The orange lights drifted across the night sky, while we watched with the rest of the crowd scattered across the lawn. They traveled almost single file at irregular intervals. We ruled out planes and fireflies and satellites, then jokingly settled on aliens, because it was Independence Day, and we had no other explanation.
One didn’t make the full arc. It was falling (crashing? landing?), down towards the earth. It was on fire. Some teenage boys ran out to catch it. No aliens, just the remains of a burnt sky lantern, probably being launched from the same site as the firework show that had drawn us all outside to this Anderson, Indiana lot.
With the mystery solved, they left it behind on the grass, and we all went back to watching fireworks explode.
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