Who Turned Off the Lights? UFLI Foundations Lesson 117

It was the biggest night of the year. Bright beams of light shot up into the dark sky as a dad lifted his boy high to wave a tiny flag. 'Best night ever!' he yelled. All around, people held up phones and waved flags of their own. But no one spotted the shadow at the edge of the crowd, watching and grumbling.

From up high, the town glowed like a box of tiny candles, with gold light spilling from each house, each shop, each window. But up in the dark sky, The Dark noticed the glow and huffed. 'Look at all those lights down there!' it cried. 'Don't they know the night is mine?'

So The Dark crept into a little house and flicked off the lights. A boy at the table blinked. He could not see his plate. He bumped into the edge of a chair as he reached for the door. At last, he dove under his bed cloth and pulled it up over his face. 'Who turned off the lights?' he whispered.

The Dark slid from house to house, flicking off each light. One family had to huddle around a candle just to see each other's faces. A man squinted at a book by the flame, while two kids climbed in bed since there was nothing more to do. Even the cat looked cross. 'This,' said The Dark, 'is how night should be.'

But outside, the streets still blazed bright. Streetlights and traffic lights blinked and hummed as cars and buses rolled along, safe and steady. A kid sat on the curb with his little dog, watching it all. The Dark glanced down from a rooftop and scowled at the city below. 'Oh, come on. More lights?!'

Click. The Dark shut off all the streetlights and traffic lights at once. Cars slammed into buses. Trucks tangled up in the middle of the road, and people stumbled between them in outrage, yelling, 'Who turned off the lights?' But The Dark just laughed and slipped away to find more lights.

The fair was next, and it was huge. Kids squealed on a ride, circling on painted horses under a roof of golden bulbs. A giant wheel twinkled high in the night sky. Families strolled past game stalls and food stands while each ride spun, glowed, and hummed. The Dark took one look and hissed, 'That is the brightest thing I have ever seen!'

CLICK. The giant wheel groaned to a stop, the painted horses went still, and the fair went silent. A child near the bottom of the wheel looked up with wide, sad eyes. On the ground, two kids stood holding a balloon, staring at nothing in the dark. 'Who turned off the lights?' one of them said in a small voice, and this time, no one was laughing.

Out on the water, one light still burned. A tall red and white lighthouse swept its beam across the dark waves, helping ships dodge the rocks. A big ferry and a tiny rowboat sailed by, safe in the glow. The Dark spotted the lighthouse from the shore and growled. 'That,' it hissed, 'is the last one.'

The Dark shut off the lighthouse beam. A huge ship plowed through the waves, heading right for the tiny rowboat as the boy inside held on tight and screamed. On the dark shore, the lighthouse stood silent. No signal, no light. Suddenly, The Dark felt a chill of ice in its belly and whispered, 'Oh no. What have I done?'

The Dark did not stop to think. It just let go. All the lights in town blazed back to life at once. The train raced down the tracks, headlights blazing, cars rolled safely down the roads, and houses glowed bright from inside. The town hummed, bright and alive once more. But The Dark hung back in the sky, all alone, feeling very small.

Then four kids came outside. One waved a star wand, one laughed under sparkly string lights, one held a little lantern, and the last twirled a green glow stick. They were not chasing The Dark off, they were dancing in it. 'Stars need you to sparkle,' called the kid with the lantern. The Dark blinked, then smiled for the very first time. Turns out, the best lights are not the ones that fight the dark. They're the ones that dance with it.