Danny Flash and the Alien Crash

CHAPTER FOUR:

My feet touched down on the squishy dirt outside my front door.  A little bit of mud oozed through my toes.  I didn't mind the feeling of wet mud.  It was like stepping on soggy cereal.  Although, I've never actually done that.  I took small steps at first, letting my eyes adjust to the darkness.  The trees of the forest behind my house loomed large against the skyline, their arms reaching out and dancing with one another.  They looked like giants trying to hug anything near them, with little leaf fingers twitching and pulling and plucking and dancing across the night sky.

When I reached the first tree that marked the entrance to the forest, I paused. I could still make out the shimmery light, somewhere in the distance.  But this seemed like a natural spot to rethink my strategy.   Did I really want to walk into the woods alone at night?  Isn't that how so many of those bad stories started.? Someone, somewhere, walks alone into the woods.  Some things happen, and then they die.  I'm pretty sure that's the storyline for "Little Red Riding Hood."  And I'm sure it's the storyline for a lot of other stories about bad things happening to good people.  And I was pretty sure I was a good person., so, good people should know better than to go into the woods alone at night.  There are not a lot of stories about good things in the woods at night.

But, this wasn't a story, this was my life.  And so I willed my right foot to take another step forward, and my left foot to follow.  Soon I was trudging along through the forest. The mud that was outside my house. turned to soft leaves and moss.  The squishing turned into more of a light crinkling, as I made my way closer and closer to the light.  I looked up at the night sky trying to see the moon or a recognizable star through the gaps in the giant arms of the trees.  I made out what I thought to be the moon, because it was a bit of sky glowing brighter than the rest of the sky.  So I imagined it must be where the moon was, although I couldn't catch a solid piece of the moon.  I made a mental note of the direction the moon was in, so that if I got turned around I could still find my way back home.  I walked further, and further.  The light getting brighter, and brighter, until I could look down and see my pajamas reflecting the light back.  

I stepped into a small clearing and saw where the white light was coming from. There was a small object, with a pointy end stuck into the dirt and the back end pointing straight up into the sky.  It had four long talons sticking out from the rear as if they were pointing to the stars.  Or at least where the stars should have been, behind the blanket of leaves.  The light suddenly started to dim.  It was as if someone was pulling on a dimmer on a bedroom wall, and the lights overhead went from 100 percent, to 80 percent, to 60 percent, to nothing.  But there was no dimmer out here in the woods, so I wasn't sure why the light was going.  Except for maybe my presence, that's the only thing that had changed.  Could this object somehow sense that someone was near? Were the lights turning off so that it could hide? 

The words fell into almost pitch black.  I could no longer see the outline of my pajamas.  I could no longer see much of anything.  I couldn't even really see the object, which was still right in front of me.  I saw maybe a faint shadow of one of the Talons, but I wasn't quite sure.  Maybe that was just a branch sticking out.  It was hard to tell.

I shuffled my feet along the wet leaves until I clanked to my shin into the object.

It stung!  Pain shot down to the tips of my toes and up to the middle of my calf.  I arched my leg up and clasped it with two hands, interlacing my fingers over the kneecap to support it, and jumping on one foot.

"Yeouch!" I screamed.  "Yikes, yikes, yikes!"

My initial instinct was to be quiet, but with this new pain surging through my leg, I couldn't help but cry out into the night.  Whatever this thing was, if it did have a way of telling when somebody was nearby, it certainly knew I was there now.   I shot my foot down back into the wet leaves and tried to stand up straight, leaning slightly to one side, favoring the leg unintentionally.  I put my hand out, looking for support, and felt the cool metal touch of one of the talons.  I slid my hand down to where the four talons came together at the base of the objects and clasped them, leaning in for support.  I found that my fingers went in to an opening at the base.  It was some type of tunnel.  It was warm and I could now smell a faint stench, like gasoline, but not quite gasoline.  It was somehow different.  It was like gasoline mixed with sour candy.

Suddenly three quick flashes of light came out of the base of the object.  I could see through my hand.  I could see the silhouette of my bones and the red blotchy pink flesh, as the light shone through my fingers.  I startled backwards and tripped over a large twig.  My whole body came tumbling to the ground now.  First my back made contact with the wet leaves and then my neck snapped back and my head landed with a "poof," in the leaves. Thankfully I avoided any large rocks hidden under the soft mattress-like surface of the leaves.  I quickly scrambled back to my feet and the object slowly started to re-brighten upwards; 60 percent, 80 percent...

It stopped at a comfortable level of light.  I approached the object cautiously, and touched the points of the talons which were sharp.  But as they went down, they were not blades, but smooth round talons, that were slightly curved outward and then bent again inward to join at the base where indeed there was a funnel similar to a car exhaust.

I grabbed two of the talons and tried to lift the object.  It wiggled out of the dirt.  I was able to lift it up a few inches, but it was heavy.  Definitely made of some type of solid metal.  I shook the object, and I heard a tiny "Squeeak..."

I thought maybe it was some type of air pressure coming out of the object.  I decided it was best not to shake it any further in case it was a bomb.  But I was pretty sure this wasn't a bomb.  I'm not sure why.  It very well looked like a bomb.  Kind of like an old missile.  But newer. Kind of like a shiny, metallic missile, made in a retro style, but with new materials; shined and buffed to look like something new, but designed like something old.

I grabbed the two talons again, lifted the object a few inches in the air and started to hobble forward.  The object swung away from my body and then swung back towards me and clanged against my shin. "Yeouch!" I screeched.  "Yikes, yikes, yikes!"

It hit the opposite foot.  Now I hobbled along jumping back and forth between the two feet, unable to keep my balance on one foot for too long.  I plopped down into the wet leaves feeling the dew seep up into my pajamas. I sat for a few minutes, until I could stretch my legs fully without feeling the pain in my shins.

Eventually, I stood back up and patted each foot on the ground, just to be sure that there'd be no surprising surge of pain as I tried to equally distribute my weight again.  I put my feet shoulder length apart, wrapped my fingers again around the talons and hoisted the object up.  I then cradled my left arm around the base of the object, and then my right, so I was holding it from the center and peering through the two talons as I carried it.  Now I could really smell the gasoline smell mixed with the sour candy.  There is another smell in there as well, almost like chocolate.  I remembered once my parents taking a course on fine wine.  It was always fruits and chocolate mixed together in some order or another that was supposed to complement some type of poultry or fish.  It kind of reminded me of that. Was this the smell of wine?  Did this object somehow have wine in it?

I tilted my head to one side, so as not to breathe as much of the winey smell, and started my movement back towards the house.  I looked up into the sky, noted where the moon was, positioned my body towards my home - because sure enough all that kicking and twisting and falling had disoriented me slightly, and I trudged along carrying the object back to my home.  In retrospect, bringing a possible missile back into your house was not the brightest thing I ever did, but thankfully it wasn't a missile.  It was something else entirely.

Can you guess?