The year was 1964. I was six, and just barely tall enough to see out the kitchen window. I remember it was dark, so I wasn’t bothered too much with what was on the other side, until I saw the flashing lights.

Mom and Grandma were stood there with me – we had dishes duty – and the rest of the family had skedaddled out of the way.

“What is that?” Mom asked, ducking to get a better look at the night sky.

I raised up on my tippy toes.

Grandma said: “If I didn’t know better, I’d say it was one of those UFO things.”

Sure did look like it, the lights alternately flashing around a large disk shaped object.

It hovered a minute or two over the farmer’s field back of our yard and then lifted off and disappeared.

None of us knew what to say.

Next morning, I ran outside, through the back gate and across the field and stopped where a small orchard bordered the crops. Trees were splayed, branches down, as if crushed by some powerful force. Burn marks on the ground and flattened crops bore a distinct circular shape.

“It had been an UFO!” I burst through the back door at a run.

“Mom? Mom?”

I found her in the basement, running wet clothes through the wringer.

“Stay back,” she warned.

“Mom! It was a UFO. I saw the marks!”

“That’s nice Dear. Now can you go check on your little sister. Things are just too quiet in the next room.

Seems even close encounters were not enough to jolt my mother from her routine.

***

The focus for V.J.’s Weekly Challenge has been ‘alien’. While there were many twists on this theme, no one touched on UFO’s, so I thought I’d tell my story.

Thanks to all who participated and inspired my week:

Reena Saxena
Proscenium
BrewNSpew
Reverie in Reverse
AWISEWOMANSJOURNEY
Stuff and what if…
Sgeoil
one letter UP
parallax

See you tomorrow for a new challenge!