ENCOUNTER WITH THE LANTHEANS
Eric, a bright young boy, asked his grand mother, is it true aliens exist, Mrs Mctiller answered, almost shrugging off the little boy, have you been watching those movies again.
Eric, her grandson, whom had lived with her for 5 years now, his mother Caitlyn left the united states for the middle east when he was just 2.
A brilliant boy, top of his class in all aspect, a special boy in the eye of his mother, grandmother, principal, his friends, Eric was indeed loved by all, as a matter of fact, most envied him “you see Eric Is a boy that can be classed as special” those were the words of his principal, at such a tender age, Eric loved numbers, he could solve mathematics that were way more complex than what he was learning in school.
Eric was not always this brilliant, hell! Just 2 years ago he couldn’t spell his name, it all happened when young Eric got missing for 2 days, his grand mother of course kept it a secret from his mother, everybody in the small town was out looking for him, everywhere was combed every leaf unturned, it was like he vanished from the face of the earth completely, the town sheriff said. 2 days after he went missing, Eric was found in the barn at the back of the house, Mrs Mctiller swore to have searched the place as that was little Eric’s playground, how did he a 5-year-old end up there, unharmed, well fed she thought to herself, well that was the Pandora’s box she didn’t want to open, she was just glad he had been found. That was the game changer in Eric’s life, was he abducted? the sheriff muttered to himself, everybody had an opinion to give about the situation, conspiracy theorist thought he got abducted by aliens, or was he?
2 years ago was when everything changed for Eric, he was 5 years old at the time, a boy who couldn’t spell his 4 lettered name was now solving complex mathematics, his principal, Mr. Munier out of fear called the order of his grand mother to this newfound ability of her grandson, acting on the advice of the principal, Mrs Mctiller took Eric to the hospital, not sure of what to expect, the doctor of course declared Eric hale and hearty, he even went ahead and said his state of heath was too perfect, like the diseases that affected humans couldn’t affect him, the doctor offered to do more test to ascertain this but out of fear of her grandson been used as a guinea pig, he withdrew his grandson from the hospital and went home, months went by without a strange thing happening, his grandmother kept his abilities to herself alone.
Days before his 7th birthday, epic disappeared again, this time for a longer period, Mrs Mctiller was more worried than ever, my daughter won’t forgive me, she said to herself while crying profusely, the town’s sheriff, a close friend to her tried consoling her and vowed to bring her grandson to her. The first day went by without a trace of Eric, the barn where he was found the last time was checked repeatedly, different negative thought ran through everybody’s mind, volunteers trooped in from neighboring town to help in the search for Eric, the town was surrounded by huge mountain, covered in rain forest, the search area was indeed gigantic and it proved to be a herculean task for the people of Dorne.
The 3rd day went by and still no trace of Eric, hope was starting to vanish like smoke in air, but then Eric mysteriously appeared again, eluding the search party, this time he was found in his bedroom, one could blame Mrs Mctiller, maybe she didn’t check his bedroom after all, she swore she checked every day, looking so pale from all the wailing and crying.
Eric sat down as if nothing had happened, he was looking so bright and healthy even though he had been missing for almost 4 days, he appeared to look calm and played with his toy, the town's sheriff opted to ask him series of question about where he was but he was just 7 years old, he gave answers that couldn't help the sheriff in anyway, well he's back now, that's the most important thing. Said the sheriff, weeks after the sudden appearance of Eric, Eric asked his grandmother, are alien real, he's grandmother, a little more concerned about the question her grandson asked, apparently having no answer to that question cuddled Eric up and gave him a passionate kiss on the forehead, whispering you are a special boy into his ears.
Eric of course got promoted to the next class, he's new found ability helped him a lot as he aced all test and examinations placed before him, he was now accustomed to complex algebra, why wouldn't he pass a simple addition and subtraction he's principal said to his grandmother. The holidays came and Eric enjoyed every bit of it, he was scheduled for a visit to the Middle East to visit his mother towards the end of the long vacation, days into the vacation, a strange thing happened, while playing in the yard with his friends, Eric stepped on a nail in the garden, he cried out loud and his grandmother came running, out of fear he was being attacked by one of his bullish friends, that wasn't the case for Eric though as she saw him stained in his blood, let me take a look she said, seeing it's a nail she pulled it out and immediately dashed into the house to get the first aid kit, she returned with the box laden with cotton wool, methylated spirit, scalpel and so on and decided to clean Eric's wound, well to her amusement she discovered the wound had disappeared completely and Eric didn't seem to be in any discomfort, rather he resumed his play with his friends like nothing happened. Baffled by this, mrs mctiller started to doubt herself, maybe my eyes were playing tricks on me she muttered to herself, returning the box to its location, still in denial, from what had happened, numerous thoughts ran through her mind, the most persistent one being each time Eric disappears he comes back with a strange ability, is my grandson still human she said to herself almost in tears, confused but determined to keep it to herself, maybe each time he disappears he gets abducted by aliens? No not aliens!! Those only exist in movies she said to herself.
