Evolving Crane

by Dave Welch

  Tom got quiet.

  “It was like she just let them go.” I added as I took her keys out of my pocket, catching them a few times.

  I teared up as I tossed the keys over to Tom.

  He caught them with a sudden jolt.

  “Tom?” I passionately asked. “I’m not crazy, man. I know what I saw.”

  “I’ve heard of this same type of thing happening to random people. It was like, one minute they were there; the next minute, they weren’t…Were there any clothes left behind?” He asked.

  “No.” I answered. “But there was this odd neon-colored hue on her car and on the ground where they were standing.”

  Tom looked at the keys for a second. “So, what… Are these her keys?” He asked.

  “Yeah. I need you to come with me to get her car, so they don’t impound it. Please?” I said with honesty.

  My lips had begun to tremble. I was sad, but Tom was a true friend. He stared at me and shut his eyes tight. He breathed in and bumped his head against the door behind him. He exhaled and opened his eyes, gazing at me with a capricious look.

  “Give me a second,” he said as he opened his door. He slowly and calmly walked back into his house.

  Tom had taken the keys into the house with him. He left his front door wide open as I stood humbly on the porch.

  He must’ve gone to change.

  “Hey Derrick!” Tom yelled from the living room.

  “Yeah!”

  “Come in here.”

  This was my first time stepping in Tom’s house. I felt kind of strange and out of place as I entered with care, closing the door behind me.

  Everything was so in order and tidy. His living room was to my left. He stood in front of a gorgeous couch watching the news on a large flat-screen TV, mounted perfectly on the wall, just above a massive fireplace.

  His wife sat on the couch watching the news as well and without even admonishing my entrance. She didn’t even turn around to see who I was.

  I overheard the anchorman mentioning the incident from earlier today. Just then, I stepped closer to Tom’s side as the anchorman delivered his findings. I tried to make eye contact with his wife, to speak with her in some type of way. And that’s when they showed a clip of Okani’s car and the injured defensive lineman, Cunningham.

  Suddenly, Tom’s wife glared at me with a blank gaze.

  “There! That’s her car! You see it!” I whaled.

  “We’re going…Now!” Tom firmly stated. “I’ll be right back, Hun.”

  His wife turned off the TV with the remote she had been holding from the moment of my entrance. She turned around, quite creepy in style, to stare at me again, but this time with a glower.

  This woman was fierce, and she didn’t look American at all. We instantly sized each other up the minute we made eye contact.

  “And what’s the plan?” She asked with a Russian accent.

  “We gotta get her car back to the house,” Tom added.

  She stood to her feet and pulled out her cell phone while still staring into my eyes.

  She was taller than Tom and built like an Amazon.

  “What’s her name?” She asked while still looking me in my eyes.

  “Hun?” Tom whined.

  “Okani Dunlo.” I quietly commented.

  She started dialing into her phone without looking at the numbers. She was still intently studying my every action. She then stomped off into the rear of the house as the phone dialed. What was even stranger was that she was walking backwards, still watching me as she exited the living room.

  “We don’t have time for this. Let’s go, man!” Tom yelled.

  He bolted off for the front door and I followed. And so did that atypical or freakishly snide greeting from his wife.

  Something wasn’t right about her either.

  It felt like minutes later when we pulled back into the stadium’s parking lot. The ride would’ve normally taken about an hour, but I was flying through red lights and stop signs. I must’ve been going a hundred. I was just so pumped and psyched up that I didn’t notice.

  The news crew. The football players. Everybody was gone. I crept over to the area where I was parked, only to notice Okani’s car missing.

  “What the hell?” I yelled.

  “What?” Tom retorted.

  “Her car! It’s gone! It was right here. I was right there, and she was parked right over here.” I explained.

  We got out of the car simultaneously.

  “Fuck, man!” I hollered while walking over to her parking spot.

  “Is that it?” Asked Tom while pointing to the ground.

