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He’s Armando Languistini when he drives The Bookman’s car -- a 1971 Oxford Gray Cadillac Eldorado -- far out into the desert, but by the time he comes to a stop he’s undercover cop Ray Vecchio, and he’s taking some time to be alone with the thoughts and feelings he keeps submerged when he’s working his cover in Las Vegas. He wonders how the guy covering for him back in Chicago is doing -- one undercover cop to another he appreciates the guy, and he’s grateful, he is, for what the guy’s doing to keep Ray’s family safe and to keep Fraser partnered -- but that guy who is currently carrying the Ray Vecchio name and wearing the Ray Vecchio badge hasn’t lost Chicago and has gained a family that isn’t spelled with a “Capital F” and that guy has gained Fraser as a partner…and all of that brings a dangerous surge of envy and jealousy to Ray.
After a while he compartmentalizes those thoughts and feelings again, and he turns the car around and heads back the way he came, noticing something odd in the sky…an odd cloud…and simply that there’s a cloud in the desert sky wouldn’t be odd, but this one single cloud glows with a glow of changing colors, and then Ray hears a low whistling sound. Next, Ray is startled by a voice coming from his radio -- startled because he hadn’t turned the radio on.
Welcome to Night Vale. The desert seems vast, even endless, and yet scientists tell us that somewhere, even now, there is snow. Have any of our listeners seen the glowing cloud that has been moving in from the west? Well, John Peters -- you know, the farmer? He saw it over the western ridge this morning. Said he would have thought it was the setting sun if it wasn’t for the time of day. Apparently the cloud glows in a variety of colors, perhaps changing from observer to observer, although all report a low whistling when it draws near.
Ray wonders if he is having some kind of mental breakdown. Wouldn’t be the first time or the last that an undercover cop acquired a hole in his bag of marbles. Even so, he finds something strangely consoling in what he next hears the Voice of Night Vale say.
Sometimes you go through things that seem huge at the time, like a mysterious glowing cloud devouring your entire community. While they're happening they feel like the only thing that matters, and you can hardly imagine that there’s a world out there that might have anything else going on. And then the Glow Cloud moves on. And you move on. And the event is behind you. And you are left with nothing but a powerful wonder at the fleeting nature of even the most important things in life.
And then Ray’s disquiet abruptly returns when the Voice of Night Vale mentions “Officer Ben of the Sheriff’s Secret Police”.
Good night, Night Vale. Good night.