The Dancing Lights of Marfa

The year was 2045 and twenty years had passed since that ineffable night in Marfa, Texas. Marfa, a former ranching community set in a desert town alongside a World War II Army airfield, was mostly known for The Chinati Foundation, a contemporary art museum dedicated to large-scale installation art. There wasn't an immediate connection when Nadine met Randall. It was the unexplainable pull of the phenomena known as The Marfa Lights and his knowledge of the stars that drew her towards him. 

Randall brought Nadine a scalding cup of hibiscus tea as she peered through their Dobsonian telescope. “I just got off the phone. Jessica wrote a book about that night.”

Nadine startled. “Let me guess. Everything is my fault? I'm still the bad guy.” 

“She's calling it Abduction.”

“Maybe we will finally find out the whole story.”

Two decades had passed since that sticky hot Sunday afternoon in May, 2025, when the angsty 21-year old Nadine Becker had been drinking a cold brew coffee at Pecantown Books and Brews in Seguin, Texas. Alongside her were Emma Olsen, a connoisseur of conspicuous consumption, and the sarcastic Jessica Thompson. Emma was drinking a lavender lemonade with a straw, so as not to disturb her Lime Crime Plushies Soft Liquid Lipstick, while Jessica was having a Mexican Coke unconcerned about disturbing her ChapStick original. They were waiting for Nadine's cousin, Norah Becker, to arrive. Emma and Jessica didn't really care for Norah. They kept her as a friend because she was a magnet for guys. 

“Nadine, your lipstick wore off.” Emma commented to be helpful. 

“I'm good, but thank you, lipstick police.” Nadine quipped. Emma was prone to nit picking Nadine's makeup, which Nadine took personally because Jessica never wore any makeup whatsoever, yet Emma refrained from making any comments about that.

Norah waltzed up wearing denim jean shorts in a size too small and a white tank top that had “checkmate” printed on it in black lettering. “Guess what I did?” Norah asked excitedly. 

“The entire chess team?” Jessica snarked. Emma laughed. Norah paused with constrained anger.

“What the hell was that?” Nadine questioned defensively. 

“That was rude.” Norah firmly stated.

“It was just a joke.” Jessica dismissed.

“Oh my God, it was just a joke.” Emma echoed. 

“It wasn't a joke because jokes are funny.” Nadine proclaimed in defense of her cousin. 

“Okay, Houdini, maybe your jokes should disappear.” Norah was referencing Jessica's nickname that she had earned by frequently disappearing from social gatherings without telling anyone she was leaving.

“The Beckers don't have a sense of humor.” Jessica went on the offense. 

“Let's just move on.” Emma was quick to deflect.

Norah sat down. “I don't even know if I want to tell you anymore, but whatever. I met a guy at the water park when I was working yesterday. He can get us into the Electric Daisy Carnival.” (EDC)

“That's in Las Vegas. How are we going to get there?” puzzled Nadine. 

Norah: “I have a car.”

Emma: “Who bought you a car? How much was it?” 

Jessica: “You don't have a license.”

Norah: “No one bought me anything. I borrowed it from my grandpa. Nadine has a license.”

Nadine: “Grandpa is in hospice. How did you borrow his car?”

Norah: “I asked him and he said, yes.”

Jessica: “Was he awake?” 

Emma: “What kind of car is it?”

Nadine: “You want me to drive the whole way to Vegas?”

Norah: “He wasn't awake when I asked but I did ask. 1983 Honda Civic DX Wagon. You and Emma can take turns driving.”

Emma: “I'm not driving that.”

Nadine: “You're the only other person with a license.”

Jessica: “When is it?”

Norah: “We can leave on Thursday and stay at my cousin Miguel's in Las Cruces on Thursday night. We'll get to Vegas on Friday and we can stay with Mason. He said we can stay with him. He lives there.” 

Emma: “Is he rich?” 

Jessica: “Is he cute?” 

Nadine: “Is he going to unalive us?”

