"An Enigmatic Story"

Who would have thought that a simple trip to the grocery store for my wife would have resulted in this? Well to be honest, probably just about everyone. The signs had been clear. The clues had been laid down, well visible for everyone to see. But for me… well I probably wouldn’t have even seen it if it had been right in front of my eyes. Charly had pretty much told me last week and Fran who had been sending me cryptic messages every now and then in the last few months had pretty sure been in the loop. So what would I do now? My basket was full of milk cartridges which I wouldn’t be needing now and the tartar seemed like a rather ridiculous idea—surely I wouldn’t be needing it as well. I dropped my basket where I was standing and aimed for the doors; nothing could really stop me anymore.

When the aliens come get me this Saturday it won’t really matter. My life on this world is coming to an end, at least how I have come to know it. It would be best if I made some preparations. Perhaps I should be calling Charly or Fran, maybe they had been through something like this as well? Had they really known? Now that I was sure that this Saturday at approximately 8 pm they were going to come I had less than 24 hours to prepare. Now that the signs can be read as unmistakable facts, I would be needing my cell phone—fully charged—the key to the attic, and 2 pounds of strawberry ice cream. It would be best to have something to trade and there was no better strawberry ice cream in the world than Andy Riches’ fruitful flavor’s ice cream.

Charly and Fran had always told me that my house was in a terrible condition. Sure, it was old, but that wouldn’t mean that it had to be dirty. At least that was their opinion. I on the other hand couldn’t care less. Dust and dirt had never really bothered me and so I never cleaned up my house. But perhaps it would be best if that dirty window in the attic would be clean tonight, so I could actually see outside when they come. I had seen lights every other day, sometimes there had been markings on the walls, a streak of some sort, slightly etched into the wooden beams. I had first thought that they came from the foxes that live here and occasionally pay a visit. But then I noticed that they were roughly 3 to 4 feet above ground level and that it would have been arguably hard for foxes to do this. I counted now 286 marks, shakily carved in alternating patterns in the wooden wall. It had surely been a message which I wasn’t able to decode.

It was 7:59 now. One more minute. I started to count the seconds and was careful not to melt the ice cream which I had carefully wrapped in cotton sheets to retain the cold. 10 more seconds. 5. 3. 2. 1.

A large beam of light entered the room. It grew in intensity and started to fill out all of the space around me. My heart pounded against my chest. I made a small gasp as my life raced in front my mind’s eye. I could see this being the denouement to my life’s enigma. The explanation to my life’s travails. And then—nothing.

Nothing happened. Silence stared me glaringly in my eyes. I could hear the sound of the tires on the rocky road as they turned and drove into the driveway of my neighbor. Its headlights now being dimmed and the sound of the opening doors reaching my ears.