  “Yes…that’s it,” I expressed while focusing on the discolored circle.

  The color was a bit duller. In fact, it had nearly vanished.

  “Man, that’s pretty faint.”

  “Something ain’t right, Tommy G.” I responded.

  “I believe you. Man, this is going to sound wild, but I think it’s the government. They be testing shit on people all the time. It’s either them or…” He paused for a minute as he studied the coloration.

  “…Aliens.”

  I had grown too angry to remember my obsession with extraterrestrials. My quest in the apprehension of alien truths had waxed cold. I wanted too much, and my wants outweighed that idol alien fancy.

  “You think this is connected?” I asked.

  “To what?”

  “My daughter.”

  “That’s somewhat of a feral accusation. I don’t see how the twoooo could bear any relation.” Tom cooed.

  The way he said this seemed like he was putting something together. I found it odd that Tom had become so engulfed in this. I looked very puzzled as he laid on the ground.

  “Tom?” I quietly asked as he positioned himself dead center of the discoloration.

  “What are you doing, man?” I said while looking over the parking lot.

  Tom didn’t respond. He just hummed like he enjoyed what he was doing.

  “Aaannnddd… Bingo!” He hollered while pointing up to the sky.

  “Bingo? What bingo!” I queried.

  Tom was winking his eye, trailing his finger to an exact point in space.

  “Tom, whatcha talkin’ bout?" I asked.

  “That’s the answer, man... Yep!” He shouted confidently as he got up from the ground.

  I stood there shaking my head in confusion. I threw my arms up and dropped them back to my side, yielding to the challenge.

  “Okay…” I motioned.

  “Aliens man! … Look.” He whispered, pointing to the sky.

  I followed his finger up, slowly. I was unsure of what I was about to see. I was so focused on these small little problems of Earth that I hadn’t looked into the sky within a matter of months.

  “You see that?” He asked as I peered into my misguided grasp of extraterrestrial functioning.

  I looked, and I looked.

  And then I saw it.

  The clouds above had formed a perfectly shaped doughnut. The inner circle was large and clear of aerial vapors. The clouds that made up the outer ring were all turning in various directions, gelled together in a massive formation. It was noticeably wide but flowy, like an attenuated spread of fog. The cloudy doughnut appeared to be just as transparent as the neon discoloration on the ground.

  The setting grew sinister.

  “Theoretically, we are looking into a portal. A doorway of some sort. I don’t know if it’s the entrance or the exit, or both,” exclaimed Tom.

  “It’s an unfilled space? Are they done?” I asked, kneeling to study the circular stain.

  I stared at the tarnished ground and looked up slowly to see Tom staring into my eyes.

  “I’ve never seen anything like this.” He whispered as if we were housing a deep secret.

  “Let’s get out of here.” I spoke fervently while quickly standing to my feet.

  “Damn right!” He bellowed.

  Suddenly, the cloudy ring vanishe
d, seamlessly into the clouds.

  When this happened, we took off to the car. It felt like I was being followed by the X-Files. Of course, it could’ve just been a feeling. But clouds aint never moved like that.

  November 7th

  When Tom and I got back home, it was early in the a.m. He and I were both troubled and chilled by the fearful sighting. We didn’t want to accept the visual perception of such enthralling cloud play.

  “Something’s bound to turn up.” Tom nervously stated.

  He and I hadn’t spoken since we left the strange sighting. I pulled up to the driveway as Tom stared over to my house.

  “Would you look at that?” He jokingly hinted as he pointed over to my driveway.

  “Holy shit…” I mumbled.

  It was Okani’s car.

  It was sitting right in my driveway. Tom took her keys out of his pocket and handed them to me.

  “Now how’d that get there?” He asked.

  He was all nonchalant about it. The puzzle tripled with intricacy. I figured they may have been planning something. Maybe the after-party was really going to be at my house.

