Happy Halloween-My Space Ship Experience

      I SWEAR I SAW ONE HONEST!

    It was a bright, moon filled,  night. My younger sister followed me through the cherry trees in South Hero, Vermont, on Keeler's Bay. She followed me everywhere, luckily she knew enough to not tattle on little every thing I did. "You talk, you walk, home." I'd told her several times. But this night was different.
     The shadows  were dark as we passed the empty camps. Nearly the end of a summer on Lake , we never expected any thing to scare us, let alone stun the entire length of Grand Isle.
Nested between the shores of New York and Vermont, lay the place we spent most of our childhoods in summer.  
     "Hurry up, JoAnn, mom and dad, are gonna kill me because you stayed out so late." I urged her to run.
    "No they  won't," she grinned. "I'll pretend I fell down and you had to take care of me until I felt well enough to walk." She gestured to her leg, where she'd scraped herself on a pricker bush of some kind. "All it takes is a little blood. They'll believe me, you know how Dad can't stand the sight of it, he'll pass right out."
     "Stop that you little twerp. You'll get an infection and it will be all my fault!" I smacked her hand as she tried to make the small cut bleed again, as we finally left the orchard.
     Suddenly, she stopped. Her hand in front of her, she pointed in the direction of the camp we'd rented for three months. Her mouth dropped and she stuttered. "Lu, lu, look at that!" She said.
     I glanced where she pointed. I couldn't believe my eyes. Over half of Keeler's Bay was covered by a strange sight. Owners and renters on the shore were outside and looking up at the sky.
Many of my relatives stood and stared among them.
     "Holy shit," I yelled. "What the heck is that?" I couldn't believe my eyes, up above the Bay and hovering over the camps was a ship. It was huge. Lights blinked all around the outside of it. "Hurry up, everyone's outside and staring up at it. It's a space ship." We ran as fast as we could.
     For some reason we weren't scared, not at all. Instead we raced to the steps of our rental cabin and hollered for our parents. My sister screeched. "Mom, Dad, everybody come out, there's a UFO hovering over us."
     "Yeah right, " our older brother used his, your stupid voice.
     "No look, I swear the whole Isle is almost covered by it. Everyone is out here, listen." I insisted.
     "There's a lot of voices out there Joe, I think we should see what's happening." My mother wiped her hands on a dish towel and headed out the door. My father right behind her.
     "Oh my God, it is a space ship." My mom, Ruth, had been looking for Aliens to abduct her ever since I can remember. She'd stand on the lawn and speak to the heavens. "Come and get me." She pleaded. I still don't get her logic, to this day. But, so far no one had taken her.

• 

     The lights flashed in brighter and the sound of something revving up filled the air. Dozens of Aunts, Uncles, cousins, relatives of my mother, and neighbors all talked at once. "I can't believe it." Reverberated among the dozens of people who now stared at the huge structure.
     I could see what looked like metal pieces crossing under the air ship. It must have been the size of a football field. Gigantic! Everyone ooh-ed and aah-ed over the sight. All of a sudden the sound of it's engines grew to a frightening pitch. We couldn't hear each other talking. The lights lit with a renewed speed until they circled the outside of the craft in a continuous flash of light. Then before I knew it, the vessel shot across the shy like a gun shot. So fast one couldn't follow it with your eyes, so bright and loud, you didn't want to. But, couldn't stop. It hung in the sky at a distance for a moment, then shot off into a cloud gone from sight.

     The sudden silence and return of the night was even more pronounced, now that the glowing thing had disappeared in the distance.
     We read about it in the local paper the next day. There were tons of sightings all over the area, from New York, to Vermont, people talked about it. For years to come we all remembered that night, and talked about the ship from the stars that no one could explain. Of course, the event was referred to as a mass hysteria thing. The official word was there was no space ship sighted. None of the explanations the authorities gave ever convinced any of us who were there that night.
     And though she has since stood out on the front lawn and begged the Aliens to come and get her, no one ever took my mother on their space ship. But, if you ask her to this day, she'd be the first to tell you she's still waiting.