Eric woke up happy, it was indeed the day he was going to see his mother, after 5 years. he couldn't hide his happiness from his grandmother, it would seemed he was the first to wake up in the whole town, the drive from his town to the international airport was over 5 hours and Eric was excited about every bit of the journey, he was scheduled to travel alone from the USA to United Arab Emirate where his mother would be waiting for him at the airport, he's grandmother had booked him a flight from Washington to the UAE.
Flight A380 emirate airline could be heard from the P.A system of the busy airport... That's your flight, grandma said, almost in tears as she hugged her grandson passionately, she let go eventually and Eric boarded his flight, his seat was right next to the window. 8 hours into the flight Eric saw a strange light outside the plane, approaching at a very high speed, he could hear a very high pitch sound, suddenly the strange light disappeared along with the sound and all seemed normal again, it's the lightening, he said to himself, after a little while, Eric slipped into a deep slumber, and had a dream, still in the plane Eric could feel an entity lying deep inside him, this being would surface from time to time, take over his consciousness for a while and go back to a state of slumber, a strange but peaceful being it was, Eric dreamt of trying to make a strange equipment work, deep into the wood, a technology much more advanced than anything he had ever seen in his short life, this piece of technology looked really important to this particular being, and eventually he got it to work, the technology shot a beam of light into the sky, apparently nobody saw it, so it must have been invisible, with a satisfactory look on its face, the being went on to a state of slumber, Eric woke up from his strange dream, it all felt real, it was more like a memory than a dream, does this explain his abilities ? Is a strange entity sharing his body with him, fully awake now, Eric looked around him and discovered everybody on the plane was now asleep, that's strange he said, he got up from his seat and decided to Check for a crew member, he decided to check the crew cabin, he was about to knock on the door when he heard some strange sound, some bickering in a strange language, this language sounded strange to him but somehow he understood every word they said, before he could knock, the door opened and he was asked to come in, certainly in a polite manner. Inside the room he saw the pilot, co-pilot and 5 hostesses, all crew member were present, well supposed crew member he thought.
The eldest chose to speak, now in English he introduced themselves as the lantheans, a race far away in another galaxy, Eric didn't seem surprised by all this, his new found abilities already depicted he wasn't human after all and the strange dream he had just moment ago already gave him an heads up.
The eldest who gave his name as Firki explained further, how they received an emergency call from this planet months ago, we have been around for a while now, scouring this planet for our lost son, the crowned prince of the lantheans, he's intergalactic space ship crashed somewhere on this solar system and we have been looking for him ever since, the beam broadcasted the signal of his space ship to our location, when we arrived the location we collected the DNA sample on site, hacked into human's database and matched it to yours Eric Donovan, Eric of course believed every word Firki said, he explained how he had gotten different abilities over the years and how he can feel another entity sharing his body.
Firki went on and said yes Lantheans can live inside another being, that explains how we can converse with you easily and fly the plane. The next in command to Firki brings out a device explains its usefulness as an entity separator, he placed it on Eric's head, and once again he slipped into a deep sleep.
The sound of chaos woke him up as he opened his eyes barely, have they reached the UAE he said to himself, he saw everyone running trying to save their loved ones, the plane had crashed he heard, a plane of 230 passengers and 7 crews, after regaining full consciousness he stood up and realized Firki was nowhere to be found, Eric felt a form of emptiness in him and apparently his abilities was also gone as he was bleeding from a small cut he sustained from the crash, after hours of accessing the damage it was ascertained that all 230 passengers survived the crash but 7 crew members were nowhere to be found, everyone was confused about where they were and how 230 passengers survived a plane crash, that's next to impossible, one man said, everybody was confused and couldn't remember what had happened or how the plane crashed. Eric stood up terrified and tells everyone he remembers...
will they believe me? He wonders