Swamp Gas

           “What in the world is that?” I asked as I pointed toward the sky.

           “What are you looking at?” He glanced up, squinting his eyes against the sun. “Whoa.”

           “Yeah. But what is it?”

           “I don’t know. I can’t tell if it’s like a weird cloud or if it’s… something else.”

           By ‘something else’, I already knew what he was referring to.

           We were both quiet, lost in our own thoughts when the ‘thing’ moved toward us. Frozen, we watched in complete silence. Not really thinking about it at that moment, when looking back it was eerie that suddenly all the animals we had been hearing in the woods were no longer making any types of noise. I couldn’t even hear an acorn fall to the ground. Earlier that day it was as if they were raining from the trees. Now, nothing.

           Mesmerized, I maintained my focus on whatever was in the sky. Apparently, Jacob did too. The next thing that happened neither of us would want to talk about for years to come. Periodically one would out of necessity, but it was never due to desire for fear of sounding clinically insane.

           The ‘thing’ landed approximately 50 yards from us. As if we had no choice, which to be frank I don’t know if we had a choice or not, both of us made our way to it. When it was in full view, we realized how massive and absolutely amazing it was. It was perfectly rounded, with not a single sharp edge to it. It looked as if it were a flying disc. I never believed in all that hokey stuff I saw on TV, but I had no choice now that I was face to face with one.

           We were just about there when a door opened. It somewhat surprised me, because the entire time gazing at it I never noticed a door or windows and not even an outline of one. It was as if the door developed that very moment.

           The next thing I know, I’m having a stare-down with a thing that has a bulbous head, massive black eyes, and long, too-thin arms and legs. I wanted to run. As if it were reading my mind, it said, “You’re going to be okay.” That was when I felt my entire body relax. I had almost forgotten Jacob was standing next to me. I didn’t even know where he was in proximity because I couldn’t feel his presence. I was simply captivated by the other thing.

           Without moving its thin, straight lips, I knew it wanted me to come into the disc. So, that’s what I did.

           It telepathically told me to get onto the table. I wrapped my arms around my body, starting to feel afraid again. It shook its head and made me realize I wasn’t going to have to get naked this time. Silently dwelling on, ‘this time,’ it calmed me down again. ‘You’re safe.’

           I wasn’t sure if I felt safe. I was sure I wasn’t as terrified as I felt I should be. I thought about if there was a way to market whatever the hell this thing was doing to me telepathically, I would be the richest human on the face of this planet. There was no drug that stood a chance against what this thing was doing to me. Date rape is a terrible thing, but there would be a huge market for this stuff with those guys. She’d be conscious and alert and totally at peace, feeling a strange sense of comfort, instead of laying half-awake on a filthy couch.

           My brain started to feel bad for the alien women because I wondered if these guys use that crap on them. As my mind was racing, I realized the thing standing in front of me was intrigued by me, dissecting my thoughts. Almost as if it had a smirk on its face, it was watching me. I silently wondered if I was humoring him.

           I sat on an ice-cold table as he stared at me. I say, ‘he’, but I don’t really know what it was. He is the generic term I feel like using. No, I couldn’t see a penis coming out from where his skinny legs came from, nor could I see breasts coming from it either. Quite frankly, just like the smoothness of the ship, these things were smooth too. There were really no actual crevices, except as I stated earlier, its eyes, a small straight mouth, and two nostrils. I didn’t see ears, a butthole, a belly button, nothing. That was it. I have no idea how these things used the bathroom.           

           Again, I could tell it was reading my mind because his straight-line mouth became about half of an inch longer. It never curved up into a smile, but I did notice the line definitely grew. I decided that I was for sure humoring him.

           Subconsciously, I glanced toward Jacob who looked as if he was having a far less enjoyable time than myself. His eyes were darting around the room taking in what I have yet to notice. Again, reading my thoughts, the one standing in front of me seemed to use his ESP stuff to calm Jacob down too. The one standing in front of Jacob appeared to have far less of a sense of humor and looked as if it was just going through his brain with a remote control, like we would a TV. That one didn’t seem to care if Jacob was terrified or not. Thank goodness, mine was the nice one.

           I wondered if we were just there for entertainment. If so, mine liked a good laugh, Jacob’s liked true crime or drama. I was grateful for mine. I think he understood that because my brain popped up with, “You’re not so bad yourself,” which, being the person I am took that as validation. This thing was filling my bucket and I wasn’t sure if that was supposed to be happening, or if I was so empty that it happened naturally by accident. Regardless, my experience wasn’t terrible.

           Moments later, I had a strange sentence pop into my brain, and I was learning to understand that these creatures can do such a thing. Anyway, the sentence was, “You are quite humorous, how in the world did you end up with that guy over there. He seems awfully boring.”

           Grinning, I told the thing that me and Jacob were not together, we were siblings. Best friends who happened to be related. I take more after my dad, he takes after my mom. We hang out whenever we can.

           “So, you have no mate?”

           “Are you hitting on me?”

           “No, it just seems different how humans tend to find their mate. It just doesn’t make sense.”

           “You’re telling me?”

           Again, I glanced at Jacob. He and his new friend didn’t seem to be having the same types of conversations. So, I decided to ask mine about it.

           “Ah, yes. We’re all related. We share the same exact DNA. We are unisex. We breed by taking human sperm and eggs and then combining them in a container. After the baby is 40 weeks, we drain all of its blood and inject it with our blood. Our blood responds like a bacterium to the infant. Eventually, it takes over the entire infant until it becomes the same as us.

            “So, you’re technically a disease?”

           “Sort of, but we also cure all diseases. I think that’s what’s happening over there.” He turned and looked at Jacob.

           “What do you mean?”

           “Your brother has brain cancer.”

           “What?” Suddenly the weird thing he did that calmed me down left me almost immediately.

           He must have realized it because immediately I felt a bit cloudy but quite calm. “Don’t worry about it, it’s okay. She’s curing him.”

           “Oh. So, she wasn’t watching his brain like TV?” I asked.

           “No, she was looking at his brain to see how much cancer was in it, so she could make sure she removed all of it.”

           “How do you know she’s a she?”

           “I don’t. We’re unisex. I did that for you.”

           I smiled. I kind of liked my new friend.

           His lipline grew slightly again. That’s when she looked at the one I was talking to and nodded.

           “Jessie. What the heck happened?”

           “I don’t know. What time is it? It shouldn’t be this dark yet, should it?”

           Jacob glanced at his phone. “How the hell did it become 9:00? We were just going to eat a few seconds ago.”

           “I don’t know.”

           “We need to get some food, Jess, my head is pounding, I must be hungry.”

           I nodded. Something felt off.

           Together, Jacob and I walked to the car, confused. What happened out there? We had no idea. But we did know we lost about 4 hours.

           Both of us got to the cabin and ate a small bit of food before crashing. We were both just unusually drained. Exhausted.

           It wasn’t until the following day, at the mention of a news article of, ‘swamp gas’ that it hit us. We both realized bits and pieces of what had happened. There is no way anyone would ever believe us, though he and I both knew the truth.

           Jacob was no longer complaining of his headaches. I never told him what my friend said to me about brain cancer, because I knew my brother no longer had it. The rest, we talked about when we were alone, though both of us swore to never discuss it with anyone else. There’s no way they’d believe us.

           Every now and then I look at the sky with gratitude and wonder. I have no idea if I will ever see them again, so I always keep a list of questions on me, just in case. That way, I can find out the truth about reptilian people, bigfoot, and the presidents, among other things.