Norah: “Not rich, but not poor. He's cute. His personality makes him cuter. He's really funny.” 

Nadine: “Funny goes a long way.” Everyone nodded in agreement. 

Emma: “I don't want to drive that car. Someone might see me.”

Nadine: “I'll only drive if we can stop in Marfa. There is a museum I want to see there.”

Jessica: “That sounds boring.”

Nadine: “I don't have to go. Emma can drive.” 

Norah: “We can stop in Marfa.” 

That's how the fateful trip to Marfa was planned. Norah would secure Grandpa Albert's car. Nadine would drive. There would be a brief stop in Marfa before couch surfing in Las Cruces. Mason, whom Norah met at the water park, would take care of the rest once they reached Las Vegas. 

On the Thursday before the weekend of the EDC, the young women loaded the old Civic Wagon. None of them owned luggage of any kind, so they tossed all of their loose clothing items into the back. Emma brought snacks and gas money as a contribution in lieu of driving. Jessica showed up empty handed except for a pack of yellow box Natural American Spirit cigarettes.

As they barreled down the 90 freeway under endless Texan skies, Jessica sat shotgun slowly dragging on a cigarette. She flicked it out her window and it flew into the rear window and landed on the pile of clothes in the back of the wagon. No one noticed.

Smoke began to fill the back of the wagon. Still, no one noticed. Nearby cars began honking. Nadine felt attacked. “Why are they doing that? They need to stop!”

Emma panicked, “Oh my God, do you think they know you stole the car?”

Norah yelled, “Just ignore them! I didn't steal the car! I asked!”

When Jessica turned around to swear at the other drivers, she noticed the billowing smoke from their pile of clothes. “The car's on fire! You have to pull over!”

Nadine pulled over. The girls began pulling clothes out of the back of the car and stepping on them. 

“Oh my God! How did that happen?” asked Nadine in astonishment. No one answered, not even Jessica, who knew exactly how it happened. 

“What am I going to wear? What am I going to tell my mom? She thinks I'm spending the weekend at Nadine's. She's going to notice when I come back without any clothes.” Emma whined.

“It was only smoke. It'll wash out.” Jessica attempted to minimize the damage, which only spurred an argument amongst the four about whether they should turn back and go home because their carefully curated outfits for EDC were damaged. It was determined that they would continue. 

They rambled past the adobe structures and concrete buildings amongst the vast desert landscape of Marfa feeling subtle defeat and grief for their damaged items, but not too far behind schedule. They were sitting at a round table in the corner of Marfa Burritos drinking Topo Chicos, silently second guessing themselves, when five young men close to their age walked into the restaurant. 

“Norah, go talk to them.” whispered Emma. No sooner had she spoken than a young man named Luis walked over to their table to introduce himself to Norah, who had decided to wear her rainbow colored faux rabbit fur bikini top inside the restaurant. 

After brief introductions, Luis invited the girls to meet his friends, Danny, Randall, Austin, and the other Austin, who went by his last name, Fisher. They were driving from Phoenix to South Padre Island and had stopped in Marfa due to Randall's insistence on seeing the Marfa Lights, to which they quickly invited the young women to join them. 

Nadine and her friends had never heard about the Marfa Lights, which are mysterious orbs and lights of unknown origin. They appear in white, yellow, red, and orange, and they reportedly float, dance, and chase each other. There aren't any scientific conclusions about the lights; but theories surrounding extraterrestrial activity abound. 

After a quick sidebar to discuss their new option, it was unanimously decided to abandon the mission to Las Vegas. “Everything happens for a reason!” Emma cheerfully gleaned with her eyes on Danny, who was traditionally handsome and clean cut. He in turn was attracted to her aesthetic. 

Norah liked the outgoing Luis and the attention he received from the group. Austin had a girlfriend already. Randall, an awkward introvert, was intrigued by Nadine, who was wearing a black tank top with a star chart on it, sharply contrasting to the bright colors donned by her friends. Fisher liked all of them and mostly he liked whomever would like him back. Neither Jessica nor Nadine had any interest in Randall, Austin, or Fisher, but they were resigned to tagalong in exchange for ending the trip early. The new plan was to sleep at the guys’ Airbnb in nearby Alpine that night and then return to Seguin the following day.

