NervousMan in the Darkness

NervousMan turned to see the an older woman standing to his left, smiling.

He could smell her perfume. It had the faintest tinge of talcum powder in it, NervousMan recognized. A gray perm wreathed the woman's lined face, its frizzy dominance offset by her large turtle shell glasses.

The woman blinked at NervousMan.

NerouvsMan blinked back.

NervousMan looked down. He could see the woman holding a number of books against her chest. One of them was something about an 'Anne Frank,' NervousMan could see.

Dangling in front of the book, was what looked to be a badge with the name 'Molly Ingrams' around her neck and the words 'Library Staff'.

"Did you want to see The Cosmos Exhibit?" the woman asked NervousMan.

"Is this it?" he said. NervousMan felt dazed.

The woman smiled warmly and cocked her head.

"I'll show you," she said. "If you'll follow me?"

The nice lady turned and began to walk, and NervousMan walked softly behind wondering where they were going.

The room they walked into was dark as midnight at the bottom of a well. As NervousMan's eyes adjusted to the light, he began to see a field of small points of light slowly coming lighter and brighter before and all around him.

NervousMan's eyes widened, but he did not feel nervous.

"Stand right here on this X," the lady said nicely, pointing down to the floor.

NervousMan looked down and could make out a dark gray 'X' on the floor in front of him. The X seemed to swim in the darkness around his feet.

"Around my feet? Darkness..." thought NervousMan.

"Why..." he whispered, almost mindlessly, his lips slipped slightly apart without a sound.

"I'll start the show in 30 seconds," the woman told NervousMan. He could hear the smile in her voice, and could hear her feet stepping over the hard floor and exit the door behind him.

NervousMan heard a sharp clack, and for a few timeless moments he stood alone in the darkness, softly illuminated by the points of light around him.

The lights seemed to be moving. Or was it NervousMan who was moving?

A voice come out of the darkness.

"Welcome," it said.