Suddenly, a report came through the radio waves and via news stations across the globe. Some object they termed as a “flaming mass” was hurdling toward Earth and was set to impact in 9 minutes. We stood outside that old, run-down Blockbuster Video and waited, fearing all prophesied doom as the alien object rocketed toward us. Suddenly, we saw it breach the reddish clouds and it struck the ground with incredible speed. The point of impact seemed to be in the middle of nowhere, about 50 miles out from where we stood. The ground shuddered, making a sound like nothing I had ever experienced, but it felt perfect in the moment. He then appeared before me and the four or five standing near me through vision, only preceded by an unmistakable fire. It was not as if the land before me was aflame, but as if the fire was strewn about my eyes, spiraling into my head and filling my soul with fear and wonder all the same. He spoke our language. He told me—us—of the gift of life and of the evil whose sole purpose was to capture and extinguish that gift. I trembled at his power, but I feared neither for the sake of evil nor death. He then offered his eternal endowment: to negotiate the epochs alongside him and to experience rapture firsthand. Not knowing whether to agree or disagree, we all just sort of went with it.
I smiled from ear to ear and began to giggle inside—my thoughts suddenly capricious and cheerful. He invited us into his “Chariot,” but added that we could not see it from the outside, only the inside. It seemed as though we were wandering around blindly, but he guided us with his voice and before we knew it, we had traversed the threshold into the peculiar craft. Once inside, I was amazed at the sheer size. It was round in shape, somewhat disc-like, and about thirty to forty feet in diameter. And there he sat in his chair as captain of the strange transport.
He looked just like us and was dressed in a white tee and slacks. He was a tubby fellow who wore glasses and his head was as bald as a coot. His teeth were spaced apart and fairly sharp, but nothing too hideous to look at. If anything, he was perfectly normal by most standards. There was only one chair there and that was his. The rest of us just sort of stood around and simply marveled at the absolute magnificence of the opportunity, much less the ship. Once we were all “settled,” he began guiding his Chariot away from Earth. Above the ruddy clouds we soared; every angle was visible from inside the vessel except above and below. I watched as we turned this way and that, never once queasy or thrown from where we stood, and all the while ascending into the heavens. I gathered that we were lining up for some sort of shift. Then the Chariot stopped, the only thing ahead of us was the austerity of space.
“Brace yourselves,” he commanded. Then the heavenly ferry took a jolt, still with all of us frantically looking around for something to grab hold of. But then, I looked behind us and watched as we left the shallow embrace of Earth; it shrunk from sight in the span of a second! He let out an amused chortle and all of us heaved a confused sigh of relief and began to laugh along with him, though somewhat diffidently. I then looked ahead to see these wriggling waves of streaming light slowly stretch toward us from the nothingness ahead, on both the left and right sides, eventually passing by the ship and enveloping it in what I can only describe as an endless channel. Everything ahead started developing this distinct cobalt hue and I looked back to see everything behind us blush in our wake. I looked to the sides and saw the stars, the heavenly bodies that I once respected as changeless shapes in the night sky. Some were static to my vision; some zipped by with incredulous speed. It was then that I felt small—smaller than I ever had before. And so we traversed the heavens, destination: Oh, my God!
Soon, the Chariot began to slow its momentum. The wiggling streams of light withdrew ahead of us rather quickly, seemingly sucked back into the void of the cosmos. Everything around us began to lose its meticulous hue when I looked starboard. We suddenly passed this massive fixation. It was this conspicuous, polygonal structure that appeared akin to house—a mansion of sorts. It must’ve been millions of miles away from where we were, but it was gargantuan in size. It was made of perfectly-shaped, amaranthine squares. Individually, the squares were impossible to focus on. To the eye, they were opaque yet transparent, elusive yet concrete in their existence. I couldn’t figure it out, but then I realized that I wasn’t meant to. And so, I deemed it a testament—a sign that we had arrived. Then the Chariot landed in some unusual celestial domain. Once we exited the vessel, we were immediately greeted by this spectacular city. Looking into the distance I saw immaculate buildings of enormous size.
“Wow! No advertising anywhere!” I exclaimed, jovially. I felt like we were in Heaven! He walked ahead of us and led us to his abode. The stairs that led to the portico were these stone-like pylons that gave way a little when stepped on, but not enough to lose balance. I remember looking down into the abyss, expecting to see the ground upon which they were erected, but the rigid structures seemed to reach down into nothingness. And so, he opened the door for us and we walked inside.
He lived in a small, reticent apartment! He had a musical instrument in one corner of the room that resembled a guitar, but had no strings. There were many shelves that displayed trinkets and whimsy, each one just as appealing as the next. There were eccentric potted plants and an aquarium with a bunch of odd-looking, maritime flora and fauna. Against the wall opposite the foyer, there was a fireplace and I seem to remember a musical tune playing softly in the background. There were pictures hanging on the walls, though some of them I couldn’t understand, not because they were abstract works of art, but because I looked at them and was overcome with questions I didn’t quite know how to ask. One picture in particular was of this naked, woman-like creature—a humanoid by all means, but she had utterly smooth, cerulean skin. She was free of all blemish and fault. She had shiny, shoulder-length black hair that ruffled out modestly, forming broad locks. From there, it flowed down and around the back of her sensual neck, framing her remarkably shapely face. Her breasts hung perfectly round and were agile in form. She was posed in a dense jungle of vegetation which served as a stunning milieu as well as cloaked her lower half in secrecy. With an alluring gaze, she snarled at those who stopped to admire her beauty. She was baring her teeth, her canines were somewhat long and looked a bit sharper than what I was personally used to. What I seem to remember most about the picture was her perfect, jaundiced eyes glaring into me and asking me questions about where I came from and what truly made me happy. It was at that point that I quickly whipped out my cell phone, which was in my right pocket.
“I have to take a picture to show Evan!” I thought. I started navigating the phone’s OS looking for my camera application. Once I opened the app, I looked up to snap a photo. I stood there, alone in that desolate parking lot in front of the now-defunct Blockbuster Video. I felt a little ashamed, but that didn’t stop me from smiling and laughing hysterically on the inside. Then, I awoke from my dream. Somewhat dazed, yet exceedingly overjoyed, I heard him speak to me once more. He said his name was ‘Stan.’
“
Selah,” I thought to myself, “what an oddly perfect name.”
