Exercise 3 - documentary inspired short

Josh got out of the car slowly, careful to keep his eyes on the softly glowing light that had come to a rest above the water tower. He ignored Becky’s urgently whispered pleas to get back in the car and shut the door on her voice. He had come this far and he wasn’t going to let Becky’s ridiculous fear stop him from realizing his goal. He was going to make contact.

“Josh, can we just go out to a restaurant like normal human beings? Just this once, I’m begging you.”

Becky was busy in front of the bathroom mirror. She was carefully combing her long blond hair. He glanced at her quickly, feeling the pleasant surprise he always felt. After all these years together, he still couldn’t believe that the petite, peaches and cream skinned blond had fallen for him, the quintessential geek. His brown hair was constantly on the verge of being too long and looking shaggy no matter how he combed it or put in her endless supply of hair care products. He looked past her reflection and studied his own for a moment. His polo shirt seemed to make him look like an overgrown twelve year old and the jeans did nothing to discourage the image either. He didn’t really care except when he was out with Becky in public, then he became the self conscious, insecure high school kid who had spent months working up the courage to ask the head cheerleader out. When she had said yes instead of laughing him out of the room, he had almost passed out. And yet here they were five years later, living together and couldn’t be happier, except for one small thing – his project. And that was the cause of this night’s argument.

“You know that the eclipse is supposed to be the best show since 1942. How can I pass that up? It might be one of the best chances of seeing a UFO.”

“I don’t care how much research you’ve done on this Josh, I am getting tired of packing up sandwiches and coffee and sitting outside in some farmer’s field so we don’t have to put up with the light pollution. I just want to sit in a nice restaurant, where they bring you hot food and I don’t have to lift a finger. I love you but this obsession you have with searching for alien life is, well frankly, getting a little old. We’re not kids anymore, you know? At what point are we going to settle down and lead normal lives?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean when are we going to start a family? Work normal hours? Talk about anything but the possibility of life in other galaxies?”

“Oh that.” His answer was made in a flat toned voice but his mind was whirring with the panicky sound of a door beginning to slam shut. He knew that he needed to throw her bone or he was going to be facing a long night of the silent treatment.
“Yeah, you’re right. When was the last time we went and had a nice dinner? Let’s hit that place that makes the great lasagne. What do you say? We can dress up a little. You should wear that red dress you bought a couple of weeks ago. Now that’s a sexy little number.” He smiled wolfishly at her and she giggled in delight. He wondered when the last time he had heard her giggle like that and thought alarmingly that it sure seemed like a long time ago. Maybe he was becoming obsessed with his studies. He felt a little better about missing the big lunar show.

The restaurant was packed when they arrived. A tall dark and handsome waiter lead them to the bar to wait for a table to free up. Josh could see the sheer scepticism on the man’s face and knew he was trying to figure out how the dork had landed such a hot girl. Josh tried to ooze confidence but he knew exactly what the waiter was thinking. ‘Must be on a blind date, she’ll ditch him soon enough.’ Josh knew the score, hell he had even seen guys slip her phone numbers when they thought he was out of sight. He had never seen Becky do anything but tell the guys to get lost but he still couldn’t help but feel inadequate like a toothless lion trying to protect his lioness from other young, strong lions.

When they were finally seated for dinner, he watched Becky pour over the menu. He smiled fondly. It was one of her quirks that he loved because only he knew about it. She would study a menu for ten minutes but each time she would order the same thing, garlic bread with cheese, lasagne, Caesar salad on the side. She never changed her order but each time they went out she would always check the menu out as if she might deviate.

“I’ll have the steak with mashed potatoes.” He told the waitress when she arrived at the table.

“I’ll have the same.” Josh dropped the cutlery he had been fiddling with.

“Are you sure? What about the lasagne?”

“You know what? I just don’t feel like it tonight. It’s funny. I almost always order the lasagne but tonight I just feel like I need something different. Weird, eh?”

“Yeah, weird.” He replied. He didn’t know why but the change made him feel off kilter. Like something was slowly going askew.

Becky seemed on edge after this interaction and when the meal came, conversation lulled. He felt like there were undertones here tonight that he could not see or understand. Becky kept glancing at her watch and he got the feeling she was getting more anxious by the moment. After yet another time check he couldn’t help himself.

“You got something better to do tonight?” He knew he sounded gruff but he couldn’t help himself.

She seemed honestly startled, by the tone or the question he couldn’t tell but either way he needed to know if she had finally wised up to the fact that she could do a lot better.

“What? No sorry, I was just thinking that today is Thursday and that show I really like is on at ten.”
He knew she was lying and the knowledge made his stomach turn. She wanted out of here. Maybe even out of the relationship. His mind raced as he tried to process what he had discovered.

“Would you mind if we finished up quick and got of here?” She smiled her angelic smile, the one she turned on when she wanted something desperately like the time her favourite shoes went on sale and the last pair had been promised to another customer. She had used that smile to charm the shoes right out of the sales clerk’s hands.

