Star Gazing

Matthew Donahue and Terry Henderson laid in the grass in the middle of the vast field beneath an ocean of stars. The two fourteen-year-olds knew that they were too old to be star gazing, but it was still a pastime they enjoyed immensely. There was nothing better than spending a Friday night in mid-November spent admiring the tiny lights illuminating from the pitch-black sky. The field sat in the middle of a dense forest under the shadow of a hill just outside of the tiny town and acted as an almost sacred ground for the two boys and the rest of their fellowship of trusted friends. The televised moon landing four months prior had added a new inspiration to the pair’s stargazing as the moon currently illuminated a sideways grin over the field.

             The group usually consisted of two others, but they were currently on a double date with their girlfriends. Matthew and Terry knew that double date meant that their buddies, Paul Hildern and Jeremy Faine, had taken the girls for a burger and shake at Missy’s on Show Street and were most likely attempting to sneak their hands under the blouses of the dates out by Mason’s Creek (unsuccessfully) right about now. There was a walking trail that ran most of the length of the little stream with pavilions and picnic tables, it had been a secret getaway for curious couples not yet old enough to drive but approaching the age to act on the curiosities of the opposite sex’s bodies. Paul and Jeremy had been discussing the pavilion hidden by bushes and trees all week that they had planned on taking their dates after lunch.

             Dateless and with no plans, Matthew and Terry had decided to sneak a joint and the half pack of cigarettes Terry kept hidden in his underwear drawer and head out to the field. It was a perfect place to watch the stars and the occasional aircraft passing overhead from the Air Force base about forty minutes west of the town. They had eaten dinner with their mothers (Matthew’s dad was seven months into a year-long deployment as a Major in the Air Force and Terry’s father had been shot down over Da Nang in 1967- his body never recovered) then set out when the sun began to set. The air was cool enough to ensure that bugs wouldn’t be a nuisance but not too cold to sit outside in. They had shared the pot- which was admittedly weak- and smoked a few cigarettes while joking about how poorly their friends’ dates had to be going.

             “You think those two are actually going to get anywhere tonight?” Matthew asked. The two had been making fun of their friends for a good portion of the night to cover the fact that they were both jealous that they themselves didn’t have a girl to hangout with themselves-though neither would openly admit it.

             “Nah,” Terry said, “Though, I know they’ll tell us they did.”

             “Yeah, I’m sure the girls have probably run off by now, my sister is close with Mary, I’m sure she’ll spill the details to her at school this week. I’ll remember to ask,” Mary Whalen had been dating Paul for the last month, though the two had had eyes for each other since seventh grade, she had set up Jeremy with a trusted friend, named Sarah Meadows, in order for them to have a other couple to hang out with. Mary was from a conservative household and (secretly) wanted backup incase Paul ever decided to put too much pressure on her. Not that the boy was confident enough to ever do so.

             “Yeah,” is all Terry replied. The boys laughed again but it was a strained, uncomfortable laugh. One that was used to hide that both were trying to contain the monsters of jealousy inside, making a sickening feeling in their stomachs.

             Neither teen was ugly. They had long hair (fashionable for males in that year of 1969), wore the same type of clothes that just about everyone wore-maybe a little cheaper, and liked all the popular music. Matthew and Terry had been the dreamers of the group. Wonderous readers who kept their heads in the clouds with desires of writing books, both on their own and collaboration works. It contrasted nicely to the more rambunctious Paul and Jeremy, who were more apt to spend their money on records and girls, Matthew and Terry were always using their change on second-hand paperbacks and journals. They were the thinkers and voices of reason to the daredevils of the other two.

             “You think we could ever get girls like Jeremy and Paul do?” Terry asked a bit too nervously. He’d been stewing the question most of the night, chewing his lip and fidgeting his fingers like it was a sinful question to ask.

             “Sure,” Matthew tried to answer with an uplifting tone, “We just have to get better at talking to them.” The boy mulled his answer and felt like he should dig deeper. He was relieved to get the same feelings toward his own self-consciousness as his friend off his chest. “Do you like anyone?”

