“What? You were living on earth for decades?”
“I was trying to fly back to my place when my shuttle froze and I had to land it here.”
“Where were you living all these days? and why? And How?” It made no sense to me so I kept on adding question marks, “and What?”
Paul heaved a sigh, “I shouldn’t probably tell you this, but what the hell, you won’t remember it anyway and I liked talking to you.” He said it so quick I didn’t quite catch its essence.
“Wait what?”
“The thing is kid, I crashed on earth in 1947 in a place called Roswell in Mexico. Some of my friends and I left our planet on a drunk adventure and we crashed on this god forsaken planet. My friends died on impact and I was taken captive. They experimented on me like I’m some frog ready for dissection. They opened my up, poked around my insides and stitched me up finally because they needed me alive.” He touched the outlines of a long but faint scar on his chest, “Then they put me in a cell to keep me from running away or contacting my planet. They kept calling and referring me as ‘Alien’, reaffirming my feeling of being alienated. The trauma of that is why I don’t like being called ‘Alien’. Even when they spoke to me- and I’d learnt the language in a couple of days just by observing them- they spoke cautiously. They were afraid that I’ll call for my people’s help. But the truth is my ship was broken and there’s no space-time bender on earth that can call my home planet. The fastest signal you use is still limited by light speed and that’ll take millions of years to reach my planet.”
“Wow. But 1947? Gosh that’s long. You don’t look much old.”
“Like I said, I really am still young. Life span is very important for technical growth.”
“Right you said that before. So you’re saying you came to earth on 1947? And they kept you captive? So you broke free and were trying to escape today? But your shuttle crashed again behind my house”
“Umm..” He smiled at my imagination “Not so much buddy. They did keep me captive for a few years. Then the commander in-charge of Extra-terrestrial affairs was replaced and he was kinder to me. He saw what I’m capable of and he knew I’ll be of help to them if only they were more polite to me. So he set me free but requested not to roam outside the facility.”
“They have an office for extra-terrestrial affairs?”
“Yes, much like foreign embassies in each country. That’s the place where other extra-terrestrials come to visit Earth”
“Wait a second? You’re saying there are other aliens… I mean E.Ts on earth right now?”
“Yup”
“So the Area 51 is real?”
“Nah” He snorted, “That’s just a military bunker that was made to distract conspiracy theorists from finding the real deal. The real E.T embassy is underground in a place I can’t tell you.”
“Wow, so it’s true. There are outsiders among us”
“You sound surprised.”
“Of course I am. These aren’t things we see on news, but only in sci-fi movies.”
“Yeah well, they don’t want people to know about it. There’s no telling how people will react to out of the world creatures. I’m guessing the reaction of most will be just like the reaction of those who found me. They’re like children and they’d want to poke us to see what happens. Humans look suspiciously even at a foreigner. The bigger issue is that our mere presence will immediately invalidate a couple of big religions in this world. That is enough to cause a world-wide havoc. So the commander who helped me also begged me not to run away. He was the one who drastically changed the department for Extra-Terrestrial affairs and made it friendly for guests. They have ties with several species from this galaxy. Now I’m given a celebrity treatment in the facility and I’ve helped them as much as I can.”
“So if the whole department was founded on your arrival why can’t they help you rebuild your shuttle?”
“They’re trying. They’ve even joined hands with some other E.Ts in repairing my shuttle, but there’s not much they know about so it’s like running a Ferrari on batteries; There’s not enough power. And none of the other E.Ts is advanced enough to contact my place. I couldn’t help either because no matter how smart I am I’m still a young amateur when compared to those that made this shuttle.”
“But it flew today?”
“Yeah, they thought they’ve figured it out. I was still anxious but I gave it a try anyway. I was supposed to go round the earth on my shuttle and let the gravity fling me to the outer space like a sling shot. It’s funny you people still use that technique. But as I was halfway through the globe my shuttle broke down and I had to land it as quietly as possible. But you saw it because you were awake at 1 am.”
“Sorry” I gave a sheepish grin, “But hey, a great mind like yours should know to test the thing before you venture into space with it. Even our company has a huge department of testers that scrutinize everything before they let it go out for use.”
“Yeah well I was in a hurry to go home.”
“In such hurry that you’d risk your life?”
“You don’t know how it feels like kid, the longing, the loneliness.”
“Loneliness? You’re a rockstar in your department. You just said it. Why not take advantage of it?”
“Yeah, all the celebrity treatment asides I have to spend my days and nights in my room, watching movies and TV series on the internet.” It seemed like he was feeling comfortable with me to share his feelings. But then I recalled him saying something about me going to forget it all.
