It Came from the Sky

by Chelsea Sedoti

  Part of me was angry. Part was sad. Another part of me figured it was inevitable. Owen had finally found someone who was his match, someone attractive enough to stand next to him.

  Except, I seethed, Alex wasn’t really Owen’s match. Because Owen was a great person and Alex Spiros was a douche. Was that what Owen wanted? The whole time he was with me, was he secretly hoping for some…some TV chef?

  “I’m going over there,” I announced.

  “That might be the worst idea you’ve ever had,” Cass said.

  Arden nodded. “Why don’t we leave? We can see a movie or something.”

  “A movie sounds great,” Cass agreed.

  I ignored them and made a beeline toward Owen and Alex, who stood at the edge of the dance floor.

  “Well, this is unexpected.”

  Owen’s face fell when he saw me. Alex gave me a small nod and looked supremely uncomfortable. Good.

  “Gideon,” Owen said. “I didn’t think you’d be here.”

  “I guess this would be okay then? It wouldn’t count if I didn’t know about it?”

  I didn’t bother looking at Alex. He didn’t matter. I focused on Owen and watched a range of emotions play out on his face. Unfortunately, I had no idea what any of those emotions were.

  “Look,” he said finally. “I’m not doing anything wrong.”

  “You don’t find anything about this situation a bit awkward?”

  “Everything with you is awkward.” Owen’s voice rose, and people around us turned to look. “You weren’t going to come to the dance with me, were you?”

  “No,” I snapped. “Because you’re not speaking to me!”

  “Don’t try to make this my fault. I wasn’t speaking to you because you went on a date with another guy.”

  “And look how that turned out.”

  “So you don’t want to date me, but no one else can either?” Owen asked, and I wasn’t having trouble reading his emotions anymore. He was furious. “You need to get a grip. The universe doesn’t revolve around you.”

  “The universe doesn’t revolve around anything!”

  Then I felt someone at my elbow, pulling me away. I glanced over, expecting Cass, but it was Ishmael.

  “Owen, Alex,” he said pleasantly. “Nice to see you both. Unfortunately, Gideon and I need to be going.”

  My brother dragged me to the darkest corner of the gym, where we were mercifully hidden from the stares. “Dude,” he said. “That was a bit much.”

  Before I could respond, Cass and Arden joined us.

  “That was so uncharacteristically dramatic,” Cass said. “I’d applaud if I didn’t know how upset you must be.”

  “I’m not upset.”

  “Sure you’re not,” Cass replied dryly. “You always shout in public when you’re not upset.”

  “I’ll take you home,” Ishmael offered.

  “I can do it,” Cass said.

  “I really don’t mind.”

  “Both of you stop,” I snapped. “You don’t need to escort me anywhere. I’m not going to make a scene. Again.”

  “Don’t get mad at us,” Cass said.

  “Look dude, I know this hurts. But it’s just part of life. Owen’s a great guy, but you’ll find someone else.”

  Cass nodded. “And he would’ve been here with you, if you’d let him.”

  Arden had been silent throughout the conversation. She looked back and forth between Ishmael and Cass rapidly. Finally, she fixed her gaze on me. “All this time you were lying to me? You and Owen really have been dating?”

  Her pitiful tone and accusing gaze put me over the edge.

  “Yes, we’ve been dating. No, I didn’t tell you. Because it’s none of your business. It’s no one’s business. It was always going to end up here, with me getting left for another guy, at some stupid dance, where people can’t even tell the difference between Neptune and Uranus! Why should I have told you anything, Arden? Why does any of this even matter?”

  “What the hell is wrong with you?” Cass snapped. “This isn’t Arden’s fault. It’s no one’s fault but your own.”

  She was right, of course. I needed to apologize to Arden, whose eyes had already filled with tears. But I couldn’t. I couldn’t even bring myself to meet her gaze.

  So instead I turned and stormed out of the dance, leaving everyone behind me under the glow of fake stars.

