Strange Encounters

        Morning was not Lou's favourite time of day. Morning represented the end of night, the end of peaceful sleep, the end of dreams. Morning brought stress and confusion; the hectic demands of work and other people. Night time was his time; an escape to tranquillity and calm in the soft, warm world of duvet and pillow where the smell of fresh linen and the caress of brushed cotton lulled his troubles away; bed was bliss.

        So it was fortunate for Lou that it was eleven thirty at night, and after a long, tiring day the thought of bed had even more appeal. His car bumped along the quiet road, its headlights creating a land of brightness to chase but never catch. Lou sometimes felt like his car; forever in the dark chasing the light.

        The car’s interior was cool and maybe just a little too relaxing, for Lou felt his eyelids grow suddenly heavy and he physically shook his head for fear that this lethargy would lead to sleep and an accident would follow. This worked for a few minutes but the dark shapes of trees and telegraph poles gliding past in his periphery, and the featureless, unending road stretching out before him, conspired to draw his lids down once more. The monotony washed over Lou’s tired mind and his eyes unfocussed again as his consciousness slipped evermore towards sleep.

        A sudden bang and jolt whipped Lou's mind back to full alertness as adrenaline flooded his system. His eyes sprang open and his fingers gripped the wheel tightly as his mind raced to discover firstly what the threat was, secondly where he was and thirdly whether to flee or fight. Of course, this all happened quite unconsciously and was over and done with in a millisecond, his hind-brain taking control of his startled mind, assessing the situation and taking action before his conscious, thinking mind had time to react.

        The bang and jolt it seemed, had been the front wheels mounting the kerb following his lapse into sleep. The car had then bounced back into a straight line on the road and was now heading for the opposite kerb. Lou quickly brought the car under control and pulled up at the roadside; sweat beading on his cold, clammy face. After taking a brief moment to reorient himself Lou got out of the now stationary, idling car to break the spell and ensue his mind stayed alert for the remainder of the journey home. The warm night air filled his lungs and dried the perspiration from his skin as he glanced at the road behind him; clods of earth could be seen dimly in the red light, the result of his near-hedge experience. He walked to the front of the car to check for damage and was trying to view the vehicle through the glare of the headlights when everything went black. The car, it seemed, had stalled, taking the lights and radio with it.

        Lou was temporarily blind, his eyes would take a minute to adjust from the brightness of the headlamps to the darkness of the moonlit night, until then he had no choice but to stand and wait on the invisible, silent road. In the sudden stillness it seemed to Lou that every heartbeat was a battery of cannons firing in his chest, every breath a roaring hurricane in his throat as the blackness swaddled him like a babe.

        Lou's body gradually began to return to normal, his adrenaline powered state suddenly replaced by a much stranger feeling, like he was being watched. He spun round, his eyes darting left and right in the stygian void, and panic returned to his barely recovered system. Around and around he turned but his pupils were not yet dilated enough to penetrate the pitch-like depths and he could see nothing. Whether it was due to his lack of sight that his other senses became keener he didn't know but Lou could hear strange noises and there was a sudden distasteful odour on the breeze.

        The sounds, a high pitched squeaking and clicking that put Lou in mind of dolphins, were everywhere. One moment in front, then behind, then above or away to the side. He couldn't decide if it was some strange insect or bat flying around him, or several nocturnal creatures passing messages back and forth about his blundering movements in the dark; either way it did nothing to ease his anxiety.

        It occurred to Lou that his vision should have been returning by now, and so he held his hand up in front of his face to gauge the light; he saw nothing before him but the impenetrable blackness. Lou's panic redoubled; what if the shock of nearly crashing had left him somehow blind! What if he had really crashed and he was now in some kind of coma! These thoughts whirled madly around Lou's head, then, in a moment of inspiration, he had an idea. Lou pulled his mobile phone from his pocket and activate the screen; still he saw nothing and the dolphin noises were getting closer and louder.

        Panic clawed its way from Lou’s stomach to his chest and raked at his heart. He tried to reason with himself in the hope that it would induce calm, telling himself that he felt fine and that this temporary blindness could be easily explained, but with no explanation coming forth the fear maintained its grip.

