Tall Whites

Chapter 1: Susan

Tall Whites

September 5th, 1986, 9:45 pm. That's when the first one was spotted. Susan, who worked at the Beartooth Diner, came to the door of my old trailer all shaken up and talking so fast her words blended together. Once I eventually got her calm enough to speak, I sat her down at my kitchen table and prompted her to tell me all about what had scared her.

"I'd just closed up the diner," She began. "and I was walking home when I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I thought it was nothing at first, but when I went to look at it I saw some- some kind of creature. Oh Savannah, it was horrible, I couldn't believe my own two eyes."

Oh, this again. I relaxed a little and leaned back in my chair.

"And what did this creature look like?" I'd decided to humor her, though I had no faith she'd actually seen more than some teenagers pulling a prank.

"I don't know, Savannah, It was big, tall... skin pale as paper, and its eyes..." her voice caught in her throat. "they were so dark. It was like he didn't have any- just these holes in his face like it was some sort of mask- only it wasn't a mask," She looked at me with eyes full of both fear and wonder at the same time. "I'd never seen anything like it."

"I- Are you sure it wasn't just a joke?" I asked. Though I was skeptical, I still shivered at the thought. This was different from the usual stories of UFO's in her back yard.

"A joke?" she cried. "It looked at me. And- and it was so tall. I ran away as fast as I could. The thing gave me the creeps. I can't think of why someone would pull a prank like that- or how."

"So you don't know for sure?" I crossed my arms. "Listen, Susan. You're probably just tired. You just got off work, it's dark, kids are crazy these days. They probably stood on, uh," what would teenagers do to make themselves look taller these days? "Uh, stilts or something. You're paranoid." I left out the part that described the three other times she'd come running to my trailer in hysterics, insisting that aliens were fixing to abduct her only for it to be a neighbor or animal, or tree misshapen by shadows.

"Yeah, yeah, you're probably right. I can't go home, though." She put her head in her hands. "This isn't the first time I've seen stuff like this. I feel like I'm going crazy."

I wish that's all it had been. Crazy Susan, seeing things in the dark.

I calmly held her hand in mine, saying the words I'd said many other times. "I know, hon. If you wanna stay with me tonight I have an extra mattress, but try to forget about this, kay?"

She nodded slowly in agreement. She stared at the table as I struggled to slide the mattress from its station behind my dresser (it wasn't much for looks, but it kept the thing out of the way) and laid it out on the floor between the kitchen and entry door.

That was back in September. I haven't seen Susan in eight months.