  Text Conversation

  Participants: Gideon Hofstadt, Victor Hofstadt

  GH: I need a ride.

  VH: Right now?

  GH: Could you pick me up?

  VH: You’re at a dance with everyone you know, and you can’t find someone else to drive you home?

  GH: Please, Dad.

  VH: On my way.

  Event: The Homecoming Dance (Cont.)

  For a while, neither of us spoke. Finally, as we left the populated part of Lansburg and started down side streets that led to the farm, Father said, “What happened?”

  Normal Gideon would’ve said “nothing.” But I didn’t feel normal. I felt like, for once, I had to let my feelings out.

  “You know that guy I went out with last week? Alex? He showed up at the dance with Owen Campbell.”

  “I see,” Father replied. “So you like Alex, huh?”

  “No.” I hesitated. “I like Owen.”

  Father let out a breath. “Thank god for that.”

  I looked at him, surprised.

  “I wasn’t impressed by that Alex kid,” he explained.

  I snorted. “Me either.”

  Father reached over and turned down the radio. The sports talk he was listening to faded into a hum.

  “How does Owen feel about you?”

  “He used to like me. We were kind of dating. But I ruined it.”

  Father didn’t respond, and I knew he was waiting for me to say more. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been so open with him. He probably worried that if he spoke the moment would pass.

  “I didn’t want our relationship to be public. I thought it was only a matter of time before he dumped me, and if our relationship was public, our breakup would be public too. I couldn’t stand the thought of everyone…pitying me.”

  “Why’d you assume Owen would dump you?” Father asked.

  “Let’s face it, I’m not incredibly desirable. I’m not even very likable.”

  “That’s ridiculous. If people don’t like you, it’s because you don’t let them like you. You keep everyone at arm’s length.”

  “I don’t know how to be any other way,” I said, frustration and sadness welling up inside of me.

  “Pride can be a hard thing to overcome,” Father said, reaching over to squeeze my shoulder. “But everyone needs to let themselves be vulnerable sometimes.”

  I stared out the window for a moment, watching trees and farmland stream by. Finally, I said, “I know you and Mother think I’m broken.”

  Father looked at me sharply. “What are you talking about?”

  “You think I can’t feel anything. And you’d rather I was some star baseball player, and Mother would rather I was, I don’t know, an extrovert.”

  “We know you feel things. What worries us is that you keep those feelings bottled up. And neither your mom nor I have ever been disappointed by who you are.”

  “Sure,” I said dryly.

  “Gideon,” Father said. “I once had to pick up your brother from detention after he set up a Slip ’N Slide outside the principal’s office. And you think you’re the one we’re disappointed in?”

  I laughed. He had a point.

  We turned onto Olga Lane and our house came into view, old and rickety as always, but also comforting. It looked warm and safe and like it could shield me from the awful thoughts bombarding me.

  “I’ll alw
ays be proud of you,” Father said as he came to a stop and put the car in Park.

  “Even right now?” I joked, knowing I was a mess of rage and sadness and shame.

  But Father didn’t laugh. Instead, he looked straight at me and said, “Especially right now.”

  Transcript of Oct. 22 telephone conversation between Gideon Hofstadt and Cassidy Robinson

  GIDEON: Hello?

  CASS: I know it’s early—

  GIDEON: It’s very early.

  CASS: —but it’s important.

  GIDEON: Look, I don’t want to talk about last night—

  CASS: This isn’t about you.

  GIDEON: Oh.

  CASS: Have you talked to Arden?

  GIDEON: It’s five o’clock in the morning.

  CASS: That’s a no?

  GIDEON: Of course I haven’t.

  CASS: You haven’t talked to her since you left the dance?

  GIDEON: No. Cass, what’s going on?

  CASS: Arden is missing.

  GIDEON: She’s what?