        Lou suddenly realised that one of the dolphin noises wasn't coming from in front, behind or to his side, it was in his head, like a thought in a foreign language trespassing on his mind. He tried to reach up to hold his head but his arms refused to move and he realised in one horrible moment that he was completely paralysed.

        Then the strangest thing happened, Lou's inner ear and hind-brain got together to inform him that he was moving. Somehow, without being touched, he was travelling; it felt like forwards but he could have been wrong. What happened next was not so ambiguous, he was tipped backwards by the invisible force so now he was laying horizontal and travelling feet first.

        The next thing Lou knew was that the surroundings changed. The sounds and the air felt different, like he was now in an enclosed space, possibly a large room or container. He thought quickly, the road he was driving on had been mostly flat and although it was flanked on both sides by trees pylons and telegraph poles, he could remember no buildings nearby, so this had to be something mobile.

        Then, for the first time, he felt something touch him. It seemed that he had been lowered onto a hard, metallic surface, like a table or reclining bench, and more unsettling than that, he also felt naked. The cold metal touched his skin from the back of his head all the way down to his heels; there wasn't a part of his back that wasn't in contact with the hard surface, almost as though it was contoured to fit him perfectly.

And now Lou’s sight returned. The first thing he saw was approximately ten feet above him. It was a large, oval device which projected a bright green curtain of light from its rim around the table where he lay. On either side of the device, the smooth, metallic silver roof of this room, box, trailer or whatever he was in, sloped away gently.

        As Lou’s eyes adjusted he noticed rows of symbols around the circumference of the device and several lines of similar symbols crossing it. He still couldn't move his head or eyes, so this was the only view he had available. The clicking, squeaking sounds continued around him, but the one in his head seemed to be silent, for the moment at least.

        Something moved into Lou’s peripheral vision. It was bulbous, like the hairless dome of an oversized head, it was light grey and looked rubbery. Before Lou was able to see anything else the strange voice returned to his mind and his vision was taken away again.

        Lou's panic had subsided slightly when his vision had returned but he was still paralysed and out of control and the fearful feelings returned quickly when his sight was again lost. He tried to speak out, only to find that no sound came forth from his throat.

        He tried to communicate with the voice in his head, but without knowing what it was saying how could he hope to know if he'd been successful? It seemed that he had no choice but to see this experience through to whatever end it brought.

        A sudden feeling of calm came over Lou, as though all of the uncertainty and risk had been removed from the situation and he was left surprisingly relaxed and at ease. This unexpected cessation of panic, which Lou expected to be more of an interlude than an ending, offered his now freed mind time to reflect on this unusual, but no longer scary experience.

        Lou's quiet assessment confirmed that he was warm, relaxed (in fact he felt very relaxed), in no pain or discomfort and not subject to any apparent threat. The blissful state of calm continued to wash over him, achieving in seconds what masseurs worked hours to accomplish.

        Lou awoke with a bump and jolt as his car mounted the kerb. His senses careened around his immediate reality as they sought to make sense of this awakening. It seemed that Lou was back in his car; his experience of abduction apparently just a brief, vivid dream. The car swerved sharply across the carriageway as Lou attempted to regain control, mounted the opposite verge, swerved a second time back onto the dark empty road and thankfully came to a skid-free stop.

        A cold clamminess and adrenaline fuelled sweat seized Lou's body as his chest pounded and his senses burned with an unnatural sharpness. He gripped the wheel and stared ahead of the car, wondering whether the déjà vous of this near accident would play out into the weird scene he'd dreamt moments before.

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        The engine and radio collaborated to provide a gentle soundtrack to Lou's stressed condition, slowly lulling him back down to a more sustainable state of being. Eventually Lou closed his eyes and relaxed his death-grip on the wheel. The flow of seconds returned to something nearing normal as his muscles un-tensed, and slowly Lou's trauma elapsed.

        Lou put his head back and let out a deep breath, not realising he'd been holding it in all this time. His thoughts returned to the dream and he now wondered whether that's what it had really been; a dream, or was it some kind of premonition or vision? He dismissed this thought almost straight away and decided, premonition or not, that he should get out of the car and check for damage.

        Lou reached for the door-handle and had his third shock, as the close-up, wrinkled and smiling face of a stranger met his gaze through the dark glass of the door.