Wearing the salvageable remains of their charred EDC outfits, the young women met up with the guys later that night. Norah elected to ride shotgun in Luis's crew cab truck, with Emma and Danny in the backseat. Nadine drove with Randall sitting shotgun, leaving Jessica awkwardly sandwiched between Austin and Fisher in the backseat. She initially demanded to ride shotgun but Fisher had convinced her to sit in the backseat allowing his friend Randall to have a chance with Nadine. Jessica acquiesced because she thought Randall was a nerd and she thought it would be funny to see Nadine be uncomfortable. 

Luis's truck took off at a much higher speed than Grandpa Albert's old wagon could travel. As the wagon moseyed the nine miles down U.S. Highway 90 towards the viewing area, Randall looked at Nadine, and asked, “So I take it you like astronomy?” 

“I don't know anything about astronomy. What makes you think that?” 

“You were wearing a star chart this afternoon.” 

“I just like stars.” 

Awkward silence. 

“I'm an astronomy major. I study celestial objects and space. You know, like stars.” 

“I like Greek mythology and constellations. I don't know the science stuff, but I like stories about stars.”

“I can tell you about their formation and evolution.”

“I would love that.”

She would love that. This disappointed Jessica. 

“Would you like an edible?” Fisher offered Jessica a packaged marijuana brownie.

“I would love that,” Jessica facetiously mimicked Nadine. 

Several cars were parked in the viewing area, but there weren't any signs of their friends or the mysterious lights. Randall and Nadine began to walk into the desert night sky, as he explained nuclear fusion and molecular clouds, and she told stories from Greek mythology. Fisher and Jessica sat in the car kissing. Austin stood next to the car wishing he hadn't gone on this trip. 

Luminous orbs appeared in the night sky. They hung perfectly still. Then disappeared and reappeared several times. One orb jetted back and forth at an impossible speed. Randall and Nadine held each other tight. In an instant, the lights were gone. They rushed to Austin to confirm that he saw the same thing. Then, opened the car door to confirm with Fisher and Jessica, but only Fisher sat in the car. 

“Where's Jessica?” Nadine was surprised that her friend wasn't in the car. 

“I don't know. She's not here.” Fisher looked caught off guard. 

“Uhhhhh, she does this.” Nadine said to Fisher as an incomplete apology and then turned to Randall, “I honestly don't care if we leave without her. She can get a ride from Luis or figure it out by herself.”

“We can't just leave her.” Randall opined.

“Actually, we can. She does this all of the time.”

As the four remaining passengers drove back to town, Austin said, “The weird thing is that I never saw her get out of the car.”

“Neither did I,” confirmed Fisher. 

“You were distracted by the lights,” explained Randall. 

They pulled into the guys’ Airbnb where Luis was already parked. Luis, Norah, Danny, and Emma stood by the truck. 

“You guys don't have Jessica?” asked Austin. 

“Why would we have Jessica?” wondered Danny.

“She took off by herself, so we left without her. I thought you guys would give her a ride.” explained Nadine.

“I say we just leave her,” Norah flatly stated. 

“That's what I said!” exclaimed Nadine.

“We can't leave her out there dressed in a fluorescent crochet dress. That's not safe.” argued Fisher.

“Or ethical.” added Austin.

“Isn't that what you just did?” countered Danny.

“At least she'll be easy to see.” Luis tried to lighten the mood. 

The guys agreed to leave the three young women at the Airbnb and go back for Jessica. It was 3 AM when they returned without Jessica. 

“I think we need to call the police.” Fisher said solemnly. “We drove up and down the entire highway. There's no sign of her.”

Norah: “We have to wait 24 hours.”

Austin: “That's only in crime shows. There isn't any minimum time you have to wait if you think someone is in danger.” 

