“Want to know?” Elle sighed. “It doesn't matter if I want to know. I have to know. I need to know if what people have said about me all my life has any grain of truth to it.”
“Your dad has gone over this with you a thousand times.” Sara lowered her voice. “The people who care about you know you're not an alien.”
“What if I am?” Elle smiled weakly. In spite of her reserve, a tinge of exasperation crept into her voice. “I have this psychic thing and the lights in the sky always come back to this area.” She hesitated. “I think they’re after me.”
“Don’t talk that way. A lot of people have psychic abilities and they aren't aliens,” Sara said, her face solemn. “I've known you since we played together in the sandbox. You're as normal as I am.” Her brow furrowed.
Elle laughed. Thank goodness she had such a good and trusting friend in Sara. The tension eased and for Sara’s sake, she forced a smile. “Who says you're normal?”
“Well, I.” Sara stopped in midsentence as Herman sauntered toward them.
“Hey Elle, Sara.” Herman, rail-thin with his graying salt and pepper hair sticking out in all directions, leaned against their booth. “I need to talk to you.” He glanced around the cafe with his wild black eyes blinking, taking in everything and everybody around him.
“Sure, join us,” Elle said and scooted across the booth to make room for him. Herman slid in beside her. “What's on your mind?” As if I don’t know. He’s in bad shape. Her heart went out to him.
There was a pensive shimmer in his eyes as a momentary look of discomfort crossed his face. “Is it all right to talk in front of her?” He motioned to Sara.
“Of course, I trust Sara.” Elle looked at him with amused wonder. “Go ahead. Tell me what's bothering you.”
“I have something.” A dim flush crept up his neck. “Once you see it, I know you'll believe me.”
“What is it?” Elle lowered her voice, purposefully wanting to protect Herman from the customers trying to listen to their conversation.
“Nope, I can't tell you,” Herman croaked in his low, gravely smoker’s voice. “I have to show you.” His fingers clenched in a fist against the stark white tablecloth.
Elle's skin tingled. Oh, damn. Her senses told her Herman had discovered something important. “Have you reported it to the authorities?”
“Not yet.” Herman's eyes pleaded with her to accept his invitation. Staring at the table, he mumbled under his breath and ran a hand through his thinning hair. “After I show you, we can call your dad.”
“I can't go anywhere right now,” Elle told him. “I have appointments and I have to get back to the salon.”
“Meet me at my place when you get off work. I have proof.” His voice hardened. “Proof the aliens are back and that they did abduct me.”
“You do?” Elle's stomach knotted as she hoped against hope that he did. “What kind of proof?”
Herman's eyes glittered. “You'll see.”
“Okay, I'll come to your house soon as I can.”
He leaned his arm on the table and pointed to Sara. “Bring her so we have a witness. If you trust her I. . . I guess, I do, too.”
“All right, we'll be there.” Elle’s heart beat with a burst of excitement. She sensed Herman had some kind of link that could lead her to the truth about her own past. She gritted her teeth, realizing she had to follow every lead no matter where it took her.
“Good,” Herman said. Relief passed over his tired, sad features. “I'll be home.”
“Have you told anyone else?” Elle settled back against the booth with her fingers nervously trailing along the edge of the tablecloth.
“Told the media about being abducted.” Herman snorted. “They laughed at me. They think I'm some kind of nut.” He gave Elle a piercing stare. “You know better.”
Her heart ached for him as he glanced around the restaurant, his paranoia obvious. Two men wearing the High Mountain Array uniforms came through the front door. One stood about six-feet tall with blonde hair and a dazed look on his face. The other was short with dark hair and tiny black beady eyes. He caught Elle’s attention. Herman lowered his eyes and wrapped his arms around his chest. The dark haired scowling man glared toward Herman. If looks could kill, Herman would be on the floor twitching.
“Who is that?” Elle's skin crawled. An evil vibration flew off the man in waves. He’s dangerous.
