Of all the means of which to send a message, a street lamp is one I never would have considered. For weeks now, I’ve watched it flicker outside my window relentlessly as if it was actually trying to get on my nerves.

I’ve called the city countless times, told them to fix their damn light, but their promises are just as empty as the potholes in my driveway.

I had a friend over recently for dinner and it was all well and good until he noticed the street lamps incessant flickering through my living room window. He paused mid-bite to look over my shoulder as I was telling some pointless story.

“You see that?” he asked. I didn’t even need to look. I knew he was talking about the street light.

“Yeah, yeah, I know. That lamp has been losing its mind for a couple weeks now. Just draw the curtains back. It’s fine.”

My friend didn’t reply and continued examining the flickering light, almost scrutinizing it.

“Dude.” I say to him.

“Dude,” he repeated, “is that fuckin’ morse code?”

I leaned back in my chair, roll my eyes and tell him straight up that it’s nothing. The light is just broken. nothing more. Nothing less.

“It looks a little too intentional to me…” He speculated. Josh has always been one to read to deeply into things.

“Alright, do you even know morse code?” I ask.

“I do.”

“Mkay, what is the lamp saying then?” I inquire in an taunting, skeptical tone. In retrospect, I should have taken him more seriously. After he had gotten up from the table, slowly sauntered over towards the window and stared out into the street, watching that one lone streetlamp glitch and glimmer in the night for what felt like forever, he turned to me and spoke with absolute certainty that the lamp had requested my presence.

“It wants you to come over here…” he informed me, his voice cracking with uncertainty.

“Why?”

I was beyond confused, bewildered even. Most of me believed at the time that Josh was just making it up it up to freak me out and I wasn’t having it.

“I don’t know why, Zac. It’s a lamp. But I am 90% it just said your name in morse code…”

Goosebumps trickled down my spine. Though I was still not sure if I wanted to believe him, I made my way to the window. To me it all just looked like arbitrary flickering, but whenever I looked over at Josh, he looked pale as a ghost. Then suddenly, it stopped. The lightbulb burst and glass falling down onto the street. The flickering finally stopped. I looked to Josh.

“You wanna tell me what that just said?” I asked, but all I got in return was a haunted look and vomit on my hardwood floor.

Josh, understandably, decided he should go home early and didn’t bother telling me the message the lamp supposedly had for me. If there really was one at all.

I get a call from his cellphone a couple days later at 11PM.

“Hey man…” I groan as I sit up in bed, “You feel better, bro?”

Josh doesn’t say anything for a long time and I hear a sob on the other end.

“What’s wrong?”

“What I’m about to do is not your fault. Do not become me.”

Josh never had any mental issues from what I knew, but that didn’t stop me from thinking the absolute worst was about to happen.

“What do you mean? Josh, don’t. Don’t do whatever it is you’re about to do.” I command him.

“That was the word of her. Not me.”

“Who? Is this about the street lamp or something?”

I can’t help but notice Josh’s voice is drier and raspier than usual.

“I can’t tell you who was talking through it, but yes this is about the street lamp.”

“Why not?”

“It’s not my place, but really, it’s not your fault.”

Suddenly, the resounding sound of a gun could be heard and all my organs dropped.

“Josh, what was that?! Josh?!”

I couldn’t get ahold of him anymore. I don’t know if he did it himself or someone else took him out, but either way I need to go over to his house immediately.

Just before I left, before I even put the keys in the car door, I noticed a strange light reflecting of the roof of my car. I look up to see the very street lamp that had shattered days prior, lit up as if nothing had ever happened. And with a profound sense of clarity and horror, I could suddenly understand exactly what it was saying.

_It was not your fault._