The Streetlight and the Sun

by Gerald Huckaby

here was once a streetlight that was convinced it was brighter than the sun. Every dawn, as the sun began to rise, the streetlight would say, "Okay, Mister Big Nothing, let's just see who casts whose shadow!" But then someone down in the Water-and-Power-Department would turn him off, and all day long he would watch his shadow be slowly turned around him by the sun, and would mutter brokenly, "Yeah, yeah, blah! I'm not impressed."
      The day finally came, however, when that someone down in the Water - and - Power - Department forgot to turn him off, or was sick that day, or something, and the streetlight shouted at the sun, "This is it, you dull gas-bag--I'm going to blow you away!" The sun said nothing, and as it rose it grew brighter and brighter--but so did the streetlight! Fuses began to burn out at the Water - and - Power - Department, and circuit breakers began popping, and the streetlight was burning so brightly no one could look at it! At high noon it had burned all the grass around it, and was turning trees brown for a block around. The sun began to squeak a bit, giving it all he had--but there was no shadow falling behind the streetlight, while behind the sun the stars began to come out. "Aha!" roared the streetlight, as all the electricity in the rest of the city began to fail, "Take that, you big fake!"
      And, incredibly, the moon began to shine at one o'clock in the afternoon, thinking it was dusk, and the sun started whimpering and saying "Ow" and "Ouch". The streetlight was now draining the whole state of its electricity, and no machines could run in the factories and the traffic signals didn't work or television or anything, and the streetlight shouted, "Ha!", and the sun said, "You're hurting my eyes!", and Venus asked Jupiter, "What on earth's going on?", and the sun looked around nervously, then said to the streetlight "Okay, okay, you win." And the streetlight said nothing, but dimmed slowly, proudly, to Off, and the electricity came back on again in all the cities of the state, and the Water-and-Power-Department never did find out what happened.
      But now, every morning at dawn the sun peeks over the horizon to see if the streetlights are off; and only when they are will it begin to rise.

THE END

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