The Unimportant Invasion

I was around eight at the time and drawing dad and I as superheroes holding hands in this black book. I remember on the radio there was a song about cats in the cradle and then it was a news break to talk about an epidemic. I was bored so, I started singing the phrase cats in the cradle over and over again. Father exclaims, 'wait' in a very loud voice. Then, like a bolt, he turns quickly to the right to face me with his hand out reaching. I flinch because of the suddenness of it all and put the black book up to guard me or protect me out of instinct. He swats towards me in the backseat. He was facing forward again and using his left hand to drive and right to swipes back. He swats at me again and grabs the black book and throws it uselessly to the floor. He Slams on the brakes like he's crazy. Big eyed he turned around and as I close my eyes, I feel the impact of what feels like the Hand of God slams my face into the car door. My arm hurts and my ears are ringing with a deafening hi-pitched (chime, tone, note). Then, next moments after that are some confusing disjointed pieces of me looking at the glass on the grass and another with my dad roughly dropping me on the floor like a sack of potatoes. He's banging on someone's door. I can make out some sounds soaking through the high-pitched note and the loudness of the world is leaking in. "What about my kid?!", he says. "He got his bell rung and he’s hurt." That was the last time I saw my dad.

They let me cry for the whole day. When, I woke up the next morning there was some food. There was a lady there about the same age as my mother. "Would you like some crayons and something to write on? We have many colors of notebooks, which would you like." I always grabbed the black one. Black just make everything look sleek, clean, and new, like cars and kitchen appliances.

In the house were three females, two ladies and a little girl, Sandy Jenkins. The oldest lady had a cloud of hopelessness around her. The other was Sandy’s mother, Bianca Jenkins. Her mom was thinker. She had a retiree’s house. It was a two-bedroom ranch with a semi-neglected garden, where we get our fruits and vegetables. We had rabbits and chickens, but wild dogs got them now we try not to spend too much time out there. Hence, why the garden was semi-neglected. At first, I hated mornings. Mornings were terrifying. I saw cute little tabbies getting eaten by dogs and those dogs by bigger dogs. Nights seemed like it would be more peaceful because at night it would be hard for them to see you. I went out at night only once. It was very quiet and I tried to stay camouflaged into the silence. I was wondering on how being unseen and quiet was not good enough while facing wolves with strong noses. Boom and flash of light. I nearly jumped out of my skin and whirled around. That light revealed the forest a block away with all its nocturnal inhabitants. The night is frightening because what unknown horrors it concealed. The light was horror of the overwhelming amount of actual dangers it revealed. That boom and flash night was the first of many fights between us versus the aliens. Night after night and sometimes in the day explosions would break the peace until one day it stopped. A month went pass and the food started to run low. While scavenging and running from wild dogs we broke into the school next door. We broke in through a loose classroom window. we found some chains, keys, and locks in the janitor's closet. useful stuff for opening the doors from the inside and locking the place back up. Months passed and winter began. Turns out the school was perfect with some fixings from the house. We had plenty of water, converting ice to something to drink. However, there were no vegetables and we were going to have to hunt rats. Spring rolled around before we ran out of can goods thanks to rationing. we were thin but we made it.

I wanted to look for survivors. I saw a military caravan and decided to watch them. I felt as the man of the house I had to keep everyone safe. As we watched, two girls were being chased by a pit-bull, I froze. Not knowing what to do, how to help, and how to not get eaten I was paralyzed by fear, guilt, and indecision. Sandy though, leapt into action. Throwing up her arms flailing for the military guys to help the two girls. The military saved us. Turns out the two saw me freeze and they berated me for it. They said, 'what kind of a man are you?', and 'you're not a real man!' I've never felt so ugly and unlovable.

The next chapter of my life was with Sandy Jenkins, but as classmates only. I had a crush on her. Mainly, falling for a childhood friend is a trope for a reason. We were rescued by the military the day we saw the two girls being chased. That day I saw the look on Sandy's face as she smiled brightly at the heroes of the day. Ever since then, I was resolved to be more brave and heroic so I can get a smile like that. We went on a lot of scouting missions and scavenging missions, all while taking classes together. I thought because we spent a lot of time together that I still had a chance. So, one day, Sandy and someone else from my squad got trapped when a wooden porch collapsed under them, I was grinning when it happened. I reached down to her and pulled her up as she climbed out. I scratched my face and arm up pretty bad. It was my perfect hero moment and I wanted her to give me 'the look.' It never happened. In fact, she turned her back to me with the rest of the squadron as they helped our squad leader out of the hole. "you look like a psycho," she said jokingly. I must have had the oddest expression bleeding, wild smile on my face with a look of desperation in my eyes. She also said, thank you but still. After that, I always sat alone during lunch. As long as I had my studies to focused on and my little black book. I still saw Sandy in the halls. One day, it was announced that if we really wanted to save the world, if we did well in our classes we could join the officer program. For those of us who couldn't walk the walk with the officer program, they would join those who talk the talk. We lovingly call them the politicians. This is my chance to be heroic in Sandy's eyes. The fire of hope in my heart went from a candle to fireball. For months we studied and trained. Sandy and I talked more often. She seemed to liked my rants about conspiracies and what the future should be like. Sandy's lunchroom group made fun of my arm and face, but she defended me sometimes. Slowly, I think we grew almost as close as we used to be when we were just kids. Day of the results I was nervous. Sandy was talking with the group from the lunch room. Honestly, I didn’t know she had any other friends. I guess I never thought about what she did when I wasn't around. She approached the board and she saw her name saying she was now in officer training. Our eyes locked and she saw it written in the tears teetering on the lip of my eyelids. The look on her face. It was pity pure and simple. I blurted out, 'don't look down at me. you'll never save the world. you'll never be a hero!' Silence echoed and no one spoke as Sandy stormed off. The day before the officer training started, the officer training recruits were leaving. I wanted to apologize. So, after dinner I went to find her. Unfortunately , I found her and she was having sex with one of her friends in the woods. I threw a handful of pinecones at them and ran before they saw me. I thought about those weeks a lot. I seethed. I fumed. I raged and ruminated. Even though our lives were all about survival and fighting off the alien menace, now it really felt like the end of the world.

Well, time heals all wounds or so they say. I graduated from politician class and was recruited for really tough assignments. I had a couple of years to think about it. I contemplated, remembered, re-ruminated and reconsidered. I've come to the conclusion all this happened because I have abandonment issues. First, it was my dad leaving me and never seeing my family again. Then, I saw the adoration in Sandy's eyes and how I almost abandoned the two girls to be killed. Finally, when she was going to the different training camp it was all painful and confusing parts of growing up. Then seeing her after so long. Well, I can't that time back but we can reconcile before I go on this suicide mission. "Hey stranger", I said to Sandy. " "Well, aren't you a sight for sore eyes", she replied. " Sore from my charm or sore from my lack of it", I quipped. "Both," she retorted. There on the rocky shore near the turbulent lake we hugged with the sun starting to set. As we pulled apart our eyes locked saying water under the bridge.