So it reminded me of my own novel, The Unknown . I recently added the novel to Kindle. It is also available in trade paper at amazon.com and other online bookstores.
Here is an excerpt from the opening to The Unknown, which takes place on the Hopi reservation in northern Arizona: (sorry for the formatting--can't indent properly).
Tommy stared into the darkness as if transfixed, as if seeing something that Leon could not see.
Tommy said, "It's going to happen."
It happened before Leon could phrase a reply.
There was a bright flash on the horizon that seemed to originate from the point at which Tommy had been staring.
And now Leon was staring in that direction too.
It all happened with incredible swiftness. The bright flash became a group of colored lights, pulsing and flashing–low in the sky and approaching at an astonishing rate of speed.
There was no time to do anything. In the instant that followed, Leon's mind was a jumbled riot of confused thought. Should he hit the ground? Those pulsing lights were zooming in straight at them, almost upon the pickup truck before Leon could even form a lucid thought out loud, it happened so fast.
Tommy remained placidly leaning back against the grillwork of his pickup truck, holding his can of beer and watching the approaching something as if he fully expected this to happen.
Leon, who had certainly not expected anything like whatever this was, did have time to duck his head as something huge and incredible whooshed by overhead. The gigantic whatever was cruising at what would be treetop level. Leon craned his neck around, watching it pass by close enough for his widened eyes to see that the pulsating lights encircled a silver-colored sphere which Leon Running Deer estimated to be nearly a thousand feet in diameter. There was an eerie silence. Leon barely discerned the slightest sound as the thing barreled at them.
Then it hovered for five or ten seconds.
And then, even before the amazement of any of this could sink into Leon's stunned mind, the whatever became gone disappearing in a straight path tracking southwest, fading out of sight into the darkness with no less than another five or ten seconds.
Leon Running Deer murmured "Holy shit," in a tone of mixed awe and reverence.
Tommy said soberly, "The gods speak. The old Ways live."
Leon's rational mind was grappling with what he'd witnessed. "We always saw military aircraft flying over when we were kids," he said. "The bombing ranges in Utah and New Mexico–"
"You think that was a military aircraft, bro?"
Leon admitted, "I don't know what it was."
"I'll tell you what it was," said Tommy. "It was two drunk Indians full of too much brew." His eyes focused on Leon. "You want to keep your nose clean, lawyer man? This never happened."
Leon found himself wondering what indeed had happened.
The whole event had transpired, start to finish, in hardly more than thirty seconds, tops.
The night again belonged only to the night breeze carrying the scent of mesquite and the howls of coyotes beneath a black infinity of starlight.
It was as if nothing had happened!
And what exactly had happened, Leon pondered. Something, something very beyond the realm of normal human experience, had happened here tonight. Had the gods indeed appeared and spoken to him here on this remote mesa on this night? He was left with nothing but fleeting impressions of what he had seen and heard.
He could believe his eyes and ears, couldn't he?
He found himself wondering how often people saw things like he and Tommy had just witnessed, with no one believing them. Or were such people afraid to say anything because they knew that no one would believe them?
Leon stopped staring after the point at which the "whatever" had vanished. He reached for another can of beer.
"Yeah, you're right," he said soberly, thoughtfully, staring again off to the distant point where the lights had disappeared. "Just a couple of drunk Indians."
He did not know what to make of what had occurred. But something had definitely occurred, yes. Hell, yes.
And Leon Running Deer found himself wondering when it would happen again.
© Copyright 2001, 2010 by Linda Pendleton, All Rights Reserved.
1 comment:
I'll check out this book, Linda. Wow, this happens over and over, and in so many different places, that I'm amazed we have anyone that does not believe we are visited by alien life.
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