The Expectation

I was gazing at the dark beautiful outer space, reminiscing every bit of it when suddenly the sound in my ears echoes. 

“Ready for landing. Everything is set. It will take another five minutes.” and the voice died out from the dull green radar. I took a long breath. The capsule was comfortable to be in. It was warm and was cool enough to protect me from outside’s heat. I was wearing a thick white uniform and only I can tell how much my body was oozing out sweat. I remembered the day when I had envisioned my dream to be an astronaut and then I remembered the day about six months ago when I was chosen to go to the newly found planet named ‘Melser”. I find this name funny and it also rhymes with the name ‘Miser”. 

The radar again lights up. 

“Ready for landing. Two more minutes.” and then it goes off again. 

“If I tell you about what this mission is then the main aim behind me flying in space is to look for aliens and for me this will be my first outer space adventure. My very first time and reaching at this point was not easy. I had to go multiple tests, rigorous training and finally I got the privilege to sit there, in my own private capsule and the honor to go up on a planet and find aliens. I have envisioned how they will look. They must have big black eyes and bald heads with green to pale blue colours. After all this is how all the aliens are going to look. 

And then again the radar lights up. 

“To the count of Five. Emerald get ready.” and then again there is a silence. 

I reach out for my headgear. It fits me perfectly and the glasses on my eyes enables me to look clear. Everything is perfect and I can feel my heart beating against my chest. I can feel the capsule going towards the planet. It is rushing now and I want to scream. This is scary, scarier than the highest and most twisted roller coasters ever. Everything blacks out completely for a few seconds and I do not know whether the capsule is landing or crashing into this beautiful twinkling dark abyss. In a literal sense I can feel the world spinning around me. 

To my relief The voice again resonates from the radar and the countdown starts.

“1” 

I have stopped breathing. 

“2”

I am gritting my teeth and I am convinced that my teeth are going to drop off my jaw. 

“3”

The goosebumps are flaring from my body and all the sweat has evaporated.

“4”

“I can feel my heart pounding stronger and I shut my eyes. 

“5”

And then it happens. The capsule lands and I almost jump to touch up the ceiling. 

“Landing was successful. Within three seconds a ramp will come out and your doors will open from you left.``" This robotic voice is now annoying me. The radar turns off.

I sigh and slowly my heart rate comes back to normal. 

I cannot believe I did it. The fact that I am there on a strange and new planet is enough to frighten me. But today a new wave of energy fills inside me. I know I can do it. I am going to be the first woman, the first human to talk to aliens and come back alive. I am going to do it. 

As there is a ping pong sound the door on my left opens and there is a grey metallic ramp that leads on to the other way. I slowly come out of it and see the land behind me. It is beautiful. It is filled with the shades of green to shades of blue from the other end. I feel as if I am in heaven. 

As I take another step forward I realize the colour changes. It changes from orange to yellow and with every step it changes, changes to every colour from white to black and blue to pink. I run my eyes in every direction. It is beautiful.

“Where are the aliens?” I murmur. 

 I know I sound creepy, but the existence of aliens have always affected me, always fascinated me. I have surfed every article on the possibility of the existence of aliens and also created my own alien cartoons. I agree I am obsessed, but this is something I want to experience before I die, something which has become the purpose of my existence. Gazing at the stars sitting in my balcony, and looking for the bright pole star, to saying a wish to myself looking at the shooting star. I have liked science but at the age of thirteen studying the chapter of constellations, I have loved it. When one day during JAM (Just A Minute) Sessions, my teacher asked me to think out of the box and tell what would I do If I were to land on Mars.

I had eagerly told, "I will explore, I will jump, I will find aliens." and then everybody had laughed off, I had too.

As I step forwards I find myself facing a board. I touch the surface with my gloves. I am guessing that this ought to be wood, but I am not sure. I mean, wood is not supposed to be on a new planet. Everything should be strange, different. And then I try to read what is engraved on the board. It is not one of the languages I know for sure, but I try to understand it by looking at the pictures drawn on it.

There are many shapes, and then I find a similar object, an orange. Yes it should be, at least for us humans. There is a circle drawn and filled with dull orange paint. It should be that. There is a black pointed arrow directing towards where I am heading. I do not know. Maybe it is a shop of oranges or wait, maybe an alien marketplace.

I go further. It is very difficult to walk in my suit but the less gravity does make it easier. I jump now, looking at the beautiful dark blue craters and a tranquil crimson sky with clouds like purple puffs of smoke. There are no birds flying but there are huge dark brown tree-like structures. I pass through all of them taking huge leaps forward. And then suddenly I see something. I am midway between my high jump when I see it. I hang there in the sky for about eight seconds. I land with a soft jerk. I sway my heads frantically all around, I am sure I saw something, something moving. 

I try to move forwards as quickly as I can. And then I find again, there are two people, no wait ALIENS. This revelation shakes me. I am blank for a second and then I feel dizzy. Is my oxygen cylinder not working? I keep a hand on my mouth in surprise, but I cannot see their faces, they are too far away and are walking ahead of me. What I can make out are two black spots, but pretty sure they are people. They are having no difficulty in walking, they are not taking giant leaps and they look normal, not harmful. I hurriedly move forward. 