“That’s Benny Savonti and Lee Bales. They’re mean ones. Every time I try to paint pictures of the columbines in the meadow out by the Array, they give me a hard time.” Herman shivered. “I. . . I gotta go,” he stammered and hurried toward the rear of the restaurant.
“Now that’s interesting,” Sara said.
“I’m sure it had something to do with the two men who just came in. Herman seemed afraid of the one called Benny.” Elle watched Herman's slumped shoulders disappear through the back exit.
“This is getting creepier by the minute.” Sara showed Elle goose bumps on her arm. “Are you telling your dad?”
“With all the sightings, I'm sure he has his hands full. I'll call him later, after we see what Herman has to show us.” Images of Herman being strapped to a metal table with gray men standing on each side of him flashed in her mind and she knew. An unwanted shiver wound up her spine. This time he has proof.
* * *
From high on the ridge above Herman’s place, Kole sat with a wolf watching Elle and Sara pull into the long driveway. He was glad for the quiet, the undisturbed moments to gather his thoughts and come to grips with where he was and what he was feeling. With every fiber of his being, he wanted to help Elle with her quest. The intense urge to put his arms around her nearly pushed him down the side of the mountain. Sitting back, he realized that wouldn’t do either of them any good.
He sighed in resignation. The Ancient One had given him strict orders to retrieve the Dropa stones and bring Elle back. He couldn’t get intimate with her. It wasn’t allowed, not physically, anyway. Being on Earth had affected him in strange ways. His mind was a jumble of information, his senses bursting with images, sensations and need. He had to be careful.
It was the emotions he was ill-prepared to deal with. The fact he was thinking about her this way didn’t bode well. Unused to the almost overwhelming feelings for Elle swamping through him, he sat back and rubbed his head to relieve the pressure building there. Starseeds were forbidden. His values, strength of will and sense of purpose would keep him on track. He wouldn’t jeopardize this mission. He took several deep breaths and gazed out across the valley, not yet totally accustomed to the endless supply of fresh air and the never-ending horizon surrounding him. Everything was so different. So much better.
For a moment, he rested his hands loosely on his knees, inhaling deeply. There was a depth of utter peace and calm about him when he thought of being with Elle. It seemed a weary person like himself could rest there in the pool of quiet and let go of the tangles of tension in his soul.
A small voice in his head murmured, “Kol-Sun, be cautious. Remember the words of the Ancient One.”
For a single moment, Kole looked down at the wolf and their eyes met, a single moment that felt to Kole as if the rest of everything hung in the balance. He sighed. “Of course, Ari. You’re right.”
* * *
Elle and Sara parked in Herman's long graveled driveway. “Doesn't look like anybody's around.” His white clapboard house sat in the middle of the grassy yard, protected by the rolling hills surrounding it. All kinds of colorful birdhouses that Herman had made hung in the nearby trees. Birds chirped and flew around the houses, searching for seed, providing a peaceful, almost Disney-like atmosphere.
“I see his work truck,” Sara pointed toward an older beat-up blue Ford. The truck sat parked next to the barn. “Let's go see if he’s inside working with the horses.”
They headed toward the faded red barn as Herman ran from behind the house.
“You made it.” Breathless, he rushed
to meet them with a happy gleam in his eyes. “I was putting birdfeed in my houses out back. I. . . I wasn't sure if you'd come, but I’m so glad you did.”
“We said we would. What do you have to show us?” Elle smiled to put him at ease. “Where is it?”
“Come in the house. I have pictures of my abduction.”
“Pictures?” Elle shot Sara a look of amazement. “You have pictures?”
“Yes. Follow me.” He walked them into his living room. It didn’t have much furniture, only a brown Lazy Boy recliner, small sofa and lots of magazines on the floor stacked neatly against the coffee table.
He led them into a back room. The walls were covered with newspaper clippings about aliens, flying saucers and every other space creature Elle could imagine. He had bought out the tabloids at the grocery store and covered the walls with them. Numerous canvas paintings were stacked throughout the place, picture side facing the walls.
