Aliens, Tequila & Us: The complete series

by Michael Herman

  “When they release, Soliloquy dries her eyes. ‘Sorry I’m such a mess and so much of a burden. Thanks for helping.’

  “My mom smiles. ‘You were no trouble at all, honey. You did great.’

  “My dad touches my mom’s arm. ‘You okay?’ It’s then that I notice my mom’s hand is shaking.

  “’There are worse things than this ahead,’ she mumbles, trying to let only him hear. But I catch it and start to fear whatever is ahead. Damn! I think to myself.

  Messenger’s Soliloquy Chapter 6

  “As we near the cave where the alien craft is located, a distant and dim glow illuminates the tunnel walls ahead. Unlike the blue-green glowworm light, the brightness is stark white. Worried that it might be the aliens, I point out to my mother, ‘Mom, lights, ahead of us. Have the aliens beaten us to the craft?’ She assures me we are far out in front of them. ‘When we get there, Messenger, it will explain itself.’

  “The way forward eventually becomes so clearly illuminated that we are able to douse our lanterns and flashlights. Rounding a final bend in the tunnel, we come to the mouth of a surprisingly huge cavern. A sea of tiny flickering lights, swarming thickly and splashing up the cavern walls like waves of water, covers the floor of the cavern. Beyond the sea of light is the cucumber craft, shiny and multicolored, reflecting light up onto the walls and ceiling.

  “Forbes is squinting. ‘Guess we should have brought sunglasses.’

  “Twizzle sings in soft sarcasm, ‘We’re heeeere.’

  “’What... what are those?’ Soliloquy asks, pointing to the white flickering lights.

  “’Some of the rose thorns,’ my dad tells her and then, without waiting to explain, continues on out into the liquid light speckles. As he wades in, they swirl around his feet like moss on the surface of swamp water. He walks in until he is knee-deep. He stops, turns to us and says, ‘Now watch what happens.’ At first, the lights swirl about his body as if he were standing in some small whirlpool. Then slowly they begin to rise up his legs in a thin layer, coating him with their numbers. ‘They won’t hurt me. It’s like this every time.’ Like a living blanket, they continue up his body, past his waist, up his chest and shoulders, over his neck and then they finally cover his head. Transformed into a glowing animated snowman, he waves his hands at us.

  “For some reason, Christmas carols pop into my mind and I start soto voce singing, ‘Sleigh bells ring, are you listening? In the lane, snow is glistening.’ Soliloquy gives me a ‘what-the-hell?’ look. I shrug my shoulders helplessly. I am a victim of my own weirdness.

  “Then, as if someone flicked a switch, the lights on him go blank. They shudder and fall off like lifeless sand particles.

  “’No pain. It’s just their way of saying hello. A little unnerving the first time. And ticklish. But it passes as quickly as it starts. Who’s first? Forbes? How about it, young man? Ready to take the plunge?’

  “Forbes needs no second invitation. He wades into the animated light sea. When he gets to my dad, he turns to us and yells, ‘No probelony, abalones!’ We wait and watch, spellbound, as the process repeats and the lights climb up his legs to eventually cover him completely. The now-glowing Forbes giggles and laughs. Then, just like it happened with my dad, they blink out and fall off.

  “‘Whoo-hoo!’ he yells.

  “My uncle takes Twizzle’s hand and together they wade in. The process happens once more where they are coated in light things. When the lights drop from Twizzle, she grins and exclaims, ‘Awesome!’

  “Now it’s our turn. ’You first,’ Soliloquy says to me. I notice she is holding my mom’s hand. ‘We’ll follow.’

