"What's this talk of a UFO?" Madison wiped sticky hands down the sides of her white cotton shorts while watching her mother frantically tap in numbers on her phone. Today was Madison's ninth birthday, and the party that had been planned to celebrate seemed unimportant up against the arrival of of life from another planet the night before.
"I saw it! It was a UFO!" Her mother's hands were shaking. It was late last night when a pulsating blue and green vibrance filled a quarter of the sky. Madison had been sleeping for hours, at the time, and since it was such a hot night, Vivian was enjoying a cup of iced tea and watching a movie on the television that was set up outside her bungalow.
"What about my party?"
"Madison Lynn, I can't get service now! Ever since last night there is no cell phone service! Your party is the least of my worries."
"Can't we get in the car and go find someone to help?" Madison nervously twirled her long brown hair around her finger, big blue eyes desperate to know, what is a UFO, anyway?
"Car won't start." Vivian tapped her cigarette pack and with shaking hands lit up. "Car won't start. No phone service. No one around."
"What's a UFO?" Madison asked.
"It's something... that cannot be explained." Something that cannot be explained.
"Like Torri?"
Vivian lifted her hands in the air in disgust. "Tori is a make-believe, made-up, non existent friend of yours. No, Madison, not like Tori!" She was tired of her daughters stories of how Tori and her were fighting, and how they made up, and how Tori told her she'd take her to the amusement park one day. This fictional life of hers must be stopped. She needed to embrace reality.
"911, what's your emergency?" Finally, service!
"A UFO. I witnessed a UFO last night. Phone service is just now returning." Vivian didn't notice her daughter slip away while she pleaded for help.
Tori sat waiting on the bench were they always met. Madison shared a sack full of chocolates. They laughed and shared stories of their lives, and then Tori was gone.
Something that cannot be explained.
Comments