“That’s the problem.” I said trying to push aside the uncomfortable feeling in my guts. Even though I felt sympathy for him I also had this uneasy premonition that something was about to happen. I continued, “You should go out and have fun. I’m sure the other E.Ts will lend you their cloaking device or whatever it is to make you look like a human.”
“I don’t want to. All these years, getting back has been my only goal.”
“I understand it must be really frustrating. But earth isn’t a bad place either. Instead of hastening and taking deadly risks to get back, you can just sit back and enjoy the scenery for a while. I’m sure they’ll figure out your shuttle’s tech in another couple of decades if not today, and you’ll still be young then. So enjoy the stay.”
“That’s what I’ve been doing all this while.”
“But you haven’t seen the real earth yet. Watching a mountain through the window of your house is nothing compared to experiencing it from atop the mountain. And you’ve been watching the world from your computer, your ‘Windows’. I’ll tell you something I haven’t told anyone.
‘Last year I was very depressed. I don’t know if it was the heartbreak or the night shifts in office that messed me up but I didn’t want to live anymore. I didn’t want to die either but nothing felt interesting anymore. I was just moving forward in line, working, earning and surviving. Nothing excited me. I just wanted to get away from everything, get out of this world of misery. Then I heard that they were planning to send people to Mars on a one way trip. The people will live there on Mars and establish their colony. I almost jumped to the opportunity because it was exactly what I needed- to get out of this world.
‘I had made up my mind and planned to apply for it over that weekend. But then something happened. When I travelled in bus back and forth to office I started appreciating the scenery. I found the trees extra green and the roads extra dark. I found that the sky isn’t just plain blue, but it has several shades and sometimes of different colors. I started finding even a dog besides a dumpster amusing. I started finding the bus conductors friendly and the girls beautiful again. Even when I got to office I enjoyed talking to people around me because those were supposed to be the last few days of my life on earth. So I was nice to people since I didn’t want to leave them having any grudges against me, and they were in turn extra nice. Then I thought- this is good. Life is good. I realized that I’m enjoying these plain views while there’s so much more to see in the world. I have gone to several places in India but never outside India. How could I leave a world and a life that I haven’t experienced to the fullest? I didn’t apply for the one way trip after that.”
Paul stared at me expressionless. I may have not put it in very good words but I knew that he could feel my feelings. He was telepathic after all, which is nothing but empathy from a distance. Maybe that’s why they were so much better than us, because they could understand each other’s feelings. When you know what others feel there’s no way to act selfish. But just to put my thoughts to words about the greatness of planet earth, I went on, “There’s nothing better than a song when it comes to express something deep. Here’s a song I love.”
I began to clear my throat when my mind-voice interrupted me, “Dude, please don’t tell me you’re going to sing. We don’t want to scare our guest now, do we?”
“Ahem, right. Let me play the song from my mobile instead. I forgot the lines” I said and Paul looked at me amused. I searched for the song and played it. After some indiscernible African chants the song began in English-
“From the day we arrive on the planet
And blinking, step into the sun
There’s more to see than can ever be seen
More to do than can ever be done
There’s far too much to take in here
More to find than can ever be found
But the sun rolling high
Through the sapphire sky
Keeps the great and small on the endless round.
It’s the Circle of Life…” and it went on.
“Wow” he was impressed I could see, “So if you had applied you think you could’ve been chosen to go to Mars?”
“Nah, the chances were slim”, I chuckled, “But there’s something about the thought of leaving something that makes it look dear to us.”
“Barney Stinson calls it ‘Graduation Goggles’. Like how we start liking our school in the final days even though we hated it while in school.” Paul said smiling.
“Oh yeah, I was just going to say that. You stole my thoughts”
“Hey I wasn’t looking into your mind, promise.” He laughed and I saw some colour on his grey skin maybe the life coming back to him, “Thank you kid. You made me appreciate what I have now. Of course I want to go back to my place, but I won’t be in a hurry after this. I don’t want to.. you know.. die” he laughed again.
‘He’s quoting Russell Peters now’ my mind-voice whispered.
“I heard that” he said.
“Sorry” I chuckled, “It’s not me. It’s my mind-voice.”
He suddenly went silent, “You hear that?”
“Of course. It’s my mind-voice.” I raised my left brow.
“Not you. That sound outside”
I listened carefully for a few seconds and heard nothing. “No” I said and as if to mock my timing the doorbell rang.
“They’re here” Paul said.
‘Another movie reference’ said the mind-voice but I was scared and asked Paul who it was at this time.
“They’ve come to take me back. They must’ve figured that the shuttle didn’t work and they tracked it down here.”
“Who? The department of E.T?”
Paul nodded, “Their agents. The Men-in-Black.”
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