  “Hey man, they might be in your house, planning to surprise you or something. Maybe all this talk about aliens was just smoke in mirrors, ya’ know?” Tom said as he opened the car door.

  “You think so?” I asked.

  “Maybe…” he responded as he pulled the door back a tad.

  “Well, I got to get in, man. We’ll figure this out.” He proclaimed, yawning as he opened the door again.

  “I’ll help you,” he said as he finally stepped out of the car.

  I sat with a jumbled face, gawking straight ahead as Tom shut the door.

  “Go see what’s going on over there.” He gestured as he walked into his driveway

  I sat in the car as he reached his porch. I rolled down my window just when his wife yanked the front door open.

  “Thanks, Tom!”

  “Yeap!” He hollered as his wife snatched him in.

  He was tired and so was I. But still, Okani’s car was here in my driveway. And I had her keys.

  I parked beside her car, and I got out of mine.

  I glanced through her window to see if she was in the car. Nobody was in there. Her car was all the same, except the neon hue had totally disappeared.

  I opened my squeaky front door, hoping to be surprised on the other side. Everything was the same. Nothing had moved.

  “Quincy! Yawl in here?” I yelled.

  No one answered.

  I shut my front door and locked it behind me.

  I searched through my house for a solid thirty minutes only to find myself back at the drawing board.

  Finally, devastated by the happenings, I collapsed on the couch in front of the window. I sat with my knees in the cushions, holding the blinds open as I ogled through. I was fighting sleep, thinking about everything I needed to do before my time was up. I ended up watching her car like a hawk…

  November 29th

  BoOm!

  BOom!

  Boom!

  I heard a voice remote in the distance. I couldn’t make it out. Plus, my eyes wouldn’t open. I felt like I was having a nightmare that lingered indefinitely.

  BOoM!

  BOOm!

  BoOM!

  The banging grew stronger with each thump.

  My eyes opened sluggishly, but I couldn’t tell where I was.

  Everything was a complete blur.

  The banging resumed with suppressed yelling.

  “Heyy!!!”

  As my vision emerged to a plain, I saw a black leather console, and a large window, above dials and gauges. It somewhat resembled the insides of a car.

  What in blazes?

  “Hey man!”

  I shook my head and batted my eyes several times. Gathering myself was harrowing. It felt like someone had drugged me.

  “Derrick!” The voice screamed.

  I snatched in the direction of the voice, and there lay another window. I pierced through the glass to see who was on the other side. But in my attempt to legitimize the face, my recognition failed. I thought I was still on my couch staring through the blinds.

  “What are you doing in there?”

  I was now wide awake and in a total stir, chaotic in responsive nature.

  “What the hell! Where am I?” I screamed as I scurried about the confining space.

  “Derrick!” The voice shouted.

  I was under constraint.

  I couldn’t find anything to break to free myself from this prison.

  “Hey man, roll down the window,” the voice ordered as he knocked on the thick glass.

  “How’d I get in here?” I quizzed from the driver's seat of my car.

  “Derrick! It’s me, man. I know you’re in there. Don’t just pull off again.” The voice commanded.

  I looked in the direction of the voice. This time, his face was crystal clear.

  “Tom?”

  “Oh, now you’re speaking,” He sassed as he stood outside of my car with a glass of water.

  “Ha…How, how’d I get in here?”

  Tom shook his head as he looked to the ground.

  I glanced over to see my keys in the ignition. Then, I noticed that Okani’s car was missing. Reeking with odor, I sat up to get out, but I was still bound to my seat. I unbuckled the seat belt, only to notice my sticky hands.

  “We need to talk.” Tom muttered as I gazed over my palms.

  They were stained with blood.

  The water ran from my kitchen sink, as I stood there, peeking out of the window.

  Tom sat at the opposite end of my lowly kitchen table.

  I closed the blinds and stared lifelessly at the wall.

  Then I started washing my hands over again with hot water. I couldn’t believe her car was gone.

  My mind jumbled with uncoupled thoughts.