  “I wade in slowly, taking my time, getting deeper and deeper until I am in just above my knees. I feel them under my pants legs against my skin, like ants crawling around. For some reason, it just seems silly, not threatening or uncomfortable or dangerous. I reach down and pick up a handful of them and watch as they crawl along my wrist like tiny fireflies. I bring them to my face for closer examination. I discover they are nothing more than tiny sand-size white glowing balls, no legs, arms, hands, head or anything, just tiny glows. I look down and see that by now I am covered up to my chest. It makes me feel giddy, like the whole thing is playful fun. Cotton candy comes to mind and I swear the air smells sugar-scented with vanilla and star jasmine. Intoxicating. When they cover my head, I’m surprised I can see right through them. Like looking through rose-colored glasses, the world appears bright and happy. My mom and Soliloquy, still at the edge of the sea of lights, appear to be brightly saturated in color as if painted with brushstrokes from a rainbow. Then it’s over. The glowing things have blinked out and dropped off my body. I look at my dad, who is only a few feet away, and I reach deep into the best of my descriptive abilities. ‘Cool!’

  “He laughs.

  “Lastly, my mom and Soliloquy stride into the glowing sea and together experience what I just went through. When it’s over, Soliloquy is radiant.

  “’That is so radical!’ she exclaims. ‘Is it always like that?’

  “’Every time,’ my mom tells her. ‘Something to look forward to, don’t you think?’

  “’I so loved that. And everything smells so good, like toast in the morning with butter and cinnamon and sweet chocolate and flowers. Yummy.’

  “’Everyone experiences the air a little differently. Yours sounds wonderful.’

  “My dad is walking towards the alien craft. ‘Let’s keep moving, folks. Time’s a-wasting.’

  “We cross a distance of some 30 yards to the side of the craft where there is an opening about 4 feet above the ground.

  “’We go inside this?’ I wonder out loud.

  “’Inside is safety,’ my mom explains.

  “My dad helps my uncle up into the hatchway first, then lifts Forbes up to my uncle. When Forbes is set inside, he turns and yells to the interior of the craft, ‘Hello, anybody home?’ His voice echoes. My uncle pats him on the head and remarks, ‘Nobody but us Browns, young man.’

  “Twizzle is inside next. She faces into the ship and tells me, ‘Messenger, you have to see this. It’s so weird. You should feel right at home.’

  “Thank you, Twizzle. I love you, too.

  “Then Soliloquy is up and inside. She faces inward, goes silent and then turns back to us with a wary look on her face. Anxious to see what she is seeing, I scramble up through the opening. My mom goes next. Lastly, my dad reaches up to my uncle, who helps him in.

  “Grouped together at the entry, we gaze into what appears to be a metallic cavern. The floor is rounded, as are the walls and ceiling, kind of like being in a tube. Bumps and indentations and things I really can’t describe are on every surface. Sections of the walls give off soft, ambient warm reddish-yellow light. It’s like mood lighting in some crazy underworld café with us as the only patrons. Nothing is moving. We are the only life.

  “’Okay, everyone, step back from the entry. It’s time to batten down the hatch,’ my dad says. He places a hand on a bump in the wall and then very quickly, the hole that we entered through disappears with no evidence it ever existed.

  “’Spooky,’ Twizzle comments. ‘How did you know how to do that?’

  “’Twizzle, sweetie, in a very short time you will know how to do that. What we know of this craft you will soon know, too. It tells you.’

  “’You mean the craft talks?’

  “’Much more than that, honey. This is where things get freaky,’ my mom prepares us.

  “’Freaky!?’ I spout. ‘Are you kidding? Everything has been freaky. How can it get any weirder?’

  “My mom gives me that you-are-so-adorable look, as if I was too much of an innocent to comprehend it all. She lays her hand on my shoulder and says, ‘Messenger, as the larva becomes the butterfly, so will we all.’

  “I have no idea what she’s talking about or why she’s suddenly taken to talking in riddles. She’s usually the plain-talking, straight-to-the-point, nothing-but-the-facts pers
on in my life. If I want to cut to the chase on something I don’t understand, I go to my mom for her concise explanation. But apparently not this time.

  “She continues with, ’What we have knocking at our metaphorical front door is the enemy of human life. They are here to destroy the essence of one of the best things to happen to the human race.’

  “Suddenly someone is screaming from another part of the craft. I realize it’s Soliloquy, screaming and screaming and screaming.