As I cover a small distance ahead, I am going to topple. They are just at a distance of a meter from me. They are visible. They are walking. I am yearning to see their faces. But I can tell about the dresses they are wearing. They are wearing T-Shirts, yes; T-Shirts and a peculiar type of bottom which I can say is a combination of a skirt and shorts. I do not know if they are women or men, but they look quite ok. They have one head, two hands, two legs and two ears. They are not insanely big or magnified and nothing circles around their heads. 

I do not know how to react. I still want to see their faces but it is too difficult to walk on. I cannot even reach them. My body is aching now and anxiety is gripping me from inside. I do not know the temperature of the planet, maybe it is icy cold or blaring all over smoke, but the few people in front of me look comfortable. 

I follow them and inside of me I am pacing, pacing as fast as I could. I am not even trying to hide. I want them to look at me, I want them to see me. I want to see them, their huge big black eyes or who knows even green or multi shaded like the dancing colours beneath my soul.

I want to say them a warm hello but I know it is not possible. Sound cannot propagate in space and even if it does on this planet, it would be hard speaking through layers of my head gear, I can again feel sweat forming on my nose, on the underside of my lips and my forehead. My muscles are squeezing from inside by jumping non stop, but I cannot stop, I cannot lose them. I have to go towards it. 

As I move forwards with them I realise the numbers are increasing one by one. They are huge. At this point I am feeling confused, I am terrified. I want to come back alive. But I still follow them. 

Now it has been five minutes and I realize that I have stepped on a junction of two roads, or I do not know what. There are people all ahead over me like a swarm of bees and I just go and dissolve with them. They all slow down and move in different directions. I finally realise that I have not looked around since a lot of time. My eyes are fixed on the people. But then I move my head slowly, and see around myself. 

There are small huts like buildings and rooms all around me their roofs made of thatched twigs nd some had a solid cement lining and all sorts of geometrical shapes surround the porch of the huts. I eagerly go forwards and then I witness it. I SEE THEM. CAN YOU BELIEVE I SEE THEM. I SEE THE ALIENS. MY DREAM HAS COME TRUE. I AM ON A STRANGE PLANET AND I HAVE LOOKED AT PEOPLE, LOOKED AT THE ALIENS.

But there is something wrong, I am here standing in what I suppose is an alien marketplace but in reality there are no aliens around me. They do not have big bulging eyes, they do not have pale green and blue colour skins, they are not bald, and they are not frail, thin and naked. They do not look scary, they do not have poker faces but they are smiling and laughing. I can see a small alien, I suppose asking for a green triangle. I do not know what they are, maybe foods to eat, maybe toys, or maybe this is a mathematical workshop. I look at all of them, they look at me and they do not fear or run. 

They just stare at me for some time. Maybe they cannot see me or maybe, I am not the only one. I may be the first on earth, but how can I say I am the first in this universe. There can be hundreds before me who came to visit here or maybe they do that too, who said aliens are not technologically equipped.

 They just look at me, and smile and nod. I do not understand their language but they are not what I expected. They are conventionally or unconventionally beautiful and normal. They are of different sizes and yes their colours are just bright like the surrounding, pink, green, blue red, and so many more. They have smooth hair and their eyes. They are normal, beautiful, conventionally prettier than ours. I can see the teardrops falling off them when they laugh and cry. 

MY HEAD IS SPINNING. But I smile inside my suit, and my eyes start to water. 

I feel grateful, I am blessed. 

Two little aliens come and bump into me. They are innocent like any other children in this world. They giggle nervously and wave their hands towards me. I wave them back. They do not know but I am giving them the warmest smile I had ever given to anyone. Then they just move towards the hut beside me and ask for two little red stars and then they give the man some blue coins and run away in the opposite direction. 

The man(or woman?) sitting there looks very old, his wrinkles shining under the sun and his hair was till his shoulders. His skin had a light blue colour like that of an early sky. They are jet black. He is wearing a long T-shirt and same skirt-short mixed bottoms till his knees. He looks at me and smiles. I just look at him, and I want him to hug, but I just resist myself.

I look everywhere around me. It is so nice. I am in love with the place. The little alien marketplace is just a calm, small marketplace. Maybe I am in a country on this planet, a state, a town, a part of the world for sure.

The people are normal, they are one among us, they are not any of the things I expected. I was wrong, my expectation was unrealistic. I had created stereotypes and I had dwelled in it for years.

Once again this universe broke the stereotypes, it broke a judgement, it broke an expectation. Anyways, expectations never come true or maybe they do but not in the way we have expected. I had always expected to see aliens and I saw them but just not the way I had expected. 

I sigh and stare at the beautiful crimson sky. The sun is there and bigger than it is there on the earth. It is white in colour and one of the most beautiful sunsets ever I saw, or I do not know a sunset or a just any other time. I am happy, I have seen something which many people won’t and the ones who would, would may or may not be able to tell the truth. 

We are a part of this huge world and are not the world.