No Reason To Be Afraid
© Lillian Holden Ramirez
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There was no reason to be afraid, I told myself. The quiet landscape stretched endless and empty into the moonlight. Every cactus, every grotesquely bent Joshua tree cast a perfect shadow across the sand. I shivered--the desert night had turned chilly and I was dressed only in shorts and a thin tee-shirt-- I hadn’t planned to be stranded in the middle of nowhere with a dead battery and no cell phone. The cell was sitting on my dresser back at the motel, recharging itself. I hadn’t meant to be gone very long-- now here I was, stuck. At least this was a main road-- such as the word main could be applied. But even in this desolate area, someone would surely be along soon and let me use their cell phone to call roadside assistance.
I know it’s not safe to trust strangers, but what choice did I have? Yes, I had been careless, but I am a resourceful person, and ready at all times to protect myself. My little friend, the 22-automatic, was tucked comfortably into my handbag. I transferred it to my pocket, ready for quick access.
Prepared, I scanned the horizon in all directions-- no lights. Impatiently, I looked up at the moon almost directly overhead. To its right, I noticed a blip of blue illumination-- not a star, I concluded, but maybe a plane or helicopter. Although it didn’t seem to be getting closer, it was growing larger, but I could detect no sound
of engines. I laughed nervously-- this was ridiculous!
We’ve all heard those crazy flying saucer stories of abductions on deserted back roads-- I had never entertained such nonsense, believing them to be made up by emotionally disturbed persons seeking media attention. I reminded myself that there were lots of hush-hush facilities out here, maybe this was a search light from a military plane or some secret experimental device-- it was definitely not a weather balloon. Then it occurred to me that perhaps I should signal my plight, but for some reason, my arms reminded glued to my sides.
As the light grew larger and more intense, my skin began to tingle, and I could feel the hair on my head stand straight up, as if pulled by some gigantic charge of static electricity. As the thing hovered over me, I could see that it was saucer shaped, outlined with rotating lights around its edge.
Suddenly a dark square hatch appeared in the center of the shining disk, and something began slowly descending from it. Now I could detect a rhythmic drumming sound. As the thing got closer to the ground, I could see that it had long ears, a soft body, and was covered with pink fur from its head to its short fluffy tail. As always, he was wearing sunglasses.
“You’re real!” I shouted in amazement as the Energizer Bunny touched lightly down. He did not reply nor even glance in my direction, but marched straight ahead into the desert, beating his drum as he disappeared into the night.
Still the drum beat continued, then a voice shouted, “Sarah, open the door-- we only have fifteen minutes till checkout!”
My eyes flew open. My heart was still pounding as I sat up with a start. “Okay!” I yelled to my friend, “I’ll be ready in ten minutes.” I sank back into the pillow, still trying to catch my breath, but now ready to burst into laughter. See? I said to myself, There really wasn’t any reason to be afraid.