Since it's October now-
and the mood suddenly
switches to pumpkins
and full moons
and ghostly tales,
I thought I might start
a Freaky Friday post
through the rest of the month.
Fear can be triggered by many
various things- and it is
different for all people.
Some are scared of ghosts,
others of creatures,
and there are those that
simply fear the darkness and
the unknown.
And , then again,
there are those people who
are afraid of eating deer meat,
changing a flat tire,
or running out of beer.
They don't count.
My daughter Erin's biggest fear
is aliens.
Good thing she was away at college
when the flying saucer went over our house.
No kidding.
This happened a few years ago.
April 14, 1998, to be exact.
It's hard to forget the day you
started questioning your sanity-
(even though everyone around you
had pretty much started
that question a long time ago).
My son and I went into town
to pick up my daughter from work.
It was about 9 or 10 o'clock, I think
and it was dark outside.
When we were about a mile from home,
we all noticed a bright, white light
that seemed to be hovering over
the treetops above our house.
'What's that?" I asked,
as the kids cricked their necks
to get a better view.
"Helicopter? Airplane?"
"But it's just sitting there.
It's not moving," Becca said.
I slowed down when we
reached the driveway and the kids screamed-
"You aren't really gonna pull in, are you?"
"Ugh, yes. We live here." I said, creepily
unaffected by the strange light
that finally began to move.
I parked the car at the end if the drive
and we all got out.
The kids were ready to make
a mad dash for the house,
but instead, we all stood and looked
at a giant black triangle
that floated above our heads.
It was about tree height
and silent.
The kids raced to tell their dad
that we just saw a UFO,
but by the time he got outside,
the alien ship was just a small object
in the southern sky.
He saw something,
but it was pretty much gone by then.
Being the curious,
mechanical, methodical man that he is,
the first thing he did
was separate us in three rooms
and interrogate us.
He made us draw pictures.
Tell what colors we saw.
What size.
What sounds.
What the heck?
I felt like a pawn in an X-Files episode.
But, it proved that we all saw
an identical object.
That we weren't feeding off the others
frenzy or fright-
that we didn't simply imagine it.
The really weird thing
about the whole experience is
the fact that I wasn't scared.
I mean, I did see what appeared to be
a foreign, alien space ship
only feet above my head-
at my house-
and I was simply intrigued.
Of course, you had to be there
to understand how creepy it was.
We didn't make the front page news
or find ourselves implanted
with metal tracking devices
or get hypnotized to recall
being kidnapped by Martians.
My husband made phone calls
about possible airplanes in the area
at that time, and none were reported
by the airport.
Law enforcement didn't know anything either.
He even got online and started
posting to UFO websites.
We have used that close encounter
to our sick-humored advantage.
Now anytime that my husband
acts a bit strange-
is too nice-
or rants too much-
we blame it on the aliens
that got to him
before we did.
Plus,
the whole Halloweeny-type adventure
was mentioned in a paranormal book.
Go to your bookstore and ask for the book
"The I-Files- True Reports of Unexplained Phenomena in Illinois by Jay Rath -
and open it to page 31.
This is where the creepy music starts to play
and my blog page fades to black...
See you Monday!