        "Fuckin' 'ell!" he said under his breath as this latest shock evaporated from his nervous system; then, realising that the old man must want his attention, he reached for the window control.

        As he did so the thought occurred to Lou that maybe his near-miss hadn't gone un-witnessed and that this man may be enquiring as to his welfare. Then he realised, with sudden terror, that he had no way of knowing how long he'd been asleep before the impact with the kerb had awakened him. Had he caused some kind of injury or fatality in his slumber?

        This thought didn't last long either, because the face was smiling broadly; its white teeth matched by the closely cut white hair which were both in stark contrast to the dark brown, Afro-Caribbean complexion and features of this old man.

        Lou pressed a button and the window slid down into the door.

        "Come wit me if ya want ta live!" Said the man in a heavy Caribbean accent, then in Lou's open mouthed silence he continued, "It is from Termina'tor......I av always wanted t' say it."

        The man continued to smile broadly as though this was some kind of private joke that Lou should understand. Lou wondered what the chances were of meeting a loony on a deserted road after dreaming of abduction and nearly crashing; 'not high enough' was what he decided.

        "What?" was all he could manage by reply.

        "Nevva mind man. Ya will get used t' the surprises," then he said under his breath, "soona or lay-ta."

        Lou was completely speechless; he was beginning to feel like Dorothy slipping down the rabbit hole.

        "Look, they will be 'ere soon. Tek this an I will leave ya t get on wi'it" With this the man handed Lou a package wrapped in white paper; it was warm and smelt of deep fried potato.

        "A bag of chips?" Said Lou holding the man's gaze, to which he replied,

        "Yeah man, somehow they taste a whoooole lot betta before th' split." And before Lou was able to question him any further, the man thrust his hand through the open window and Lou saw, a split second before it hit him, some kind of device attached to the old man's fist; either that or there was some deformity there which lent it the look of same.

        A blissful torpor overtook Lou, his fear and its associated resistance being washed away. It reminded him of another time, possibly very recently, when his fear had been replaced by ease, but in this languid state he cared not to pursue the memory.

        "That will be an echo of what is about to happen" Came the old man's voice, though now it had lost its Caribbean infraction, "the Riticulians can be kind when it serves them" he continued. Lou had the sense that the man was focussing all of his concentration on something and that these words were just idle chatter, something akin to a doctor's bedside manner, intended to put him at his ease.

        Lou tried to speak, but the words were no sooner lined up in his head than the man was answering them. "My name is Toemarrs, and I'm not going to hurt you," but Lou was already aware that he was in no danger, "and I'll be on my way in.....just.....a......moment, there, done!"

        "What have you done?" This time Lou was able to voice his question before it was answered.

        "I kin not tell ya' that, withou' placing ya' in jepardy, me Trojan friend." Once again the man's accent had returned. He reclaimed his bag of chips and smiled warmly at Lou as the seed he had planted began to grow.

        "Soon ya' will rememba' none o' this. But be shewa man, that ya' is doin' a grrrand thing."

        Toemarrs watched as Lou's face became a blank canvas, the many idiosyncratic elements that gave a thing of flesh its unmistakable appearance of life drained away as the purpose he'd given Lou sank into his substrate.

        Lou's hands, still open from where they'd held the chip-bag, became faintly illuminated as a tiny dance of lights sprang from his palms; the minute particles of luminescence fountaining up from left and right, before combining into a single complex design of orbs and triangles, which replicated over and over until it resolved into a double helix and then sank back into his unresisting flesh.

        A moment later Lou's face was reclaimed by the nuances of habitation. He looked a little puzzled for a second, but then turned to the old man and said with a smile, "Toemarrs! It's good to see you!"

        "It is good ta see ya too Lou, but this is not a memory that belongs 'ere, this is actually our first meetin'."

        "But I know you Toemarrs, I know you?" A look of distressed confusion replaced the smile.

        "No. Ya will know me though, ya kin trust in that." Toemarrs reached out and clutched Lou's hand, "I Kin not stay, and ya has a verrry important task ahead o' ya." Toemarrs looked into the dark sky, "It is time. They a-comin'."