“I painted them,” Herman said, reaching for one of the pictures. “Here’s the space ship I saw last year.” He turned the painting toward them. It was a huge black mass with pulsating lights. “I was able to get away that time, but two days later they came back and got me.”
Elle and Sara glanced at each other. Sara must have recognized the familiar sight, too, but neither reacted. The paintings wouldn’t be proof to anybody else, but they were proof to her and Sara.
“And this one is on the ship.” He flipped another picture around for them to see. “Them doing tests on me.” He shivered and turned another painting toward them. In this one he was strapped to a metal table with two gray aliens with large heads and blank black eyes standing over him, just like Elle had seen in her mind.
“Ya know those aliens didn’t show up until after they built them dish-shaped antennas up at the Array.” His eyes seemed to grow misty as he thought about what he had said.
Elle remembered only too well when the aliens showed up. She had turned thirteen the day before they had taken her. It was her turn to be chilled. A shiver erupted in her heart, making her skin crawl. Understanding his pain and fear she pulled her energy together to comfort the distraught man. She laid a hand on Herman's shoulder and willed the healing vibrations into him. “It's going to be okay,” she said. The tension in his face immediately began to relax and he breathed easier.
“Where were you when they took you?” Sara asked, true concern shining in her eyes.
“Like I said, it was a few days after I saw it the first time. I was painting a landscape out in Red Rock Canyon over by the Array. It was about dusk and I was packing up to head home.” He shook his head as if trying to shake off the bad memory. He clenched his fists against his sides and continued in a low shaky voice. “My hound dog Shortie chased a rabbit through a hole in the fence. I went after him, and that's where it happened.”
He took a deep breath. “This bright light came at me from out of nowhere. The next thing I knew, I woke up on a metal table with these ugly gray men staring at me. Scared the bejesus out of me.” After a long pause, he lifted his chin. “For sure, I thought I was a goner.”
Sara patted his gnarled hand. “It’s okay, Herman. You can tell us.”
“When they got done experimenting on me, they must've put me to sleep or something,” he said in a voice that seemed to come from a long way off. “I woke up the next morning, flat on my back in Red Rock Canyon with Shortie licking my face.” Herman shivered. “I don't know what else they did to me, but they kept me all night.”
“I'm so sorry that happened to you.” Elle soothed him, holding his hand. It was as she had always suspected. Somehow they shared a connection to the UFOs.
“Everyone thinks I'm nuts, but it really happened.” Herman whimpered softly. “You believe me, don't you Elle?”
“Yes, I do,” Elle replied in a low calm voice. “And I believe we belong to something greater than ourselves.” She knew he had been abducted. Although her captors hadn’t been gray men, she and Herman shared similar experiences.
She squeezed his hand. “I believe we are not alone,” she sighed. “The universe is a mighty big place with five-hundred billion planetary systems and a hundred-billion galaxies. Just us being the only intelligent life form seems like an awful waste of space.”
Sara moved closer to Herman and put her hand on his shoulder offering him her understanding. “I believe you, too.”
“Girls, you just don't know how much your belief means to me.” Herman visibly relaxed. He had tears glistening in his eyes as he turned to put the paintings away.
“I think I do.” Elle smiled. “You've heard the stories about me. You see, we're both kind of in the same fix. Talk of the town and all that.”
“Oh, that.” A muscle quivered in his jaw. “I. . . I guess, I see what you mean, but I know you’re no alien.”
“People can be so cruel when they don't understand something or are afraid. I try to keep that in mind when they're giving me a hard time.” She hesitated for a heartbeat. “It's usually their own fear that makes them so mean.”
“I'm only trying to warn people of the danger.” Herman grew more agitated. “Who knows what they want to do with us?” He wiped his nose with the sleeve of his worn blue plaid flannel shirt. His lower lip trembled. “I know they'll be coming for me.”
“You can call if you need me.” Elle started to hand him her business card then took it back and wrote her cell number on the back. “If I'm not at work, you can always reach me at this number. Call me anytime, day or night. If you need to talk or whatever, don’t hesitate. Phone me.”
