by Savannah Russe, 2006

ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARED AT SavannahRusse.Blogspot.Com, July 26, 2005

Four bats were swooping around the chimney top last evening when the last dying light left the sky. I sat on the deck watching, thinking of the Darkwing Team and what their next adventure would be. The sky faded from royal blue to black and still the bats flew in jerky dips and dives, silhouetted against the lightpost in the front yard. Ancient they are, so clearly not of our times but of some more mysterious past, giving rise to the idea of the vampire, to me the embodiment of the human dark side . . . the hidden parts of us we try so hard to pretend are not there, but exist within each and every one of us. And the sad thing is, the dark side is not evil, but simply wild . . . and we need to acknowledge our wildness, connect to our primitive heritage, and let go the artifacts of our society and return to our core. To fly with the bats in an ancient hunt for freedom . . .

This morning predawn, the bats still flew, vanishing at last when dawn's soft pink glow began to creep over the mountains across the valley from where I stood watching quietly in the silent gray light.