        Lou felt an unease which ran along his spine and down his arms to his hands, which he stared at as though they were cause for concern; outwardly they were unchanged and the former lights had now gone.

        "Fare well me friend." Said Toemarrs, who knew the cause for Lou's behaviour, then stepped away from the vehicle and its occupant. He watched as the code percolated through Lou's being at a vibrational level, erasing the memory of this encounter as it hid within his inner being.

        Toemarrs turned and walked into the darkness, leaving the road and heading over the grassy embankment towards a stubble field. As he went his borrowed body grew cold and heavy, its matter solidifying until it became significantly less human organic apparatus and more like its environment, the earth on which it now stood, and he watched the sky expectantly.

        Lou found himself sitting in his car as it idled in neutral with the handbrake on. He remembered a feeling of lethargy and something happening that had scared him, an accident or near miss, something that had caused him to stop in order to recover his wits. If this confusion was the result of that action, then it appeared to have been unsuccessful.

        He tried sifting through the memories again, attempting to piece together what had happened, but the best he could deduce was that he had stopped in order to avoid a likely accident. There were fragments of memories washing around in his conscious mind, but as he tried to grab them for closer examination they melted away, like fragile ice against the heat of a palm.

        Amongst these disjointed glimpses were several which stood out. One was of an attractive woman whom he felt he had an emotional connection with. Another was a glittering doorway into another world. One image was of a massive rotating geometric frame made from light surrounding him.

        The enigma of these broken pictures was a puzzle that could wait for more leisurely perusal. Ensuring the safe condition of his car was more pressing if Lou was to get home to his bed and the sleep he obviously so desperately needed.

        With the feeling that he had stopped to inspect the car still prominent, Lou exited the rapidly cooling interior -for the window was mysteriously wound down- and breathed a lungful of cool night air. Looking back along the highway he could see clumps of dirt and clods of grass amid tyre tracks that swerved from one verge to the other. Illuminated by his car’s rear lights Lou walked back a little way and noticed that the tracks led from his own tyres.

        One of the shattered memories now presented itself, that of his sudden awakening to a bang and jolt as he drove this road. It was no great leap of imagination to deduce the cause and so Lou walked to the front of the vehicle to inspect for damage.

        As he crouched, eyes shielded from the bright headlamps by his hand, looking at the bumper and front grill, an overwhelming sense of déjà vous stole over Lou and he looked around in sudden, unfathomable panic.

        Toemarrs slipped the vibrational interface he’d used to plant the code in Lou from his hand and let it fall to the hard packed floor. With his intention no longer giving the device purpose it began to degrade; bubbling into a pool of constituent ingredients which became a mixture of gasses floating across the bare soil, and liquids which were quickly absorbed.

        He turned his eyes back towards Lou and the deserted highway as the car's engine stalled, leaving Lou looking about in panic. Had Lou looked up he would not have seen the bright shimmering silver disc of the Riticulian lightship which hung motionless five meters above his car. He would not have seen it because one of its crew was standing immediately behind Lou, and Toemarrs knew that this being would be projecting psionically into Lou's mind, not only to hide the alien's presence, but soon to paralyse him ready for transportation.

        Toemarrs had seen this spectacle on many worlds throughout history, its precise execution and consistent format being a testament to the Riticulians' unchanging logical existence. Now they were manipulating Lou's body using a combination of highly developed mental abilities; lifting him without touching and moving him into the open door of the light-craft suspended soundlessly above.

        Toemarrs withdrew from the body that he had recycled and his vibration returned to the non-physical state that existed without our solid reality to conform to. The body, which had belonged to an old man who'd passed away in his sleep that night -though not on that continent- fell to the ground in a rag-doll heap, ready to be discovered the following day as police searched for the owner of the abandoned car.

        The Riticulian light-craft became a bright saucer as its triad of pilots manipulated the merkaba at its centre, raising the vessel up above the sleeping countryside. They began intending the journey home as the translucent craft, its diameter longer than two busses, floated gently up into the night sky.

        A moment later the light-craft grew intensely bright as the pilots selected their destination and expanded into a possibility of waveforms, each capable of delivering the area within the merkaba's influence to another point in space, time or causality; they chose a point far distant from this, and the glowing disk vanished