He took the card and clutched it to his chest as if it were a lifeline. Then he glanced out the window. “You girls better get on home. It's getting dark. That's when they come out.” He took charge of the situation with a quiet assurance. “Or you can stay here and sleep in the back room. You both know it's safer to be inside at night.”
Elle peeked between the curtains of the side window as the sun slipped lower behind the mountain range and she saw a huge wolf run across the backyard. Why was she seeing this wolf everywhere? She shook it off and turned back to Herman. “We appreciate the offer, but we can get back to town before dark.” She gave him a hug. “Thanks for being so courageous and showing us your proof. I’ll have my dad come out to see you.”
He grinned and escorted them to the door. He stood in the open doorway still waving to her as they got into the car.
Looking back at him she had the strangest sensation that Herman was in danger . . . and not just from aliens.
Chapter Four
Elle watched Sara slide behind the wheel and start the engine. “It's probably best we don't tell anyone about what Herman showed us except Dad,” she said as she closed the car door and fastened her seat belt.
Sara’s forehead wrinkled. “Of course, I totally agree. It was the same thing we saw and nobody will believe us, either.”
Through the windshield Elle saw the wolf running at full speed up the side of a mountain in the distance. Damn, why am I seeing this wolf everywhere I go? There’s something odd about that wolf. “Maybe, we should go talk to my Dad.”
“Great idea.” Sara nodded. “At least, he won't think we've gone bonkers. Call him.”
Elle pulled out her cell phone and punched in the private number. Pressure burned in her chest as she waited for him to answer. He always had a hard time with this sort of thing when she was involved and she hated to make things more difficult for him.
“Hello. This is Sheriff Thomas, how may I help you?”
She could tell by the tone of his voice that he was up to his ears with the town folk snapping at his heals with all these new sightings.
“Dad, it’s me. If you have time, Sara and I would like to come by and talk to you about what we discussed this morning.” Not wanting to cause him any more problems she held her breath waiting for his reply.
“Sure, honey. Are you girls, okay?” He hesitated for the blink of an eye. “I've been worried about you.”
>
She could feel his unease, but it was okay as she read between the lines. As always he was there for her. She breathed a sigh of relief. “Yeah, we’re all right. I just need to see you.”
“It's crazy around here, but come on down to the office. Of course, I always want to hear what you have to say.”
“Thanks, Dad. We're on our way. I’ll see you in a few minutes.” She flipped her phone closed and put it in her purse. “He wants us to come to the office.” Elle pinched the bridge of her nose as Sara pulled away from Herman's house. The beginnings of a tension headache played across her forehead as they drove toward town.
Thirty minutes later, the noise of ringing phones drowned out any possible conversation as they walked into the police department. The receptionist had left her desk.
Elle walked back to her father's office and stuck her head around the open doorway not knowing quite what to expect. And there he was—her dad, a good and honorable man. His familiar warm brown eyes and hair falling like short silver wings around his ears made her smile. Her heart pounded with affection. Even with their differences, she knew she could always count on him. Never knowing her biological parents, she had been one of the lucky ones. She loved this man with all her being.
“Hi Dad. Sherry wasn't at the desk so we came on back.” She could feel the heart-felt emotion radiating from him when he looked up at her from his paperwork.
He stood and hugged her, whispering in her ear, “Everything’s going to be all right.” The sound of his voice was like a balm to her worried mind. “Sit down, girls. It's good to see you both. It's been so hectic around here today, I hardly know if I'm coming or going.”
She sat in the chair across from his desk. “Dad, I appreciate you taking the time to see us.” Now that she was here, where did she start?
“Sure, honey, what’s on your mind?”
As if he didn’t know. She took a deep breath and decided to jump right into it. “Well, it’s like I told you this morning. We saw a UFO.” She swallowed the urge to blast the words out and continued in her normal voice. “We didn't imagine it. And a few minutes ago we saw a picture of it.” She bit her lip watching his reaction. “The very same one.”
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