Far Horizons: Tales of Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror. Issue #17 August 2015 | Page 60
for it right there in front of the rest of them. And the
others didn’t even care. It was like watching two
animals mating for all the concern that was shown.
Then I saw on the right of me a tent, where it
came from I don’t know but most of those dancing
went inside and came out with little steins full of beer.
They sure made a sight drinking them down. The
band hauled their asses over there too and the music
stopped just like that. I guess that they must have had
quite some thirst built up, because the drinking went
for a while. I felt a mite uncomfortable just watching
them, and a while later I started to edge my way back
and leave them to their own business. That’s what I
meant to do but I snagged my arm on a rock, and I
cursed out loud, and everything stopped.
I stopped too, afraid of what I’d done. I’d
given myself away, and I didn’t know what they
would do if they saw me. I just froze like a rabbit that
saw a coyote walking nearby hoping it hadn’t been
seen. A few of them creatures came close to where
I was, and I heard a high jibber-jabber. I guess they
knew someone had been watching them, because the
tent disappeared along with the place where the band
had been playing. They just disappeared like smoke,
and then the creatures turned into the bright lights I’d
seen land, and then I knew what the lights were.
The lights flashed up into the night and
vanished away to the north where they’d come from.
Maybe they were going home. I picked myself up,
drank the last of the coffee and headed back to the
truck. I swear I’d been looking at them little people
for only an hour or two but the sky was beginning to
lighten in the east as I got back to the truck and fired
her up for the rest of the haul to Cheyenne. I was
going to be a long ways late, but I knew I could come
up with a story to cover my ass. Truckers are inventive
when it comes to not getting our asses in a sling.
It’s funny when I think about it. We can make
people believe the worst kind of BS a man can come
up with, but there’s no way I could make anyone
believe me about what I saw that night. I never even
tried to tell anyone either, some things are just better
left unsaid. I never saw those lights or anything like
them again, but sometimes when it’s a cold fall night
and I’m passing that lookout I pull over and wait for a
while and I just watch the sky. . .
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