Earth to Charlie

by Justin Olson

  “It’s just . . . I think you’re only asking because you feel guilty. Because I brought it up. Not because you want to know.”

  I put my hand on his cool shoulder. “I really want to know. We’re best friends, aren’t we?”

  Seth is quiet a moment. He turns to face me and stares intently into my eyes. “Okay. Fine. What do you want to know?”

  “Whatever you want to tell me.”

  “Do you want to know why we’re in Whitehall? Why I showed up three weeks before school ended?”

  I nod. “Only ever since you arrived.”

  “My mom didn’t think Miles City was safe anymore.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, without sounding too melodramatic, word got out that I was gay. . . . Long story about that. But basically I was dating the mayor’s son, and he wasn’t out, and anyway . . .” Seth shakes his head. “It’s kind of funny. So I start getting mysterious death threats. . . . I’m pretty sure Josh organized them. The mayor’s son. And they were freaking my mom out, but I figured they were mostly just scare tactics. But one day I went outside to leave for school and saw the words ‘death to faggots’ spray-painted on our garage door.”

  “Jesus.” I can barely believe what I’m hearing.

  “So my mom packed us up and we headed for the first place she found a job.”

  “Whitehall.”

  “Whitehall,” Seth repeats. “I kept trying to tell her that if we were already moving, we might as well go somewhere cool like Portland or Seattle. But she isn’t so keen on big cities.”

  “I had no idea.”

  Seth is quiet. “It’s not something I really enjoy sharing.”

  I don’t know what to say. I’m literally in shock. “Who would do such a thing?”

  Seth shrugs. “Someone who hates himself? I think I’m going to take some pictures.”

  “But it’s dark out.”

  “So it is.” Seth gets out of his sleeping bag and rifles through his backpack until he pulls out a camera case and a tripod.

  Next to our sleeping bags he sets up his tripod and mounts his camera, before pointing it up to the sky. “You can get some really cool shots at night. Like, long-exposure stuff can even bring out the Milky Way.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah. Haven’t you seen any of those kind of pictures? They’re all over online.”

  “I’ll have to look.”

  “I’ll show you one tonight—if I capture a good one. Actually, the camera can pick up things that the human eye would normally miss.”

  “Seriously? So there could be a UFO right in front of us and we might not see it, but the camera would?” I say, getting out of my sleeping bag.

  “I mean, probably not. But you never know.”

  I stand, looking up at the sky. I almost can’t believe that a UFO could be right in front of my eyes, but then again, I can totally believe it. “Take a picture.”

  “That’s what I’m working on.”

  “No, like a quick snap, so we can see if there’s anything above us right now.”

  “Well, it doesn’t quite work like that.”

  “Oh. Well, how does it work?”

  “Let me just take a long exposure, and we can see what we see.”

  Seth adjusts the camera; he looks into the eye-hole thing. I don’t know what it’s called. I go pet Tickles and then untie him from the tree. I’m walking in circles with Tickles and occasionally stealing glances at Seth. The night gets longer. I pet Tickles again.

  “Come look,” Seth finally says.

  Looking at the screen on the back of the camera, I see a still shot of a ton of stars. And I can kind of see the Milky Way snaking its way through the center. I see lots of colors in the shot that I don’t see when I look up. Like purples and blues. But I don’t see the one thing I’m looking for.

  “That’s an amazing photo.”

  “Thanks,” says Seth, who looks at me and lingers a moment too long before turning back to his camera. “I’m going to try another one.”

  His second shot is even better. It has deeper, more vibrant colors, and it has a better something . . . Seth calls it composition. But honestly, I think both shots are amazing, and as we are looking at his second picture on his camera, I see out of the corner of my eye a great flash. It is about as quick as a photo snap, but leaves a longer impression.

  We both duck as it seems to buzz the tops of the trees, but it’s gone before either of us can get a good look at it.

  Everything happens so quickly, and there is no crash landing, because we don’t hear anything, don’t see any debris or dust. In fact, it’s like nothing happened at all.