  “You don’t know, man. I’ve been trying to talk to you for weeks. The things I have witnessed were very… How do you say? Unearthly. The last time I talked to you was that night you dropped me off at the house. That was two weeks ago,” he bleated.

  I hesitated, standing in front of the kitchen sink.

  “Two weeks!” I barked as the watered-down blood dawdled into the sink.

  I remembered nothing. All I knew was that I went to sleep on my couch, and I woke up in my car.

  “For two weeks, Derrick. You weren’t yourself,” said Tom.

  “Who was I?” I mumbled, sanitizing my hands.

  “I’ll get to that. But, first, I gotta tell you about what happened to me.” Tom answered.

  “When I got out of the car that night, well that morning, I went to my kitchen to reheat some leftovers. When I turned on the microwave, I stood there until the ringer went off.

  I sat down and ate. Then I took a shower and went to sleep.

  The next morning, I went to make some of that instant oatmeal. You know the kind that comes in those small little packs?”

  “Uh-huh,” I inserted.

  “Well… I got the oatmeal ready, and when I approached the microwave, it turned on… By itself.”

  “Nawl.” I jokingly howled.

  “Wait… I blinked my eyes and the microwave turned off. I just knew it was a shortage. But appliances just don’t turn on by themselves, right?” He asked.

  “Hmm…”

  “I’m not done, bro. Of course, it freaked me out. I looked at the microwave again, and it turned on. This happened six times before I discovered that I was controlling the microwave. Derrick, every time I would blink my eyes, the microwave would either turn on or off. This depended on what state the microwave was in prior to me looking at it, you see?

  I drove myself crazy, man.

  Discoveries aren’t supposed to drive you crazy. I mean, if your iron turns on without being plugged into a power source, then your iron has another source of power.

  So I took the plug out of the wall and I went outside with th
e microwave. I didn’t look at it. I didn’t look at anything.

  I sat it in the middle of my backyard. Then I took a few steps back, and I looked at the microwave. Mind you now, the microwave wasn’t plugged in… and it still turned on.” Tom gulped on his water.

  “What’d you do?” I muttered.

  “I blinked my eyes again.”

  “Did it turn off?”

  Tom took another sip of his water. He sat back in the old rickety chair, as his leg jumped nervously.

  “Yep.” He chuckled.

  “For two weeks, Derrick!” he yelled while holding up two fingers. “I could turn on any microwave just by blinking my eyes. I tested my theory, bro. I went to the mall, and I had every microwave on and running independently.”

  Truly, Tom had yet to surrender his plea for insanity. However, he must’ve been a bit sane, for my story’s inception had not been elucidated. It, in turn, was just as baffling.

  “The oddness stopped just a few hours ago.” Tom said.

  “This was recent?”

  “Yeah…but you, man… You’ve got some explaining to do,” Tom giggled as he wagged his finger.

  I turned the water off and I dried my hands. Then, I grabbed a chair and sat at the opposite end of the kitchen table.

  Tom began the overlap in our mystifying necromancy.

  “You know Okani’s car is gone?”

  “Yeah. I’m aware of that. What happened to it?” I sadly confided.

  “Aw man! You don’t remember, do you?”

  I was thrown off about the whole thing.

  “To be truthful, my wife had the car towed to your house. But then, you hopped in it one day. That same day a limo brought you back,” said Tom.

  A limo…

  “I went on to work as usual, which turned out to be a drag for everyone else. I had fun, though. I kept turning the microwaves on and off as people were trying to heat their food. It was funny. But you were up to something else, man,” Tom admitted.

  “I never told my wife about the craziness. Actually, I had come over to your house several times to show you what was happening. But you just kept going, ignoring me altogether. Then the other times, you never answered your door. One day, I decided to follow you.”

  “You followed me?”

  “Yes. I was worried about you, bro. You were doing everything with your eyes closed. You stopped at a gas station and gassed up with your eyes closed.” He noted.