Midnight Disaster ~FINALIST Watty Awards 2012~

Chapter 4 (Revised 3/29/2019)

The crowd went into unbreakable silence. Even the fireworks stopped like someone had pressed pause on the entire event.

I stared up at the dark of the night unable to drag my eyes away from the massive rounded shape that moved above us. I reached up to rub my eyes, convinced I was seeing things, but when my eyes opened again, it was still there. And it was closer. Red lights formed a ring around the circular base. It was the only color I could see through the ink of the night.

Slowly, it moved across the sky, its bulk blocking out the starry sky. As I watched it, I was struck with a question—why was it moving so slowly? I was sure it could move so much faster. Heart pounding, I thought about every alien abduction story I had ever read and wondered if it would take us all up into the U.F.O. to be dissected and experimented on.

I couldn't drag my eyes away from the glowing red band, even when it got farther away. When it was nothing more than a speck, I felt an odd wave of sadness to see it go. And then it disappeared completely, but before I could say a word, the clearing filled with the sound of an explosion.

I blinked, and when I finally convinced myself to look away from the sky, I realized I was the first one to break free. Clarissa, Cory, Cameron, and everyone had the same expression of awe shining in their eyes as they stared up at the sky. It was almost as if they anticipated the appearance of a second U.F.O....or had been hypnotized by the first.

At last Cameron broke free and slowly pushed himself up from the grassy field. He glanced up at the sky one more time, tripping over his foot, and when he regained himself, he looked at me. I said nothing as I took my place at his side.

After all, what could I say after something like that?

"Can you believe it?" he whispered like the UFO was some secret that only the two of us shared. "A UFO, up close and personal. I never thought I'd live to see the day! This is the biggest thing to happen to this town ever. And we got to see it for ourselves!"

I shook my head still seeing the glowing red band every time I closed my eyes.

"I wonder if any of the guys on the team would believe me if I told them about this," he said.

I imagined Cameron surrounded by his big brawny friends, telling them about what he saw tonight. I could picture their faces, and I guessed that he wouldn't have an easy time convincing any of them.

Unless of course we made the news.

"Probably not, I mean I don't really believe it, and I saw it!" I said finally.

"You're right, but I am definitely gonna try next time I see them," Cameron said, reaching up to wipe at his mouth.

"They might be here," I said, glancing around the field.

The other people were just starting to break out of their own trance, tiny whispers coming from them as if everyone was scared that if we talked too loudly something about the moment would be broken.

"Maybe," Cameron said and began to walk with unsteady steps. He wandered over to the nearest group of people who took no notice of him as he continued his scan for a familiar face.

Eventually, I lost sight of him in the crowd so I took the opportunity to look to the sky again, still hardly able to believe what I had seen five minutes prior. In the sky, the moon was still an invisible little sliver, the rest of the inky blackness dotted with thousands of stars.

Sometime during my thoughts, Cameron came back.

"I don't see any of them here so I know one thing for certain; I'll have the best story to tell next time we hang out," he said.