the "UFO" story
I never gave UFO and aliens much of a thought as a child, I had more important things to worry about, like the boogie man or the abdominal snowman that I was sure was living in my closet (because that's where my sister told me he lived but only at night). So imagine my fear when a UFO showed up late one night.
My twin bed was horizontally situated beneath my bedroom window, the blankets neatly tucked up under my chin. It was the noise in the distance that woke me up. I lay completely still and listened, trying to place what the sound was. My small mind calculated that it was coming closer. I thought of the dried brush on the parkway out in front of the house, it was yellow and knee high at the moment and the sound reminded me of how it crunched and rustled when the wind blew.
I lay looking at the ceiling in the dark and slowing light started creeping in the room. Unlike the dim lights of a car approaching, these lights were bright and intermingling came the flashing of yellow light. My mind was racing. Then it hit me!
This my friends were a UFO! I was positive! I could hear it coming down to land, the air blowing on the dead grass as it grew closer, the flashing of lights, By God... it was about to land right outside my bedroom window!
I sprung out of bed and ran as fast as my little legs would carry me into my parent's room and threw on their bedroom light. Tears streaming down my face I screamed, "There is a UFO outside my bedroom window!"
My parents sat up slowly, rubbing their eyes, telling me I was having a bad dream. "No... I am TELLING you- THE ALIENS ARE LANDING!" I demanded my mum come look. She swung her legs out of the bed and slipped her feet into her slippers. Just as she was about to pass me, I thought maybe she SHOULDN'T go check as what if they abducted her? Now I was screaming for her NOT to look and holding onto her hand, trying to tug her back into the safety of their bedroom but I was no match for her and she walked on with me dangling off her arm.
In my bedroom, I could still see the lights, hear the UFO landing, I was almost in hysterics at this point. My mum leaned over my bed and parted the blinds to look out..... and then rolled her eyes.
"That is no UFO."
"Yes it is!!" I demanded to be heard.
She pulled the strings to the blinds and pointed "It is the street sweeper," My mum informed me. I slowly looked around her out the window.
I had never seen a street sweeper. What the hell was it doing creeping around late at night? I looked at this odd car with whirling brushes instead of wheels and realized this was "the wind" I was hearing as the UFO landed. Had I only looked out the blinds myself when I first heard the sound or saw the lights, I would have saved everyone allot of stress. I sheepishly shrugged.