             Terry stayed quite for a moment. He was opening a chest he’d never opened to anyone before, “I-,” his voice cracked, “I kinda have a thing for Jennifer Evans.” He immediately regretted letting his best friend know. “I mean… she’s kind of cute I guess. We like a lot of the same books and she loves to help, wants to be a veterinarian to help animals and write stories in her spare time.”

             “Oh yeah. I figured you would say her,” Matthew spoke with a tone that said “duh”.

             Terry’s eyes went wide, he shot up to a sitting position, the field spun quickly for a moment- the weak marijuana must have had a little potency after all. “What do you mean you knew?”

             Matthew remained laying and laughed comically, a he snorted before he could actually speak, “You’re like trying to talk to a wall when she’s around, eyeing her like an animal, off in your own world.” Matthew lifted his hand to pat his friend’s shoulder and spoke in a more serious tone, “She’s a good fit for you. Likes to read and worships John Lennon.” Terry had a massive poster of the Beatles above his bed and owned every single Beatles record he could get his hands on. “Besides, she likes you too.”

             “No she doesn’t,” Terry said glumly. He wanted to say more, but his mind was racing to an image of Sarah Evans smiling. He wanted to get back at Matthew as if the conversation had become a contest, “Who do you like then?” he snarled.

             “Lily Mason,” Matthew told him without a pause. Though self-conscious himself, Matthew Donahue had no qualms with telling his close friends secrets. “And yes she does, the girl ogles you about as much as you do her.”

             “Lily Mason?” Terry more screamed than asked. “Her family owns like half the town!” He’d decided to kill the conversation about Sarah when his face started to feel warm, though her red hair and green eyes made it hard not to get off the mind.

             “So what if she lives in a mansion and has more money than half the residents here put together?” Matthew said. “She’s nice and gets good grades. Besides, I just have a crush on her, I never said I wanted to marry her.” Most of the guys in high school had a thing for the blonde-haired, brown-eyed Lily Mason in some form or another, half for her money, half for her looks; Matthew was the only one who enjoyed her for her personality.

             “I mean, I guess she’s cool, I never really talked to her much,” Peter said.

             “We worked on group projects a few times in middle school, she’s got a killer knowledge of space,” Matthew replied, in addition to literature, the mysteries of the cosmos were an obsession to the teen. “She wants to go to college to be an astronomer and just live off her parents’ wealth lime her stupid brothers.”

             Terry felt bad for his outburst earlier, “Hey, you should invite her to watch the stars with us sometime then. She would enjoy pointing out the planets and constellations.”

             “She would never join, what’s a girl like that want with a geek like me?” It was now Matthew’s turn to get emotional.

             “Sure she would, you two could talk about all the far out space stuff,” Terry encouraged.

             “Maybe. But then you’d have to invite Jennifer so you two could discuss Tolkien and Fitzgerald and how you both are obsessed with Huckleberry Finn,” Matthew knew that name dropping his pal’s favorite book would strike a cord of courage.

             “Okay don’t get so over-,” Terry’s voice dropped off. “What the hell is that?” he screamed, eyes wide and mouth agape, arm pointed straight to the air.

             Matthew felt his mouth go dry, his eyes had to be deceiving him. “Is… is it a new jet the Air Force is testing out?”

             “Can’t be,” Terry’s own voice sounded like it was coming from somewhere far away. It was like he was underwater as all his blood went flowing quickly to his feet. “They test that stuff out in the desert and there’s no way we have that kind of technology.”

             The pair of teens were staring at a floating perfectly still was a massive disk of about one hundred feet in diameter with red and yellow lights flashing all around. An elevated roof in the center of the disc reflected light as if at least part of the bulkhead was made out of a dark glass. It had appeared almost out of nowhere and now hovered about two hundred feet off above the boys’ heads. At first, it was thought that maybe they were seeing an illusion or that the pot they had smoked might have had something extra added to it that was just now kicking in- maybe even Russians they thought in panic. The Boys knew what they were looking at, however, they had read science fiction comics and movies from when they were younger to know that this object was not made by anyone from earth.

They didn’t know whether to run or stay put. Fear had gripped them immobile forcing them to make their decision to stay put.

