Slice of Life Post March 23, 2024

I’m just drifting off when Joker, our 3-legged dog, starts to bark. He only barks when someone is coming up the lane to our farmhouse. I figure it’s my husband finally coming home from the bar, but the dog keeps barking. I grudgingly get up, go to the window to look outside. Something is at the end of the lane: two brightly beaming lights. I keep watching them, wondering what in the world is going on when to my heart-shattering surprise, the two lights suddenly elevate straight up into the air. WTF!

I turn away, rush to the rotary phone on the wall, dial Joe’s Place and ask for my husband. When he answers, I gasp, “Please come home, there’s a UFO at the end of the lane.” 

“She says there’s a UFO at the end of the lane,” he hollers. I can hear uproarious laughter and, “Man, she must really want you to come home.”

I hang up, rush back to the window. I keep thinking these are definitely aliens and that they are going to beam my baby boy from his crib. I’m absolutely terrified. The lights continue to hover about fifty feet in the air when the lights suddenly blink out. It’s over. I’m alive and my son is still sleeping in his crib. I go back to bed, feeling dazed by the experience.

I think of this strange encounter often and wonder when they’ll be back.

                                                    late night visitors
                                                    from outer space
                                                    brightly beam hello—
                                                    shatter my illusions
                                                    that I'm alone

                                                    Barb Edler
                                                    23 March 2024