  Except it did.

  “What was that?” Seth asks, breathless. His eyes look wild. “Was it a shooting star? It was super, super close. We should be dead right now.”

  I turn to him, my heart racing; I’m more nervous than I ever thought I’d be at this point. I’m almost frightened. “They’re here.”

  Seth nervously asks, “Who’s here?”

  “The aliens.”

  And that’s when Tickles takes off into the woods.

  WANDER TO THE EDGE

  • • • • •

  “Grab your camera!” I scream as we both run after Tickles—and maybe we’re more chasing whatever that thing was that just practically grazed our heads. Well, I am.

  I sense that my mom is close, and I can’t help my excitement.

  We’re heading in the right direction, but I don’t hear Tickles. I’m worried about losing Geoffrey’s dog, but in all honesty, I probably won’t see Geoffrey again. I realize that’s a mean thought, and I kind of hate myself for thinking it.

  Up ahead Tickles barks, and I pick up my pace.

  “Tickles, stop running!”

  Seth is right behind me. But every time I look back, he’s getting farther behind.

  “Come on! Keep up!”

  “I am,” he says, out of breath.

  When I get to the top of the hill, I stop running and look around. I hear Seth closing in. Soon he’s next to me, breathing hard, but I can’t hear anything else. I can’t see anything either.

  Son of a bitch.

  There’s no dog.

  There’s no UFO.

  There’s nothing but forest stretching for miles and miles under the tutelage of moonlight.

  “Ugh.”

  “What’s wrong?” asks Seth

  Moving away from Seth, I shout, “I’m here! I’m up here! Come on, please don’t leave me!”

  I turn, and Seth’s expression says it all. He looks hurt. Sad.

  Seth kicks at the ground, and his mood seems sour. “So you could leave? Just like that?”

  And that’s when it hits me: if I go with the aliens, then I’ll be leaving my best friend. I’ll be leaving him like my parents left me. And that thought feels awful.

  And that awful feeling bothers the shit out of me.

  I have to play dumb, because the more I think about it, the less I know what I’d do. “What are you talking about? I’m right here.”

  He shakes his head angrily. “No. With these aliens. If they wanted to take you, you wouldn’t put up a fight? You’d just go with them?”

  “Sure.” But I’m not so sure now.

  “That’s fucked.”

  It’s not fucked. It’s survival. “You wouldn’t?”

  “No way. I have an amazing life to live here, on this planet. I hope to teach photography at some amazing art school in New York and have this hugely fulfilling career shooting for presidents and magazines and art galleries. I’ll have my own dog. And kids. I’m even going to get married someday.”

  I let his dreams sink in. That all sounds amazing for Seth, but those aren’t my dreams.

  “Do you?” Seth asks.

  “Do I what?” I ask, confused.

  “Do you have any dreams, Charlie? Besides this UFO thing? Do you have any wants or goals or aspirations in this life?”

  My
mind is blank. I haven’t had anyone in my family aspire to much, and my life is pretty much shit. My mom disappeared and my grandma doesn’t know I exist and I get bullied at school and my friend Geoffrey might be eating himself to death and Tickles has only three legs and we still don’t know who hit him and no one in my family has ever asked me, “Charlie, what are your dreams?” And now my dad has seemingly left me as well. Oh, and Seth seems pretty much done with me at this point too. I really can’t do anything right, and I’m sick of trying. So, dreams? No, I haven’t thought about a dream that doesn’t include me being taken to somewhere far from Whitehall and Montana and this earth.

  “Yes. I have dreams.”

  Seth wills me to continue.

  “Um, I want to—”

  I search my mind. My thoughts. My past. Fragments of my life pass before my eyes. My mom. My tricycle. Cooking with my grandma. My parents fighting. Geoffrey moving next door. Tickles peeing on me. Flying nowhere but in my mind. That’s when it hits me.

  “Fly.”

  “What?”