“We can't call the police. We are driving a stolen car.” Emma retorted. 

Simultaneously the Beckers yelled, “It's not stolen!”

Danny was emphatic, “We are going to the police. They don't care about the car. They care if there's a kidnapped girl out there somewhere.”

“We'll take the truck, though, just in case.” Luis reasoned. 

“It seats five. I volunteer to stay here with Danny. I wasn't even with you when she got kidnapped.” Emma whined. 

Norah objected to going. “I don't want to go either. I'm not involved.” 

“She isn't kidnapped! She's just missing. She does this. And that's fine, you guys stay here.” Nadine didn't need to risk Emma telling the police that the car was stolen and Norah was dressed in a sheer baby doll dress with fairy wings that was not entirely appropriate for a police station. 

Officer Esteban Dagher took the report. He asked all of the expected questions. Name, date of birth, contact info, and physical description, and then, “Was she on any drugs?”

“No. Nothing like that,” Nadine assured him. Randall agreed. Fisher remembered the edible he had given to Jessica. 

“Actually, that's not true. She had an edible in the car. A brownie. A medicinal brownie.”

Dagher: “Marijuana?” 

Fisher and Austin nodded.

“We didn't know that.” Randall spoke for himself and Nadine. 

“Has she ever gone missing before?” 

“Her nickname is literally Houdini. She goes missing all of the time. This is different. She can't walk home from Marfa. She can't even walk to the Airbnb. She's wearing platform boots.” Nadine informed Dagher.

“Could she have left with someone?” he continued. 

“No,” Fisher jumped in. “One minute we were kissing and then she was gone.”

“So you were alone with her when she was last seen? I would like to speak to each of you individually. You get to go first.” Dagher was looking at Fisher. 

In the police station lobby, Nadine turned to Randall, Luis, and Austin and asked, “I didn't even think of it, but do you think Fisher could have done something to her?”

Randall: “No.” 

Luis: “Not possible.”

Austin: “No way. She was literally gone in a blink.”

Officer Dagher and Fisher walked into the lobby. 

“We found your friend.” Dagher announced.

“Oh my God. Thank God!” Nadine jumped up. 

“The time frames you gave me were off. You said you left the viewing area at 9:30 pm. We picked her up in a farmer's field 100 miles from the viewing area at 9:35pm.”

“So she's here?” asked Luis.

“No. She's on what is called an emergency detention and will be held for 48 hours.”

“For trespassing? How did she get there? She left with someone?” asked Austin.

“For a psychiatric evaluation. She claims she was abducted by aliens, entertainment aliens, who are on Earth studying twins, and they left her in the field.”

“What was in the brownie!?” asked Nadine.

“I can't answer that. They will run a tox screen. Does she have parents that I can contact?” 

“They don't know she's here.”  Nadine confessed. 

“I think it's best that they find out.” 

It was a somber drive back to the Airbnb. Nadine checked her phone. She looked at the selfie she had taken at the viewing area time stamped 9:15 PM. and the texts, Where are you? sent at 9:20 PM. We are leaving without you, sent at 9:29 PM. Jessica could not have traveled 100 miles by 9:35 PM.

Randall and Nadine exchanged numbers as they packed their respective vehicles to leave town. Within three months, she would move to Phoenix to be with him. Danny and Emma would have a long-term relationship that would eventually end due to distance. Luis and Norah quickly determined they were not meant to be. Fisher never spoke to Jessica again. Austin still wishes he hadn't gone on that trip. 

After leaving countless voicemail messages for Jessica, she eventually blocked Norah and Nadine, but not Emma. Emma would eventually end the friendship due to Jessica's paranoid stories of alien abduction which everyone attributed to a bad reaction to a weed brownie. 

Norah and Nadine returned Grandpa Albert's car without any issue. It would sit untouched until his passing six months later. Nadine would inherit the car. As she was giving it a thorough cleaning detail, there in the backseat, she found one unopened, packaged marijuana brownie.