  “’Oh damn,’ my dad mumbles, rushing off towards Soliloquy’s voice. While we follow in close pursuit, I’m thinking, ‘When did she leave us? I never saw her walk away.’

  “Eventually, I realize that when my mom said freaky, she wasn’t exaggerating. It turns out Soliloquy never left us, voluntarily. One minute she was next to us, the next she was in some new chamber, in hysterics, drawn there by some unconscious sixth sense. Before her is her mother, floating on a bed of glowing lights, her body suspended, her eyes closed, her skin ashen, and her clothes almost transparent. She is lifeless.

  “My mother rushes to Soliloquy and wraps her arms around her in a tight bear hug. My dad and uncle place themselves between Soliloquy’s mother and Soliloquy, blocking her view of her mother.

  “’Bob, Ted, join me,’ my mom commands. My uncle and dad all embrace her, obscuring her from our view.

  “If it had been people other than my parents, I would have thought they were hurting her, smothering her, trying to stifle her. But when Soliloquy’s screams diminish to sobs and then disappear completely, I realize it’s their way of protecting her from the sight of her ghost-like mom. My mom murmurs softly to Soliloquy, trying to calm her.

  “Twizzle, meanwhile, approaches Soliloquy’s mother. She reaches out slowly and touches her mom’s face, running her finger down her cheek to her lips. ‘Soft and cool, like she just came in from the cold,’ Twizzle notes. She bends over and caresses Soliloquy’s mother’s hair. The strands part easily in her fingers. She turns to my parents, who have by now released Soliloquy, and asks them, ‘Why is she here? Is she asleep?’

  “Soliloquy, no longer screaming, appears still emotional. Her eyes are wide and disturbed as she stares past Twizzle to her mother.

  “’Let me touch her,’ Soliloquy says with force and tension in her voice. Her request is a command. In response, my dad and uncle move aside, silent, wary and watchful. They exchange meaningful looks that tell me there is a story behind all this that they are privy to, something kept secret that now must be revealed.

  “Soliloquy walks trancelike to her mother and stops before her. Her head turns from left to right as she takes in her mother’s body from head to feet. She steps closer and slowly raises her index finger to her mother’s forehead. ‘Oh!’ she whispers then gently traces the shape of her mother’s nose. She passes her finger over her mother’s lips and says, ‘She’s dead, isn’t she?’

  “None of the adults responds.

  “’And yet her consciousness is here with me,’ she says, then turns to us and adds with growing realization, ‘I feel her presence around me. She is warm and...’ Suddenly, she jerks and gasps, ‘Oh my God, she’s reassuring me. I smell her perfume. She’s like a wind passing through me.’

  “The performance is like something from one of her mother’s churches where a parishioner stands and announces that God has touched him. Soliloquy’s always been so down to earth in the past, a complete realist who dismisses the supernatural, so this new version of her scares me. This not the Soliloquy I grew up with. I know circumstances can change a person, but Soliloquy was a constant through everything. This new ‘her’ is so...alien.

  “She closes her eyes, lifts her head towards the ceiling and smiles. ‘She’s kissing me. Letting me know she still loves me.’ A tear starts down her cheek. ‘She’s in me,’ she pronounces. ‘It’s so wonderful. We are together again.’

  “‘Dad? Mom?’ I’m completely blown away. ‘Talk to us. What’s going on? Why is Soliloquy’s mom here?’ I wonder if she’s having a breakdown. This whole thing—her mom being here, Soliloquy being drawn to this location, Soliloquy being possessed—it all seems so wrong, so very wrong.

  Messenger’s Soliloquy Chapter 7

  “When Soliloquy sees her mother’s near-spectral form floating in liquid light, her screams are perfectly understandable. Her mom is supposed to be alive and in Ireland, not here deep under the earth inside an alien craft.

  “’We need to explain,’ my uncle says solemnly, scrunching up his face. His delivery is slow, with an air of sadness about it. His tone is heavy and contrite. Like thousand-pound barbells are about to be dropped at our feet. ‘It’s time to confess.’

  “Both my parents shake their heads in disagreement, but their eyes show uncertainty.

