Author: Charlene Dunlap
July 2009
We've all heard the stories, right?
Someone claims to have been abducted by aliens, taken up in a spacecraft, subjected to an examination, sees a blinding white light, and then is ultimately returned to the place where they were first picked up.
Don't believe it? It happens more often than you think.
Here's a true story.
She was walking slowly down the dusty road pondering what to eat for breakfast when the ground began to tremble beneath her bare feet and a humming sound filled the air. Her first instinct was to run. She headed for cover on the side of the road as fast as her legs would carry her. But, before she got very far, the vibration increased and the noise got deafening. A huge craft overtook her as she tried to scramble to safety.
Then it happened.
Something swooped down from above and lifted her upwards to a dizzying height. A huge, ugly face peered at her, leering, and making weird noises. She was thrust towards two long-faced, hairy creatures who examined her with, she was sure, evil intent. Horrified, she folded her limbs tightly against her body and hid her head, but she knew they were still scrutinizing her, and she could hear the dreadful snuffling sounds they made.
Then, she felt an incredible impulsion -- she didn't know one could move at such speed! Next, she was taken into a very strange, closed sort of place. More movement and more alarming speed and, finally, she was being set down on the ground exactly where she had been picked up.
Just as she was about to relax, there was a sudden brilliant flash of white light. As she was recovering from that, she again felt the vibration beneath her feet. Gradually it lessened and the noise faded away.
All was silent.
She stayed curled up in her shell for a very long time before she had the courage to come out again. When she did, she was alone.
My version:
One day, my Poodles Jyah and Sydney and I were tooling through the woods in the Mule, a small golf-cart-like vehicle, when we came upon a box turtle in the middle of the road. I picked her up, as I do all box turtles we come across, telling her what a pretty girl she was and that the dogs and I just wanted to say hello. With my hand over the top of her shell, I held her up to the dogs who both sniffed her inquisitively.
She was such a large box turtle that I decided I wanted a picture of her with the dogs; however, I didn't have my camera with me. Knowing that she would be long gone if I left her there and went back to the house for the camera, I decided to take her with us.
Holding her out to the side, I got into the Mule and we all sped up the road to the house. I took her with me into the office to get my camera, then we came out, got back in the Mule, and raced back down to the place I had found her. I put her on the ground, placed the dogs about a foot away looking down at her, and snapped a flash picture. Then the dogs and I got into the Mule and tooled off down the road.
