Finding The Father

Chapter Nine "Mr and Mrs McNeil"

There were only three seats and the car was small as it is, so we had to squish. I ended up sitting on Nick's lap in the middle since neither Owen nor Abby wanted to sit next to each other. I sat sideways on his thighs, my legs sitting on Abby's knees. My arm was wrapped around his shoulder to hold on to so I wouldn't fall. Even through the strong oil smell wafting from his stained shirt, I could smell the peppermint underneath it.

Nick and I shared a glance as we settled into a comfortable position. His breath was hitting my chest and I felt heat bloom in my body. I inhaled a sharp breath and turned my head to look out the windshield.

"I'm Mildred McNeil and this is my husband, Hank." The women introduces to us.

"I'm Dylan, that's Owen, Abby, and this is Nick." I point at them as I say their names.

"Why were you kids in the middle of the desert?" Mrs McNeil asks.

"We're trying to get to Vegas." Nick answered for us.

Mrs McNeil gasped. "Oh, we love Vegas. Isn't that right, honey?" She patted her husband's shoulder, who was pulling back into the road.

He nodded. "That's right. We vacation there every winter. We're from up north so we like to get away when it gets real cold." Mr McNeil told us. He glanced at us from the rearview mirror. "You kids seem offly young to do anything in Vegas. What brings you there?"

I glance at Abby. "Oh, just a trip. You know, for the Grand Canyon."

"It's just beautiful, isn't it?" Mrs McNeil asked rhetorically.

"Well, we wouldn't know. We haven't gotten there yet." I told her and she nodded.

"Right. We just came from Vegas. See, we're alien hunters." She tells us; Nick and I share a glance.

"Alien hunters?" Abby repeats as if they're going to tell her they meant balian grunters.

"That's right." Mr NcNeil assures us. Abby lays back against her seat, her eyebrows raised.

"We're traveling to all the known alien sightings to try and find one ourselves. We just came from the Las Vegas National Atomic Testing Museum. It's the first ever Area 51 museum. Of course, they don't just test atomic weapons there but they'd never admit it." Mrs McNeil explains to us and I furrow my eyebrows.

I look over at Abby; she was mouthing 'I told you so' with wide eyes.

"Have you ever caught an alien on camera?" Nick asks and shoot him a questioning look. He shrugs.

"Oh yes!" She yells excitedly and unzips her fanny pack. I hear plastics hitting each other as she fished for something. She pulled out a small rectangular digital camera. "A few months ago we were in Roswell, New Mexico and we saw a flying saucer."

She leaned over between the two front seats, clicking buttons on her little camera. She turned the screen towards us. It was a picture of a field of short grass. There didn't seem to be any buildings or lights anywhere. In the middle of the sky was a silver object floating in the sky.

"That looks like a balloon." I tell her and she shakes her head.

"No, sweetheart, it's a UFO. Look closer," She told me and I did.

The closer I looked, the more of a balloon it looked like.

"Oh," I drag out, "I see it now."

The poor woman has lost her mind. I felt bad so I threw her a bone. She nodded her head violently.

"Yes! Everyone at our church thinks we're crazy--even our kids-- but now finally someone sees it! Did you hear that, Hank? She sees it too!" Mrs McNeil cheered to her husband, shaking his arm erratically.