  “’We must make time for this,’ he states emphatically and sets himself to the task with a shrug of his body.

  “He addresses Soliloquy. ‘Have you ever wondered about your father, who he might be?’

  “Soliloquy, ecstatic from sensing her mother only moments ago, seems dazed and unattached to the moment, focusing only on her mom’s body. In a weak voice, she answers, ‘Only a few times. Mom always said she had no idea who he was, that it could have been any number of people. She said she had numerous lovers, none of whom was still in her life. She proclaimed that God was my real father, everyone’s father in fact, and to not let it trouble me. God would always be here for me.’ She turns towards my uncle and looks off into the distance with a spaced-out smile.

  “My uncle clears his throat and forges on. ‘Bethany did have lovers, Soliloquy. Understandable, because she was one of the most beautiful women in the world in the years before you were born. She dangled men like puppets from the tips of her fingers. When you were born, some of those lovers evaporated, afraid of being tied down, while others tried to remain in her life, but Bethany would have none of them. She told everyone what she told you, that God was your father and would watch out for the two of you. She did not need a man to cling to her when the Lord would see to her needs.

  “’But she had a bad habit of abandoning you to your grandmother, who could barely support herself, let alone raise a grandchild on her own. So I stepped in and helped your grandmother get by because I was concerned about your welfare. For all I knew, you could be my daughter. I was one of your mother’s lovers. I never pressed the issue because I was afraid it might drive her, and thus you, away. So I did what I could to keep your grandmother nearby because I knew your mother would always come back to your grandmother, which she did again and again. The three of you were a family for me. I kept your grandmother in food and housing and transportation, and made sure you were provided for. Having you close to Messenger and his family was a way to be near you, safely, without drama.’

  “’My mother says you did well, Uncle Ted. She hears you through me.’

  “When I hear this, I’m thinking to myself Soliloquy has lost it. I never put stock in events when someone sees or hears or talks through you. It just seems more imaginary than real. So when I hear Soliloquy act as though her mother is present and living through her, I have to conclude that the combined events have been too much for her. And who could blame her?

  “’I’m glad,’ my uncle responds. ‘Then she isn’t mad at me for sending those letters and postcards from around the world to you after she died.’

  “I’m thinking, What is he talking about? Soliloquy never mentioned letters or postcards from my uncle.

  “’You see, it was me, not her, who continued the correspondence with you,’ he confesses.

  “This is a bomb for me, a huge betrayal, this impersonating her mother. I’m suddenly angry for her.

  “’Please understand, I didn’t want you or anyone else thinking you were motherless.’ He pauses and I can tell he’s struggling to continue. While we wait silently for Soliloquy’s reaction, I wonder if my parents knew.

  “’Your mother died on the ranch, Soliloquy,’ my dad admits.


  “I guess that answers that for me. Now I’m also angry with him. This is wrong...wrong!

  “’She showed up one day when you and the kids were gone, and she announced she was going into the desert for forty days and forty nights to live on bread and water to cleanse her body of impurities.’

  “Aagh! Forty days and forty nights! That is so Soliloquy’s mother. Off the deep end and into an abyss.

  “’We couldn’t talk her out of it so we did what we could to help her through it by giving her supplies. We pointed her in the safest direction to make camp, but she ignored the map and headed towards the mountains, hiking on foot, turning down our offers to drive her to wherever she was going. She wanted to be alone and be on her own. She said God would be her guide. For days we watched her from afar with binoculars and then a telescope. After about a week, when we saw no movement from where she made camp in the hills, Ted drove out to check on her.’

  “My uncle picks up the story, his delivery leaden with dread. ‘I feared the worst before I left, so I grabbed your parents’ first aid kit. When I found her, she was almost dead from a combination of exposure, dehydration, and a wound to the head from where she had apparently fallen. I roused her with smelling salts from the kit, and asked her what happened. All she said was, ‘Take me to Gi. Gi will have me.’ Then she closed her eyes and melted back into oblivion. I carried her unconscious body down to my car and rushed her back to the ranch as quickly as I dared, but she died on the way here.’”