Aim to Engage 2023

15 Shooting Stars

"Do you still wish on shooting stars?" Kimmie asked me.

I watched as another streaked across the night sky, before answering.

"Sure. Of course, my kids accuse me of never growing up. Do you feel as old as they say we are?"

"Nope. I'm glad we reconnected. I'm sorry we didn't share the in between years though, but I missed you all my life, till now."

I reached over a squeezed her hand. She was still tiny to my tall. Still mostly a red head, with streaks of grey threaded through her curls. I adjusted the pillow under my butt, where we were sitting on the tailgate of my truck. I always have a quiet chuckle when people see me with my silvery white hair driving a four by four off road ready half ton.

"Hey Kerry, look!"

I saw where her arthritis gnarled finger pointed.

"Strange. It's going in the opposite direction of the meteor shower." I hopped up to pace through the picnic site. We were well away from the city, with only the starlight for illumination.

"Turn around, you have see what it's doing. Does anyone know we're out here?" Kimmie asked.

"Other than the note I left in my apartment just in case? Nope. Didn't tell anyone. My family thinks I should give up on star watching. They tell me I need to stop going on adventures. Melanie never quits worrying about me. Never misses an opportunity to remind me I'm almost seventy."

"So no chance some asshole paparazzi is taking a chance on tracking us out here to get the scoop on some made up story?" Kimmie asked.

"What? You think my last best seller has made me that famous?"

"Well it did hit over ten million sales."

I sat down beside her and peered up at the white light moving closer to us.

"I can see why you thought it might be a helicopter. But there's no navigation lights. Reporters have stuck tracking devises on my truck before. My security guys check it regularly."

"Isn't there a meadow down the hill from here?" Kimmie asked. "Seems I remember one from when we were kids."

"Yeah, we used to swim in the creek. The beaver ponds are still there." I was watching her face, not particularly worried about an airplane approaching the mountain valley. "Why?"

"It's landing down there. Let's drive over to the other viewpoint and check it out."

I giggled as Kimmie went to pull herself up into the passenger seat. I slammed the tailgate shut, then opened the back passenger door to drop the pillows on the seat where my granddaughter left her sweater.

"You know, Kimmie, we're no better than when we were kids. Never could keep ourselves from exploring when we were little either. Remember the springs and the ponds?"

"I swear my Mom was ready to call the cops. We weren't gone for that long." Her blue eyes sparkled with mischief.

She always knew how to follow my leaps from one topic to another. The pain of losing her when her family moved when we were starting high school was finally fading. Kimmie was back, and it was like we were never apart.

"You know, Robbie thinks we're crazy for going out here in the middle of winter, too."

"We should introduce him to Melanie. They can complain about us to each other." I started the truck and whipped the wheel to the left. I knew every inch of these valleys. I would run the forestry roads when ever I had a chance. It's why my truck was lifted and has four wheel drive.

The back end skidded out, and Kimmie grabbed the handle beside her window.

"Woohoo! Man you can drive!"

"Always could. Love anything with wheels on it."

"That's why you drove a bus for all those years. Only started writing after you retired."

"I was writing before that, but the ideas were always for later. I think it was better that way. I'm single now, Jim wouldn't have dealt with me being famous at all well."

"At least you're a widow, and not divorced three times."

"Doesn't make me any better than you. Life throws everyone different curves."

I saw the viewpoint entrance, hit the brakes, slid sideways, and got back on the gas just enough to thread my way into the parking area. The valley was glowing with an unearthly blue-white light.

"What the hell is that thing?"

Kimmie shaded her eyes from the brilliant display, pulling her sunglasses from above the sun visor where she left them earlier.

I grabbed my own and slid them on.

"Talk about close encounters," I muttered.

The silhouettes revealed on the valley floor weren't human. Their heads were far larger than ours..

"Do you see their hands? They must be at least a foot long and they've got seven fingers."

Kimmie had the mini binoculars I kept in my glove box for bird watching.

"We've got a problem; the truck just went dead." Thank God the warm Chinook winds brought the temperature up to a balmy spring night. Water was running down the ditch beside us.

"Get your phone out, zoom in and get a picture."

Kimmie's excited demand made sense.

"Dead. Won't turn on."

"What?" Her had dove into her kangaroo pouch, and she swiped the screen on her phone. "Shit!"

Hers was dead too.

"What the hell are we going to do? What if they come for us? Do they know we're up here? I think we screwed up big time this time, Kerry." Kimmie's voice shook and her face went pale. Her freckles stood out like daubs of orange on an abstract painting.

We watched as the humanoid extraterrestrials gathered samples of plant life, scooped up snow in some sort of clear containers, and went back up the open ramp of their ship. I was starting to shiver by the time a high-pitched whistling roar echoed around us, shaking the truck violently.

The ship was gone in the blink of an eye, blending into the meteor shower I completely forgot about.

"Did we really see that?" I asked my best friend.

"Yes, we did, and no, you're not crazy."

"Are you sure?" I asked.

I tried starting the truck for the umpteenth time, and the engine purred like a kitten.

"Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Remember the movie? It was the last one we saw before you moved," I whispered as I turned up the fan and pushed the heat controls to high.

"Yeah. Who knew Spielberg had it right?"

"Those aliens. We can't tell anyone right?"

Kimmie extended her pinkie finger.

I linked mine around hers.

"Pinkie swear?" I asked.

She nodded.

I slipped the truck into gear and took the exit onto the road in low gear, then erupted into a fit of giggles.

"What's so funny?"

"No one would believe us anyway. Couple of old ladies who should be in nursing homes. Can you hear our families?"

Kimmie snorted and started to laugh.

"Definitely our secret!"