  CASS: She ran out of the gym last night after you did. I talked to Ishmael for, like, two seconds, then I went after her. But when I got outside she was gone.

  GIDEON: She probably went home.

  CASS: That’s what I figured. But her mom called a few minutes ago asking if Arden spent the night here. She never went home, Gideon. No one knows where she is.

  Interviews

  Subject #6, Arden Byrd: Cass said, “Gideon’s just upset. He didn’t mean any of that.” But really, he confirmed something I’d suspected for a while: he’d never see me as a real friend. I knew if I tried to say that to Cass, I’d cry, so I ran out of the gym. I didn’t know where I was going. I ended up on Main Street and was starting to calm down and wonder how I’d get home. That’s when the light appeared in front of me.

  Subject #14, Arnold (Arnie) Hodges: Yes, I saw the girl wandering down Main Street that night. Knew why she disappeared too. She was abducted.

  Newspaper Articles

  The following article was reprinted with permission of the Lansburg Daily Press.

  LOCAL TEEN MISSING AFTER HOMECOMING DANCE

  By K. T. Malone

  October 23

  LANSBURG, PA—Authorities are searching for a Lansburg teen who vanished after Saturday night’s homecoming dance.

  Arden Byrd, fifteen, was last seen around 9 p.m. leaving the Irving High School gym. The last people to interact with her say she was in a distressed state and didn’t tell anyone where she was going.

  Emma Byrd, Arden’s mother, contacted police the next morning when she discovered her daughter had not returned home. “I knew something was wrong right away. Arden has never stayed out all night.”

  Though a contingent of people have come forward saying Arden’s disappearance has ties to alleged extraterrestrial activity, police chief Lisa Kaufman said there is no basis to these claims.

  “We’re treating this like any other missing persons case,” Chief Kaufman said. “The police department will consider any phone calls about alien abductions to be pranks.”

  Arden is 5 foot 2 and 102 pounds, with blond hair and green eyes. She was last seen wearing a knee-length, black formal dress.

  Anyone who has information about Arden’s whereabouts is asked to call 911 or contact the Lansburg Police Department immediately.

  The following article was reprinted with permission of lightbringernews.com.

  LOCAL TEEN ABDUCTED BY ALIENS!

  By Adam Frykowski

  Posted October 23–9:35 a.m.

  LANSBURG, PA—Authorities are searching for a Lansburg teen who vanished after Saturday night’s homecoming dance.

  Unfortunately for the authorities—and the teen—they’re searching in the wrong places.

  Arden Byrd, fifteen, left the Irving High School gym at 9 p.m. and vanished into the night.

  But Arnie Hodges, expert ufologist and MUFON member, tells a different story. He says the teen was abducted by aliens. Several of the men and women who were with Mr. Hodges in the town square at that time corroborate this.

  Police chief Lisa Kaufman, who declined to comment on this article, claims there is no evidence Byrd was abducted by extraterrestrials. But here at The Light Bringer we know the path to enlightenment has never started with closed minds.

  If you have information about Byrd, or any other recent abductions, please share with us at contact@lightbringernews.com.

  Click here to subscribe to our newsletter!

  Event: The Disappearance

  Date: Oct. 23 (Mon.)

  It said something about Lansburg—or maybe society as a whole—that people got more worked up about aliens than a fifteen-year-old girl disappearing.

  Arden remained missing throughout Sunday. I assumed by Monday morning there’d be news, but aside from an article in the paper and on Frykowski’s blog, nothing had changed. I wanted to stay home, to do something, but I didn’t know what. So I went to school.

  “This is my fault,” I told Cass at lunch.

  “It’s no one’s fault.”

  “You know people are saying she was abducted by aliens.”

  “Well, we know aliens had nothing to do with it.” Cass glumly picked at her french fries. I would’ve known how upset Cass was even without the lack of appetite—she was dressed in jeans and a plain sweatshirt.

  “And that’s my fault too.”

  “What is?”

