Danny Flash and the Alien Crash

CHAPTER THREE:

Have you ever had one of those days where you feel every emotion possible? I have. It was the day that an alien crashed into the woods in the back of my house. But before I tell you too much about that day, let me tell you first about the night before. My mom tells me that when you're telling a story, the small details matter. I had just gotten new pajamas. That's a small detail.

I put on my pajamas, and I went to bed, and like any normal night, I didn't want to go to bed. I know I didn't want to go to bed, because I took a long time to get there. I took a long time to go from dinner, to brushing my teeth. I came up with a couple of different reasons why I couldn't. I had to put some toys away, but first I had to play with them because I had brought them out, but I hadn't had a chance to play with them in the day, so I had to play with them before I put them back. I had a half built Lego set, and I needed to finish that. I had some socks that were kind of thrown around from the clean laundry, and I didn't want them to get mixed in with the dirty laundry, so I put them away and I folded them nicely. And when I did that I saw that I had other socks that hadn't been folded and put away nicely and it drives me crazy in the morning when I'm trying to find socks, and I can only find one side of the sock, and I can't find the other. I never know what happened to it. It's a mystery.

When I did finally brush my teeth, and I checked them and made sure there was nothing in them, I used some tooth floss and cleaned them again and some mouthwash to gurgle and some mouthwash to gurgle again - two different flavors. I wanted to try them both. I then headed to my room, and I realized I forgot a glass of water. And I went down to get a glass of water, but the milk looked even better. So, I poured myself a glass of milk, and you know what happens when you have milk late at night? You need to brush your teeth again. And so I did. And I tried both mouthwashes again. And I looked at myself in the mirror, and I said, "Danny Flash, go to sleep." That's how I knew I was ready to go to sleep, because when you tell yourself something, it's usually what you truly want. It's easy to lie to other people. Well, maybe not easy, but easier than lying to yourself.

And so I went to bed. I laid down under the covers, and I dimmed my light. I don't like turning my light off all the way because it makes it difficult to see, and I know that when you're sleeping, you're not supposed to see anything, except those things maybe that are in your dreams. But I like to see a little bit. I like to be able to sleep and wake up and see just a little bit of my room. To know that everything's safe. And so I dimmed the lights instead of turning them off.

I couldn't really tell you how long I slept for. Everything happened so quickly afterwards that I didn't get a chance to look at the clock until well after 4:00 in the morning. If I had to guess I'd say I slept maybe two hours. But it's very difficult to say. Have you ever had one of those naps, where it feels like it lasted an hour, but you look at the clock, and it's only been five minutes? Or it feels like it's only been five minutes, but you look at the clock, and it's been five hours?

It's very hard to tell the time when you're sleeping. They say some people have a natural clock built into them. But I think that natural clock only works if it gets to go all the way around and reach whatever time it's supposed to notify you. Whatever time it's supposed to wake you up. It's very hard when the natural clock is interrupted, and you just wake up, and you have to tell the time. So I just woke up, and I don't know what time it was. But that doesn't really matter.

My room filled up with a bright light; that's what woke me up. I was sleeping with the lights dimmed, so I know there was only supposed to be a little bit of light in my room, but suddenly there was a lot of light. A white light. My light bulb glows a little bit yellow. This was a bright white light, like the sun reflecting off the foam in the ocean. It filled my room, from the very top of the ceiling to the fibers of the carpet on my floor. It filled every inch. It seeped under the crack in my magic closet, and filled my magic closet with light, I'm sure. It was that bright. It may have been so bright that it even seeped into my magic box with its magic lock. That's how bright it was.

I opened my eyes. And then squinted them back closed. The light was so bright it hurt. I turned away from my window, which I had left open so that the cool summer breeze could come in and air out my room. I remember hearing crickets chirping when I fell asleep, but no crickets were chirping now. Nothing was making a sound. Just this awful white light filling everything in my room.

And just as quickly as the light had come it vanished. I slowly opened my eyes and let them adjust back to the dimly lit room. I looked around my room, not sure what I was looking for, but that's your natural instinct when something is out of the ordinary. You look around your immediate surroundings. And so I looked around my room, and I saw nothing. And I opened my closet, and I saw nothing. And I went to my magic box, and I opened the lock with the combination I just gave you. I checked my wand, because that's my most important possession. And that's the thing that if someone were to come into my room they would probably want to take. Just so that they could touch it, just so that they could try. Because even though I've told you that no magic would happen if you used my wand, I bet you're thinking, "Hey if I could just get my hands on it, maybe I could make it work too." But the wand was there. No one had touched it. So I locked it back up, and I closed my closet, and I put my back to the closet door, and I looked out the window, and I saw something. In the distance, a faint glow coming through the trees. I knew it must be the source of the bright white light. It must be what was left of the thing that filled my room up with so much brightness it was like I was sitting inside of a light bulb.

And as you know by now, I'm curious by nature. And so I put on a pair of slippers, and I walked out my bedroom door, and as I mentioned to you before, I was wearing my new pajamas.