by Neely Dobbs
* * *
Jason felt faint. This is impossible, but somehow, something… Somewhere in the recesses of his mind the veiled shadow of a memory had courted Jason’s recognition. He shambled numbly back to his house, questions and doubts assailing him. This... alien... wants me to bring Samantha and Kyle. Can he be trusted? But why would he bother to explain anything if he intended violence? He knew my name. It knew Samantha’s and Kyle’s names. The ship talked with my own voice! And why wasn’t I afraid? I had a moment of fear when I first felt drawn to the ship, but that quickly passed. If anyone on Earth has created a ship like that one, I’ve never heard of it!
He reached the house and went straight to the wall phone in the parlor and lifted its earpiece. He cranked the phone quickly and was soon connected with Kyle. Jason refused to explain the call, simply insisting that Kyle had to drive over immediately.
As he turned away from the phone, Samantha immediately grabbed his arm and asked, "What is it, Jason? You're so pale... are you sick?"
"No... not really... I don't think so. It's just... something happened and..." He slowly shook his head. "Please, Sam, let me wait until Kyle gets here. I don't want to have to explain it twice. OK?"
She took his hand and led him to the door. "All right, Jason... but only if you'll sit down on the front porch while we wait."
A few minutes later, Kyle’s truck slid to a stop at the Ozier’s farmhouse. As Kyle clambered out, the alien craft rose above the grove so slowly they could all clearly see its departure— fulfilling ADIZ's promise— then flashed away into the night sky. The three friends watched in disbelieving awe.
Stunned by both the encounter with the ship and by what he was being asked to do and to believe, Jason finally lowered his eyes from the sky and turned to Samantha and Kyle. “I have something to tell you... something that's happened. By the time I’m through, you may question my sanity. That’s OK, though, because I’m already questioning it. But I have to talk about this!”
Samantha turned to Kyle, still squeezing Jason's arm. "Better close the door on your truck, Kyle. Plan on staying for supper, too. Jason says he can explain... but it looks to me like this is going to take a while. "
They gathered around the kitchen table over the mugs of hot coffee Samantha had insisted— correctly— that they all needed. Jason related his experience meeting the strange craft, including confirming that the initial voice he had heard was his own. He confessed that the information the voice from the craft had provided had challenged— even shaken— his essential beliefs. It had told of their “true” past, prior to the last three years they had lived near the quiet town of Hamilton. It had told of earlier attempts to contact them, and revealed it had to abandon those earlier attempts, including one when— apparently in total panic— Kyle had fired at the craft.
Kyle blinked rapidly a few times, then slowly nodded. “It's gotta be the same ship I saw two days ago…or close enough I can’t tell any difference. But Jason, I didn’t tell anyone I chased it off with my shotgun. My story seemed crazy enough already, and I hoped I’d never see the damned thing again.”
“Kyle,” Jason replied, “you didn’t scare it off. It simply left to make sure you wouldn’t be harmed by ricocheting pellets!”
Kyle looked stunned, then embarrassed.
Samantha remained silent—uncharacteristically so. Her attitude was reflective, although Jason had expected her to be militant about this “invasion.” In Jason’s mind, Sam's response exacerbated the strangeness of the situation.
“You're saying that ship actually spoke to you, and in your own voice?” Kyle asked, interrupting Jason’s thoughts. “How could it have done that?”
Jason frowned. “I have no idea, but I…it was me…before my accident last year affected my voice. It reminded me I haven't totally lost that ‘Gravel Gertie’ tone.”
“Uh…right.” Kyle looked puzzled. “So if it was your voice, it must’ve been recorded over a year ago.”
Jason responded quietly. “We all remember living in this area for the last three years. I can't imagine how my voice could have been recorded in that time… or for that matter ever! I don't know anyone who has one of those new-fangled recording Victrolas.” He paused for several seconds, looking at his feet quietly, deep in thought. “And there’s something else. Something that’s hard to explain…and even harder to admit. No matter how crazy and unbelievable this experience— and my story— seems, I’m left with an overwhelming sense of ‘rightness’ and ‘recognition’ that insists that I can’t afford to simply ignore or dismiss it.”
Samantha mused aloud, “The ship knew both my name and Kyle’s. And it knew we have been friends for over two decades? And where Kyle lives. And the full story of Kyle’s escapade with the ship?” She pursed her lips and worried a strand of hair. “None of us were ever in this part of the country until three years ago. None of our friends here actually knew us before that, and…strangely, now that I think about it…we’ve had absolutely no contact with any of the old friends or acquaintances we remember knowing before we came here. And, guys, that craft looks unlike and travels much faster than anything ever built on this planet. Jason, that ship… it’s really not from Earth, is it?”
Jason shifted uneasily, his eyes darting about furtively, like an animal caught in a trap. His thought was, No, Samantha, it’s not. But the words he rasped out were, “That’s what I’m trying not to believe.”
