Little Green Alien Lights

My parents tucked me in, turned off the light and close the door so there is only the smallest crack of dim light peaking in. The darkness starts to surround me and again I am filled with a fear that stiffens my body. I know that if I ask to sleep with them again, they will assure me that everything is just fine and I am a big girl now and I need to stop doing this I’m eleven years old for Christ sake. I try to close my eyes but I feel safer with them open. My eyes adjust to the darkness and I begin to see the outline of everything in my room. My bed is in the corner and right next to me is a window facing our front yard. I can’t help but be consumed with dread wondering if it will be outside my window again. I debate for the next forty minutes whether or not I want to look out. I can’t bring myself to do it.

Another night consumed by my anxiety. There’s no way I am imagining this happening to me right? I just wish I knew what it was. Oh no. I can catch it from the corner of my eye and I can’t help but look. It is there again... Three swirling green globs of light dancing around outside my window. Too big to be a lightening bugs and too bright to be a flashlight. I stare paralyzed for a few minutes as the lights continue to move around. Aliens. It has to be something to do with aliens. God, I hope they don’t come in here.

I look away again, staring into the far corner of my room trying to relax my body so I can sleep. I grow angry thinking about how these lights have consumed my summer. The dead heat in my room becomes more obvious. I never let my parents open my window this summer and I couldn’t dare leave a limb vulnerable outside of my blanket. As I start to sweat I grow more annoyed. I decide maybe I should try confronting the lights.

After a few minutes I say “Would you please go away so I can sleep?”

My eyes jolt to the window. The lights still dance around still, taunting me. One seems to bounce off the glass of my window.

Once again, I say “Please leave I do not want you here”.

The lights seem to slowly move into the yard. Was that all I had to do? How ridiculous. I get up and look out the window and watch the lights dance their way towards the road. I live out in the country and there is only one streetlight near my neighbor’s house across the way, casting a small blanket of light on the road. As the lights approach the road, they disappear and I see a shadowy figure appear under the streetlight.

My body grows tense with fear again and my heart beats fast. The shadowy figure looks like a man and begins slowly walking down the road and then jolts suddenly into the neighbor’s yard. I jump back in bed and begin the process again of trying to calm myself down.

I can’t get the image of the shadow man out of my head and I wonder if it was really responsible for the green lights. My thoughts consume me and I don’t end up falling asleep until the sun starts coming up around five in the morning. As I drift to sleep, I am thankful it is the summer and I can sleep in for a few hours.