  I clear my throat. “A pilot. I want to be a plane pilot.” And just like that I suddenly do. I want to fly. I want to be up in the sky. It’s the best of all worlds—up above this one, but still connected to the earth—to the people that make life matter.

  Seth’s eyes seem to light up. “Really? I had no idea, Charlie.”

  Me either. I don’t know how I didn’t piece this puzzle together before. “Yeah. A pilot.”

  I turn back out to the darkened forest and search for the lost dog and the lost UFO and everything I’ve worked for. Everything I’ve searched for. Even when I’m already in the woods, I can’t find the damn UFO. I’m a failure, and it feels like the aliens don’t want me to find them. If they did, why would they make it so hard?

  Seth studies me and, apparently seeing my despair, sits cross-legged, on the ground.

  I throw up my hands. “Now what are you doing? We need to get the dog.”

  Seth doesn’t say anything, and the next thing I know, he has his camera up to his eye. Snap. He takes a picture of me.

  “This isn’t the time to take—”

  Snap.

  “Seriously, Seth. Stop—”

  Snap.

  “Stop!”

  I hear his camera click again, capturing me in a range of emotions and looks, and I’m not comfortable with any of it.

  “You’re alive,” he finally says. “You know that?”

  “Duh,” I say. “Of course I’m alive.”

  The camera clicks again.

  Out of desperation, I turn my back to him.

  “See, you say that, but I don’t think you really believe it.”

  “Why do you say that?” My back is still to him.

  I hear the scraping of dirt as he gets up and stands right behind me.

  “Because you act like your life hasn’t begun. You always talk about these aliens as if your life would officially start once they take you. But how do you know your life wouldn’t stop? I’m sorry for what I’m about to say, but how do you even know your mom is alive? If she was really taken by aliens, like you say, then what’s to say she—”

  “Don’t.”

  “Isn’t being tortured?”

  “Stop it.”

  “Or being used for some messed up experiment where they’ve sawed off her arms and legs and she’s a type of robot?”

  “Please!”

  “Or that she’s just . . . dead.”

  I turn to face him, the tears streaming down my face. “Why would you say that?”

  Seth hugs me tightly. He squeezes out all the air between us. It’s just us in the universe at this moment.

  A moment.

  Then my pocket vibrates. I accidentally left my phone on. I pull it out and see that I have a bit of service—and notice that I have a voice mail from an unknown number.

  I put my phone up to my ear. “Hey, Charlie. This is Ted, your dad’s friend. We went to your house, but you weren’t home. And it’s taken us a little while to find your number. . . . I have a bit of bad news.”

  My heart stops beating as I hold my breath.

  “Your dad went fishing with us, and he wanted to go for a hike yesterday to get some cell service and call you . . . but we started getting worried when he didn’t come back after a few hours. By late last night he had been gone for the better part of the day. Anyway, Charlie, we’re gathering up some men, and the sheriff is out trying to find him. I’m sure he’s safe, and maybe just got turned around. When you get this, give me a call back.”

  I slowly lower the phone as the words sink in.

  “What’s wrong?” asks Seth.

  “My dad. He’s missing.”

  DREAMS IN SHADOWS

  • • • • •

  In the blackness I hear a bark. That’s encouraging. And then more barks. I need to get Tickles. But I also need to go find my dad.

  And then I remember the UFO that has to be so close and yet feels so far away. But that’s okay. The UFO, for once, can be far away.

  “Tickles!” I shout. “Come here, boy.”

  “Tickles!” shouts Seth.

  The trees are thicker around us, letting less moonlight through, so I pull out my phone and turn on the flashlight. “Tickles!”

  The forest is quiet.

  “He last barked in this direction.” I point down the hill to the west. We briskly walk down the hill. “We absolutely cannot lose him. Geoffrey would never forgive me.”

  It strikes me that I’m thinking about Geoffrey’s reaction. It’s like I’m not leaving now, and I’m not upset by that thought.

  Tickles’s barking gets louder, and I pick up my pace, moving quickly over rocks and fallen trees in the dark.

