THE ROAD

Robbie's heart began to race. It was becoming increasingly more obvious that the long stretch of US 2 was going to get a lot darker before it got any lighter. Lamps provided a modicum of relief about every twenty yards, but they certainly weren't enough to brighten Robbie's disposition. Driving alone along this stretch of freeway was pretty damn frightening, and doing so only raised long buried fears and concerns that otherwise wouldn't have even surfaced. The head lamps gave rise to only the immediate crescents directly ahead and served to create more apprehension than comfort.The radio only picked up crackles and the occasional voice buried beneath layers of white noise; even the stack of discs in the visor sleeve had already been cycled through enough times to become annoying. No, Robbie was all alone and well into creating an aura of displeasure around himself.

There was nothing to see. On either side of the little car flew past copse after copse of trees and dense woods. Had it been daylight, it'd have been just a dull and repetitive. Robbie began juggling thoughts and ideas over and over in his mind, none coherent and each one jarringly segueing into the other like car wrecks. Had he packed enough socks for the weekend? Would he be able to by some or, conversely, pick up some lunch meat? Were the Denver Broncos going to go all the way this year? Why would semi's need eighteen wheels anyway? Just that suddenly, while Robbie was uncomfortably miles away in his own head, an arc of blue light appeared in a flash just above the horizon.

His cascading miasma of thoughts abruptly fell apart like a fragile ice sculpture. Robbie inhaled quickly enough to bring on hiccups, and, without thinking, slowly depressed the break pedal. He automatically assumed that what he guessed he'd seen was nothing more than his weary eyes playing tricks on him, yet he shuddered with an eerie disconnection just the same. He just as slowly returned his speedometer back to seventy and let out a cautious breath. Robbie jumped a little in the bucket seat as the blue point of light, almost a halo in it's formation, returned over a distant line of trees that lie in his direction of travel. Robbie whispered a curse, and, at the same time, a prayer, to himself.

The little Nissan cruised down the desolate freeway at about sixty. The speed was far from constant and the driver, Robbie Andrews, was paying little attention to his detached feet as he stared, firmly mesmerized, at the pulsating blue glow that was growing ever larger ahead of him. At one point in appeared to bounce from left to right in an almost rainbow arc. Robbie watched in fascination and, at the same time, a cold fear he'd never known. Now Robbie knew, and firmly believed, that UFO's didn't exist. He'd never seen one, never read one piece of evidence that he'd instantly believed, and had always maintained skepticism. However, at that same moment as those very thoughts poured through his at once flabbergasted mind, the orb, now more of a cone shape, burst overhead, and Robbie's Nissan was instantly empty.

The End