  “That people are brushing off Arden’s disappearance because they think it’s an alien abduction.”

  “They’re idiots,” Cass said, but I knew she felt guilty for her part in the hoax too.

  Why hadn’t we considered that events might spiral out of control, that someone might end up in genuine danger? And no one cared, because they’d been playing at danger for weeks. With half of Lansburg claiming to be abducted by aliens, of course no one would take a missing girl seriously. Especially a missing girl who’d claimed to see a UFO herself.

  After school, Chief Kaufman came over and questioned me and Ishmael. I told her everything I’d said to Arden at the dance, though repeating it intensified my guilt.

  “What do you think happened?” Ishmael asked.

  “We don’t know yet. But we haven’t seen any sign that Arden’s in danger.”

  “And what sign would that be?” I asked. “Do victims usually have time to leave notes saying FYI, I was taken by a serial killer?”

  “It’s highly unlikely Arden had a run-in with a serial killer,” Kaufman said gently.

  “Our town has been swarming with strangers for weeks. If it ever was likely, I’d think it was now.” (Realistically, serial killings only account for 1 percent of murders committed in the United States.)

  Mother perched on the piano bench on the other side of the room, yet spoke to Kaufman as if whispering in her ear. “Gideon is feeling a lot of guilt about this.”

  “Understandable,” Kaufman said. “But in all likelihood, Arden is just holed up at a friend’s house.”

  “Arden doesn’t have other friends,” I said.

  Later, when Kaufman left and Mother and I were alone, she wrapped her arm around me. “Whatever happened to Arden, it’s not your fault.”

  But it was. Arden never would’ve left the dance if I hadn’t been cruel to her.

  When Chief Kaufman questioned Cass later that day, Cass snapped, asking where the search helicopters were, if someone was making flyers and organizing search parties.

  “We’re not at that stage yet,” Kaufman said. “All signs point to Arden walking away of her own free will. She probably needed time to herself.”

  “Clearly, you don’t know Arden,” Cass replied.

  She’d been missing for thirty hours by that point, and there seemed to be no leads. How was that po
ssible? How could someone vanish without any trace?

  I called Arden’s phone over and over, but it went straight to voicemail. I texted that I was sorry, that I hadn’t meant to snap at her, that I shouldn’t have kept secrets. I didn’t know if she’d ever read the messages, but I had to hope.

  That evening, Ishmael drove me into town for my late shift at Super Scoop. I ranted the whole way.

  “No one even cares.”

  “We care,” Ishmael said.

  “No one’s even worried about her.”

  “We’re worried.”

  “What’s wrong with people?”

  “I don’t know, dude.”

  The sight of the Seekers surrounding the lava lamp increased my fury. I wanted them gone. I wanted all evidence of aliens removed from town. I wanted people to get their heads out of their asses and realize something was actually going on, something more important than fake-abduction mass hysteria. I hated all of them.

  Or maybe I really just hated myself.

  Event: An Epiphany

  Date: Oct. 23 (Mon.)

  It was late when I left work. Moths buzzed around the gaslights and the moon cast an eerie glow on Main Street. The square was empty for once—the Seekers had retreated to their various camps.

  Ishmael texted that he was going to be late. To kill time, I wandered to the lava lamp.

  Two nights before, Arden had walked down the same road. According to Arnie Hodges, anyway—and he was hardly a reliable source of information.

  As I got closer to the lamp, I was startled to see someone on the observation deck. Not just on it, but leaning precariously over the side. For a moment, I thought it was Oswald, still preaching after his constituents had gone home. Then I took in the gangly figure, the ungraceful movements. Definitely not Oswald.

  Curious, I made my way to the previously blocked-off stairs. I climbed up, ignoring how the unmaintained metal squealed under my feet.

  The observation deck seemed higher once I was on it. I looked out over Lansburg, at the quaint shops and cobblestone streets. The cool October breeze lifted the hair from my forehead.