“Should we run and tell someone?” Terry asked nervously.

“Who- who would we tell?” Matthew replied with his own question.

“The police, maybe they could call the base.” That’s what always happened in the stories at least, Terry thought, though it never went well in those stories either. A whole new fear took over him as his mind conjured a scenes of beams of light emanating from the bottom of the flying saucer, destroying the town and legions of military members shooting at it. He threw up.

Matthew hardly noticed his friend vomiting into the grass beside him. His heartbeat was pumping in his throat and he could hear his blood rushing through his veins. He imagined Air Force jets from the nearby base coming to attack the object and lasers burning the American planes down like a duck hunt.

A loud roar pierced the silence. The unmistakable growling of USAF F-105s screaming through the skies- the same jets Major Donahue flew and what Lieutenant Colonel He person had been shot down in. They were coming fast. Base intelligence must have caught wind of the UFO after all.

The high schoolers watched, a hint of excitement rose from the depths of fear in them at the chance to see an intergalactic dogfight happen. No shots were fired, the four fighters only buzzed the hovering saucer in an ear-splitting rumble that vibrated the ground around Matthew and Terry. The jets disappeared behind the tree line overhead, but the rising sound told the two that TN ey were coming back.

             Blinking lights emerged from the trees in the far side of the field. The lights were accompanied by armed men in dark green uniforms holding M-16 assault rifles- the kind used in the war in Vietnam. The uniformed men were accompanied by two others wearing black suits who were holding pistols in their hands. “Hey! You there!” one of the civilian-looking men shouted.

The shouting of the men broke the boys’ paralysis, they each took a look at each other, a slight glance to the armed group moving quickly across the field, then a final glance up. The two looked up just in time to see a brilliant green light emanate from the bottom of the saucer before picking up speed in no time to stream across the sky. The F-105’s made a quick maneuver before following the saucer in formation. The men with guns stopped halfway to the pair of high schoolers in the field before turning back and heading to the woods.

             Matthew and Terry looked at each other bearing the same expression that read “what did we just witness”. They sat silently for an uncomfortable length of time, stewing over what had happened in the course of about seven minutes. Seeing a UFO was not something either child had on their agenda for the night. Finally, Terry spoke up in a weak voice, “Wha- wanna have the last two cigarettes?”

“Yes, please,” Matthew answered in a stronger, but still quivering voice. The pair lit their smokes with trembling hands and dragged the smoke in silence until there was nothing left.

“You know,” Matthew said after the cigarettes were finished, “I don’t think anyone will ever believe us if we try to explain what happened.”

“No, they’d call us Liars or crazy,” Terry agreed. “Or think we had some far out LSD trip.”

Matthew nodded, “I guess we will have to keep it to ourselves, a hunch also tells me that if we went around talking about this, those guys in suits would come looking for us.” The science fiction stories always contained nameless men in suits that would take people away never to be heard from to cover up the government’s secret knowledge of aliens.

The boys sat a while longer before mustering the strength in their quivering legs to stand up and begin the two-mile trek home. Just before reaching the trees, right under where the saucer had been hovering, a shine caught the boys’ eyes as it reflected the moonlight.

“What is that?” Matthew asked as Terry reached a tentative hand down to pick up the object.

“It seems like a message,” Terry said examining the object. The piece was a square of shining metal of about two inches in length containing a series of symbols above a translation into English.

Sorry to frighten you, we meant no harm. You two are good humans with genuine kindness inside, never let that goodness go and . Was all it said. An odd but calming feeling came over the boys as excitement made their hearts beat rapidly. They had received a message from beings from far-away planets, but they would never be able to tell anyone. After reading over the simple message, the metal square began to vibrate rapidly before flying away in the same direction that the UFO had fled.

Though, Terry and Matthew never saw the UFO or military men chasing after it again, they often returned to the field to stargaze together, often times, with Jennifer Evans under the arm of Terry and Lily Mason holding Mason’s hand. The former couple would discuss literature and animals under the stars and the later would point out planets and the occasional satellite passing overhead. All of them would admire the beauty of the twinkling constellations. Watching the stars with the same purity and interest as they had as children carried over to old age.