  “I think he’s close,” I shout, but I see Seth falling farther behind again. Right after I say that, the barking stops. I keep going in the same direction until the next bark I hear sounds like it’s coming from behind me. I turn around. The next bark I hear sounds like it’s coming from my left side. The next bark sounds like it’s from my right side. It feels like I’m surrounded on all sides by dogs. . . . I feel dizzy and I lose my footing, and my leg slides out from under me and I fall, and my head smacks the ground. Hard.

  “Charlie!” I hear. But I don’t see Seth.

  “I’m okay,” I say, standing up. My head throbs with every heartbeat. The barking continues on all sides and grows louder.

  I feel disoriented. Through the barking I hear Seth’s words in my head, questioning whether my mother was tortured, or is perhaps dead. And suddenly I’m scared. I don’t like this. I don’t want to be abducted. I don’t want to die.

  Five mangy, rabid-looking wolves emerge from the darkened trees and are coming toward me from all sides. As they draw closer, they begin to stand on two legs, their fur tearing apart as if it were nothing but fake skin, a costume. But they still have their fangs and claws. There’s some kind of translucent skin underneath the wolf fur that now hangs from their bodies. Their eyes are small and sharp-looking. And yellow.

  Next thing I know, just like with Meridian X, I can’t move my arms or legs or even my mouth. I’m stuck.

  I see the fangs of the alien in front of me. I’d shiver if I could move. The alien takes a claw and slowly cuts horizontally across the top part of my forehead. I feel the warm blood running down the bridge of my nose. Another alien pulls open the skin, and I see him place a thin chip-like device into my forehead. Their breath is cold on my skin.

  As quickly as they appeared, they disappear. My mind goes black, and soon I am staring into the eyes of Seth as he hovers over me.

  “Oh, thank god,” he says. “You’re awake.”

  I lean up and look around. “What happened?”

  “You tripped and hit your head on that rock pretty hard.”

  I touch my forehead, which is bleeding. I quickly look up, and there appears to be nothing there. I look around. “Was anyone else here? Five wolflike creature things?”<
br />
  Seth looks at me strangely. “Uh . . . just us. You must’ve really hit your head. Maybe you should rest in case you got a concussion.”

  “I’m fine,” I say, standing up. “Where’s Tickles?”

  “I heard him barking just up on that ridge over there.”

  “Let’s go get him. Maybe you can lead this time?”

  Seth smiles and starts walking. As I follow, I touch my cut, feeling for anything chip-like inside.

  We are close to the top of the ridge, and Tickles is sitting there, almost like he’s been patiently waiting here the entire time. He barks as we get close. “Tickles,” I say. “You bad dog.”

  “Charlie? Do you know where we are? Or how to get back?”

  “Nope. But . . .” I look up to the sky. “Follow me.”

  * * *

  We walk through the pine trees, around the boulders, dog on leash, Seth next to me. I’m oddly serene. Though, I shouldn’t be. After all, my dad is officially missing. I don’t know for sure if I was just chipped by aliens, which means I might be missing soon myself.

  Seth and I are silent. Both in our heads.

  “Do you think your dad has been abducted?” Seth asks.

  I hear twigs crunch as we walk toward the campsite. Seth’s words are heavy. Doused with something like truth. My dad has been abducted—his soul was taken by my mom, when she left. He has never been the same.

  “I mean, he was in the woods when he disappeared.”

  “Lots of people are in the woods when they disappear,” I say.

  “So you don’t think he was abducted?”

  I shake my head. “Doubtful. He probably got drunk and got lost.”

  Seth stops walking. “Charlie? Is that you?”

  I walk a few more feet and turn back to him.

  “The Charlie I know would be swearing up and down that his father was abducted by aliens.”

  I shrug. “I guess I don’t really believe he was abducted.”

  We keep walking, letting the silence wash back over us.

  I realize that I gotta get out of the woods. I gotta get home. I gotta find my dad.

  But knowing that Seth is near me makes me feel, I don’t know, okay about life.

  LONG NIGHT LOOKING HOME

  • • • • •