“Yeah, sure. No problem.” Oh it was a big problem alright. He knew which way the wind was blowing tonight and he knew it was going to blow him right out the door of her life.

“You haven’t said much since we left the restaurant. I’m sorry I rushed you.” He didn’t turn his head to answer, instead focussing on the road in front of him. He wasn’t sure what he would say if he actually saw her face. He was torn between sadness for losing her and rage at himself for thinking they would every have lived happily ever after. What had he been thinking?

“Sorry, I’m not feeling that great right now.”

“Is it the steak? You know I’ve told you before that you should get it well done. Why people want to eat pink meat is beyond me.”

He didn’t respond to this mini lecture but instead began glancing at the sky above the road. The stars always made him feel better. Tonight’s sky was a bit hazy but he could still pick out constellations. His favourite was Casseoipia. There was just something that drew his eyes to that particular formation. He found it low in the sky, just above the horizon. He quickly picked out his landmark, the old water tower, too. The water tower was his nostalgic landmark as well as a physical landmark. Since he was a boy the water tower always meant he was nearly home. He could see the red aviation warning light that blinked atop the tower.

Wait! What was that next to the flashing red light? He dropped his eyes quickly to make sure the car was still between the white lanes of the pavement and then raised them to scan the sky near the tower. There. He had seen something. He could make out a white light that was drifting lazily around the water tower, almost as if it were circling it.
He debated mentioning it to Becky but as he turned to say something, he saw her glancing at her watch yet again. ‘Who needs her?’ a little voice in his mind asked. He went back to dividing his attention between the road in front of them and the white light that seemed to move very purposefully. He could feel the familiar flip flop of excitement in his gut. He had always wanted to have his own UFO experience, but he had never seen a thing no matter how hard he had stared through his telescope and now here he was driving along and there it was almost floating in front of his nose. He did not hesitate but took the next left to get onto the tower road.

“What are you doing? Where are we going?” She did not sound concerned, in fact she sounded almost smug.
“Nothing, I’m just going to go check out the water tower for a sec.” She turned and looked at him after he had answered. She seemed confused but he was in no mood to explain it to her. She would probably just make fun of him anyways and he was definitely not in the mood for that either.

There was a few more minutes of silence, him driving and constantly checking the sky, her staring straight ahead. He was angry that she had not even noticed the light yet but he was oddly relieved too. If she was going to be dumping him, he did not want to associate her with his beloved stars and possibly a UFO.

Finally, though, she could not seem to stand the silence and asked him what he was looking at. He didn’t say anything at first and then reluctantly pointed out the light above the tower.

She stared at it and then began rhyming off all the possibilities it could be, while Josh scornfully shot each explanation down. After several surly responses from him she returned to her silence of before and stopped questioning him.
He finally reached the driveway that actually belonged to the water tower. He turned onto it and then turned his car lights off. He could not believe that the light was now stationary above the tower. He had to stop himself from racing to the tower. So many times people who reported sightings of UFO’s had said how quickly the experience had ended but he had checked the clock on the dash out of habit when he had first spotted the light and the light had been circling the tower for a good fifteen minutes.

Finally they reached the base of the tower. He stopped the car and then got out. Becky was beside herself as she kept trying to get him to get back in the car.

“Becky knock it off!” He hissed.

“Fine! I don’t care what happens.” She pouted silently behind him as he continued forward. It was eerily quite out here next to the water tower. He could faintly hear the steady thump of the music he had turned on when they had left the restaurant, but no insect noises and no other sound of human activity. It was as if they were in their own little piece of the universe with this newcomer above their heads. He shook off a feeling of disquiet, thinking about the fact that no one actually knew that he and Becky had driven up here tonight. If anything happened... He let the thought trail off. Nothing would happen. No wait, scratch that, something huge was going to happen. He was going to make contact with an alien species and the world was going to finally know the truth about our place in the galaxy. For a brief moment he saw himself standing in front of the UN calmly briefing them on tonight’s experience and what it meant for mankind. Man, he would probably have his own Star Trek character created.

A sudden sound brought him crashing back to earth and his head snapped around at the loud bang to his left. His first thought was that he was in deep trouble. It had not occurred to him that they might be unfriendly. But then he realized that the light had changed above him and he returned his gaze to see what had made the difference. He was shocked to see that the light had changed to a rectangular shape and he could actually make out words written in English. His heart skipped a beat as his mind concluded that the aliens were trying to communicate. He quickly began reading letters. W-i-l-l. Y-o-u. Oh my god, not being able to dream of what they could want from him. M-a-r-r-y. What the hell? M-e?

Going cold all over with the shock, he spun clumsily and stared horrified at Becky.
“Well? What do you say?” She was beaming. Thrilled with herself, she was almost hopping from one foot to the other, gleefully.

His mind collapsed in on itself with disappointment. It had been a trick, nothing more than a practical joke. How long had he been waiting to find out the truth? How long had he been researching data? There had been so many countless hours of staring at the night sky. How stupid of him to think that she actually took his life’s work seriously?

He gave the only answer he could.

He flipped her the bird and walked away.