t. In time, all the plants died, and the people grew accustomed to darkness. The world lost its depth and everything became two dimensional. Life evolved to get on without the sun. After all, there was still distant starlight from the other stars. But it was always night.

One day, a silhouette (for that is what all people had become) was walking along a deserted beach. He looked up into the sky, towards where the sun used to be. He reminisced about the good old days when sunlight was a thing, and the world had more than just dim starlight — which is all the children of this age had ever seen. He wished there could be just one more day of real light, just so that his own children could know the things he had known.

But the sun had not risen in so long. No one had ever worked out why.

The anguished silhouette did not know how to bring back the sun, but he knew how to start a fire. It was a useless skill these days, since no one really needed light anymore, but driven by nostalgia and intense longing for the golden past, he made a spark anyway. With the spark he made a torch, and the torch he raised towards the sky. “If only instead of my torch, I could see the sun,” he cried.

And then he saw, with furrowed brow, that the sun was, in fact, right there. An empty frame, a silhouette in the night sky, not unlike how the moon can sometimes be seen even on the nights she is absent, when she has no light.

“Oh silhouette of the sun!” the silhouette on the beach cried out. “I see you!”

“It has been a long time since anyone looked for me,” the sun responded.

“You are so loved, sun, and so missed. Why won’t you return?” the silhouette pleaded earnestly.

“I am not loved, or missed,” the sun said. “I have lost my light. I lost it years ago, but without my light, no one could see me, and not seeing me, they stopped looking for me. Not looking for me, I remained invisible. But I have been here all along.”

“I wish I could give you my light,” the silhouette wept. And they were tears of true compassion, for he saw the loneliness of the sun, falsely accused of abandoning the earth, when it was in fact the earth who had abandoned her.

“But you can,” the sun said softly. “You have been holding up that torch for seven minutes now. In one more minute the light will reach me, and I will re-ignite.”

“Eight minutes?” the silhouette processed this information in confusion. “That is how long it takes for the sun’s light to reach the earth…”

“And also how long it takes for the earth’s light to reach the sun.”

The silhouette on the beach gaped in wonder as the sparks from his torch finally hit the silhouette in the sky. The light spread across the surface like fire. But the earth remained dark.

“Eight more minutes, friend, and your light will return to you as mine,” the sun smiled.

To the world, the sun returned as mysteriously as she had left. The plants came back to life, and silhouettes became people again. Just as no one had looked for the sun when she was gone, no one checked in when she came back.

Except for the silhouette on the beach — now a full person — the Spark Bearer. He returned to that same spot every morning, made a spark, and from it a torch, and held it up into the sky for eight full minutes — so that the sun would never lose her light again.

Sweeping sky, endless beach Ocean unfathomably deep All is cold, dark, and flat Behold, silhouette in hat Bearing spark to light the sun Before long, day will have begun Cold and dark at once consumed Flat filled in and form assumed All is gently kissed by light Hatted silhouette, ignite Spark to turn barren scene To teeming life, blue and green Silhouette himself alived His own spark full circle arrived.

Thanks to Smillew Rahcuef, pictured in the photograph above, for his kind permission to play with this concept and for being my muse for this piece.