Suburban UFO landing
It had been a long week. Finally, after 4 days of 12 hour shifts, Friday night had come around and I was ready to relax. Arriving home around 7.30 pm, my daughter Jade and her boyfriend Erin were already kicking back in the lounge room.
“Hey Jade, wanna walk up to the pub with me? I'll get a six pack. I really feel like a beer”, I called to her from the kitchen.
“Yeah, but just the bottle shop, I don't like that pub,” said Jade, sounding a bit annoyed.
“Okay, just the bottle shop, even though I reckon it's not too bad on a Friday night,” I replied defensively.
I'd had plenty of good times in the Edinburgh Castle. The Indian chef did a good curry, there was always a band on Friday and Saturday nights, free entry and walking distance from home. What's not to like about that?
Well, actually, it was a rough old crowd. A mixed bag of locals who had been drinking there for years, more often than not, only one or two women in the bar. But it was warm in there when it was cold outside, and cool when it was hot. I liked it in there. It was the kind of place that reminded me of that saying they have in Alaska ‘we don't have a village idiot, we all just take it in turns’. Yes, it was a bit like that.
Anyway, we got the beer from the bottle shop and started our walk home. As we crossed the side street towards the railway line, I instinctively looked to my left and right and to my left again. No cars coming but a light catches my eye.
Looking up to my left while crossing the narrow road, I said to Jade:
“Look at the moon, it's so bright tonight!”
We stop and look up.
“That's not the moon, Mum. There's the moon.” says Jade, pointing directly above us. Sure enough, there was the big, almost full, yellow moon smiling down on us.
“I wonder what that is?” I say, not recognising the large luminous glow in the sky. The scraggly street trees growing out of the concrete footpath blocked a clear line of vision, so we moved in amongst them, straining to see what this strange light was.
“It's moving!” says Jade.
“It's got a black spot in the middle!” I say excitedly. excited.
“What is it?”
We stare up at the strange object in the sky and step gingerly down the dark side street towards the light and away from our path home.
“It's getting bigger and smaller, its changing shape!”
“Oh my God, it is!” we say in unison.
The silver light with the black spot moves towards the horizon of inner city roof tops. We keep watching it, hanging onto and squeezing each other's arm as we step ahead, not knowing where or what our feet would land on, we couldn't take our eyes off the mystery light in the sky. With our chins stretched up and our heads back, we felt nothing but pure excitement and belief. This was not something usual. We knew that, we could see it.
“OMG! It is Jade, it is!!!” I whisper loudly, or yell quietly, trying to keep my composure.
We continue down the side street, almost to the T- intersection. Opposite us is a cream brick factory wall. A huge building, it takes up the entire block but is only two levels. We keep back a bit, not wanting to lose sight of the light behind the building. We did not take our eyes off the silver light with a black spot in the centre and changing shape.
Then, in a fraction of a second, the silver glow in the sky suddenly transformed into an enormous, brilliant orange, oblong shaped craft. It settled gently and silently on top of the cream brick building in front of us.
It was the same length as the building, it took up the whole roof, even extending over the sides a bit. It was massive. So big we couldn't see the top of it and it was there, right in front of us! The translucent external was like nothing we had seen before. There were no doors or windows or fittings of any kind. It was smooth and clear and almost glowing, and it looked as if we could walk into it. We hung onto each other, squealing with joy and excitement.
We looked around to see if anyone else could see what we could see but there was no one about. We had not seen another person since we first spotted the light in the sky, even though it was early in the evening and a Friday night too.
Soon enough, in the car park to our right we see a lone elderly European man, walking towards us from his parked car.
We call out to him: “Hey, mister, come here, have a look, OMG quick!” we both blurt out, jumping up and down and waving at him with animated gestures. He looks at us suspiciously and turns away. We persist, “No! Look, look, look!” we say, pointing to the factory roof. He follows our outstretched arms and pointing fingers.
“Oh my God” he says, in a thick accent, “UFO!”
And with that, the craft takes off, up and back, away from us and with a gentle swish, it was gone. Gone behind the factory wall, over the houses and out of our view.
“Come back, come back!” Jade and I both plead, but to no avail.
I don't remember walking home but I remember arriving. Erin was worried. We had been gone for over two hours. He went to the pub to see if I'd talked Jade into going in for a quick one or two. When we weren't there and no one in the bar had seen us, he was quite concerned. When we eventually burst through the door, excited and rambling about a UFO, young Erin must have wondered what the heck was going on.
He listened to us recall our every step. Jade and I speaking in unison as to what we saw. Erin suggested reporting it, so Jade got the phone book out to see who she could ring. Sure enough, there were several UFO sighting hotlines and Jade got onto someone who was interested and de-briefed with them for several hours. They wanted to know all about it and it is noted in a file somewhere. It was an amazing feeling. We felt honoured, privileged and proud. We felt that who ever was in that craft, chose to to reveal themselves to us. We wondered if anyone else saw what we saw and we watched the news for the next few days, but nothing was reported.
In a way, it made the experience even more special. Either way, we didn't care. We know what we saw. Oh, and by the way, I really enjoyed that beer.