A Sad Prologue
When I was twelve years old, Aliens abducted my brother Ron.
We had snuck out of the house through the back patio door on a dark cold winter’s night. I remember the yellow overhanging street lights illuminating the white sprinkles of powdered snow and frosted trees. Everything had been silent, except for the soft sound of our tiny boots crunching against the sidewalk. That night I held his hand tight as we crossed the road to the corner store a block away...for some reason, even back then, I knew the night would go wrong.
We made a type of Canadian tradition when we were kids, amongst our friends and us. Go to the corner store, buy a Slurpee, and drink it in a minute. The two of us thought it was hilarious to watch the other get a brain freeze, each of our faces squinted into tight balls of pain.
Ron always knew how to get us in trouble, and I always let him.
With our goodies in hand, we started walking home. The chilliness of the plastic cup frost-burnt the palm of my bare hand; at the time, I let my eyes trail down to the container to imagine what the flavors would taste like. I had picked lovely cherry, hypnotic blue crash, and Pep’s. For a second, time felt fluid as I stared down at the drink. Eventually, I looked back up at Ron’s head. It bobbed happily back and forth in a hypnotic motion…That’s when everything turned white.
Zwipppp…
ZAP!
The cup had slipped from my fingers into the snow, coloring the white surface red pink and blue. I tried to open my eyes but only got a flicker before they slammed shut. The cold was unbearable. I called my brother’s name until my throat became raw. A loud hummmmm made it impossible to hear. Ron’s warm hand slipped from mine as the light began to diminish from beyond my sealed eyelids.
My eyes crept open, what I saw next haunted my dreams all throughout my childhood. A huge silver saucer, hovering in the sky shone a thick beam onto us. My brother, terrified and screaming, was floating in the air towards the center of the ship.
I jumped. I tried to reach him. I tried to shout.
“Come back Ron!! Come back!!”
I was too small. Too weak. He disappeared, and so did the UFO in a flash of brilliant rainbow lights.
I was left standing alone on the sidewalk. Everything was silent.
My memory gets jaded after that...I think I heard somebody shouting my name, then Ron’s in succession.
“Ron? Where are you?”
He never came back.
