Imagine...

   Imagine turning on the car radio while you drive home, on a Sunday night,  around 9 p.m. Usually you are home before dark, however tonight you stayed longer at your friends home than you intended.  You are alone in the car. You can see the city limits in your rearview mirror.  What lies ahead is an empty road and a full moon.  The date is Oct. 30, 1938, Tomorrow is Halloween, however the Columbia Broadcasting System has started airing a Halloween special early. Unfortunately you tuned in late and missed that part of the program. What you are hearing sounds real.  After adjusting the radio channel to block the static you interrupt  a man's booming voice as he slowly, methodically presents a series of news bulletins.  You turn the radio up just a hair because you are having trouble believing what your ears are hearing.  The " anchorman", Orson Welles,  is reporting news bulletins from all over the world.  Snippets of mass hysteria explode through the air waves as the news bulletins suggest the world has been invaded by Martians. The war of the worlds has begun.  That my friends, would be a horrible situation to find yourself in, no matter how old or brave you think you  are.

      I wasn't alive in 1938.  In fact my parents were kids at that time. I have never listened to  the original program.  I have read the novel written by H.G.Wells , "The War of the Worlds"  and watched the remake of the movie several  times. Both the book and the movie captured the imagination of millions of people who silently wondered, 'What if?'

    In my lifetime I have had several 'what if moments'. Things happened that I could not explain.  I know what I saw...I think.  I  cannot, for the life of me, explain what I saw in a logical manner without someone rolling his or her eyes,  while trying to explain away my version of reality.

    One event happened in 2006.  I was working the night shift, at a mental hospital, in a nearby town.  As I was driving to work my radio started cutting in and out. The trees were interfering with my reception. I glanced at the clock and the time was 10:32 p.m.

    I was driving on 'Broken Bridge Road', a backwoods cutoff between my home and work.  As I drove out of the woods into a small clearing I saw a bright light in front of me. It was the size of a nickel standing out against the black night sky.  The moon was located three fields away from the round object. There were no stars or reflections of the object in the sky.  The object appeared to be a round white light hanging in midair.  I watched it for about six seconds.   Immediately after those six seconds it shut itself off and disappeared.  There was no sound, no lingering light effects in the sky. Nothing.  The night no longer felt normal.  Most of me wanted to turn around and drive as fast as I could home.  It was too late to call in so I drove to Fulton in record time.  I was still mulling over the event when I pulled into the employee parking lot. 

   I didn't mention it that night. I listened to see if anyone saw anything unusual in the sky. No one that I worked with mentioned anything. I started to mention it but I changed my mind. After all I work in a mental hospital, people there are always seeing things unexplainable.  Not all of those people are locked up.  I waited a few days and nothing was ever mentioned. I told Tommy and he believed me.  Something was there.  Something messed with the night sky.  Something disappeared into thin air while I watched.  I can only imagine what it could be...