i see UFOs everyday
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23rd of May, 2024 | 23.05.2024 | unavailable on medium
i see UFOs everyday.
like that one, hovering over the gas station as i drive towards it. lucky! my fuel is running out.
they never do anything that much. i mean, they usually just hover there. or anywhere, pretty much. saw one hovering over a wheat field on my way here. i wasn't sure exactly what it was doing. nobody is. but they don't seem that bad, after all.
i remember when they first came there came the tweets and then the panic. i rememeber when we stayed at home for a week. the government didn't know what to do, considering how the UFOs weren't doing anything. like, anything anything. just hovering.
and then came the memes and the conspiracy theorists. the conspiracy theorists never believe anything. when there weren't UFOs, they said that the government was hiding them. now they are saying that these UFOs are fake and that the government is still hiding the real aliens. for some reason.
i mean, i can't deny the fact that i've never saw an alien. a living alien, i mean, unless those saucers are the aliens. actually, maybe scratch that. i don't want to get nightmares again.
i drive to the gas station. it's pretty late, by my standards, at least. the sun is setting down. i hear that hum of the flying saucer above me. i get out of the car and start filling up my tank. it's pretty lonely out here. nothing but woods and a gas station, but it can't be that far away from some town. maybe a few kilometres further down the road.
i see the owner carrying boxes. i think there are crisps there. some frozen sausages, beans, nothing much. he plants them on the concrete ground just below the saucer and we both look as the crates start flying up, up. then they get inside the saucer through an opening. the insides are very bright and when it opens up, i squeeze my eyes. it's like looking at the sun, except worse, considering how the sun is not a few metres above your head. that would be awful, the sun being above your head, i mean.
'feeding the aliens?' i joke. the owner looks at me.
'the lads up there must be hungry,' he says and when he does so, a pile of money gets dropped down from the UFO as it opens for a split second. 'plus, they pay some good cash for it!'
i never really understood where they got the cash from. the goverment said that it was real, after an expertise. but they also said that they will not be accepting it as real, considering its 'extraterrestial origin.' i mean, fair enough, but the people use it nevertheless. how are the banks going to prove that it came from the aliens anyway?
the owner takes the cash and looks at the saucer and he tips his hat. i wonder what the aliens are thinking right now. i mean, if they learned our economy, they probably understand our gestures. probably. not entirely sure.
when it all started, gosh, when was it? a year ago? no, i think maybe two? well, anyway, when it was all just happening and everyone was panicking i was staying at my parents' house. well, my parent's house. it was my mom's, since my dad lives in a different city. and that night, maybe a week since the saucers appeared, one started hovering over our house. well, our apartment, we don't have a house. so it wasn't just us who were panicking, it was the entire apartment block.
i was taking out the trash (though my mom tried to convince me that she'd do it instead; i went anyway) and my neighbour also came out on the landing. she was a woman, i don't know, maybe thirty? early forties? she used to smoke on the balcony of our landing (my mom hated it!). and we didn't normally talk, i wasn't very social and neither was she. but that day, while the saucer was hanging over our house (it started doing it at night), she turned to me, cigarette in hand, and said:
'do you think it's dangerous?'
i didn't exactly understood her question at first, so i replied:
'what is?'
'the UFO, i mean, that... that thing above our heads,' she made a circling motion with her finger pointing upwards.
'oh, that.'
'yeah, that.'
and then we stood in silence for a bit. i remembered that i didn't press the button lift, so i did.
'probably not,' i said. 'i haven't really heard that they were doing anything, apart from... you know, just staying there.'
'yeah, probably not.' she started playing with her cigarette, looking into the distance. well, her eyes were directed at the white wall of the landing, but they weren't looking at it. just thinking.
'i have a child,' she suddenly said. she looked worried and i didn't know what to do. i looked at her but she continued to stare at the wall. no, not at it, but just... in the distance. she was staring into nothingness, i mean. and at that exact moment my lift arrived.
'mhm,' i replied and got in the elevator. i felt embarrassed, but what was i supposed to do? i barely knew the woman.
then, the next morning the UFO disappeared just as suddenly as it appeared. my neighbour moved the next day too. i didn't see her anymore, nor her child.
my tank is full and i pay for the gas. but i don't get into the car just yet, my body is still aching from the long drive and i decide to walk around. i get into the shop.
it's exactly as you'd imagine a gas station shop in the middle of nowhere to look like. just some shelves. i mean, i have to give credit where credit is due, it was exceptionally clean. like, really clean. and looking around, there was only one owner - a forty-something year old dude with a beard and a bear belly. he certainly looked like a bear, in both senses.
i browse the shelves, not really planning to buy anything, but hey, might as well. the owner seemed like a cool guy. i get a packet of crisps and a cola and go to the counter. the owner looks up from his crosswords. he notices my badge on my shirt and smirks. he says:
'you know, i sometimes wonder what those aliens think about us.'
'what do you mean?'
'you know, us.'
'oh!'
he scans my two items and then looks at the for a long time.
'you think aliens have that kind of thing? where they don't all love the exact same thing?'
i don't know what to say, so i say: 'uh... i guess?'
'i'm a fag.'
'yes, i have noticed,' i say a bit... well, i say it a bit flushed. i didn't expect him to say it so directly.
'gets difficult here when you live in a small community. have been hiding for, hm... i don't know, twenty years? lost track, haha.'
he puts my crisps and cola in a plastic bag and hands it to me.
'always nice to see other folks like me come from the cities. brings a joy to my heart.'
i smile as i take the bag.
'you too.'
i get to the door but i stop before i leave. i turn to the owner again and say:
'you know, i think the aliens would think that you are a very cool guy.'
he gives a hearty laugh and then i get back to my car.
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