Close Encounters; three perspectives

None who have always been free can understand
the terrible fascinating power of the hope of freedom to those who are not free.-Pearl S. Buck

It had been a long day for Darryl. Only lately had he started his exploring in the morning. The second harvest was almost finished so he had time to slip into the wilderness before and after plowing. It had been barely 9 A.M. when he spotted the freaky dude driving down the road and just after 1 P.M. by the time he pulled his Ford into the underbrush. He rolled the windows down and just listened for a long while. He was intently aware how important his vigil was, nevertheless he succumbed to weariness. It wasn't long before he dozed off.

Voices!
Two female voices in the distance tore him from his slumber. Well, maybe not, the fairy looked liked a girl, no reason for him not to sound like one too. Darryl threw his rifle out the window and crawled out after it. Didn't want the creaky door to tip them off.
Twenty five years of skulking around had at least taught him stealth. He slowly crept towards the sound, until he spotted a woman and a little girl, maybe five or six years old, bent over looking at a bunch of weeds. This was going to be better than he thought. Once I get these two back to town I'll be a hero.

~

Marissa loved the woods. She had wandered into and frolicked among the trees and pastures since she was eight. She knew every patch like the back of her hand. Not far from Grans herb garden she and her best friend Delores had built a little fort when she was nine. She hadn't gone there since she was little, but now she just had to see it again.

"Gran, I gotta pee." Grandma worried when she 'wandered off' so she had to make up a good reason, she did have to pee anyway.

"Don't wander off for too long," Marissa lip-synced Grandmas familiar phrase,"Kenya and I will be here in the herb garden."

She had only walked for a minute or two when she heard a mans voice, she stopped to listen to see if she could tell who it was.
She not only had an ear for music, but also for voices. No matter how hard they tried nobody could disguise their voice well enough to escape her discernment.

She was feeling his dark brown voice, no one in Idyll was anywhere near that shade. It had an unfamiliar, gravelly timbre which reminded her of rolling thunder. She instinctively lowered herself to the ground, which instantly evoked an eerie awareness of something she hadn't felt since she was very small; fear. She could see nothing but heard everything. This stranger was confronting her grandmother for real, in real life, not like in the plays and dramas they did at the MAI.

Marissa's core of curiosity was completely enveloped by her fear. She couldn't even twitch. She heard Kenya repeating "Granny, Granny, Granny", and then just the sound of retreating footsteps, then...nothing. After a moment she forced herself to get up and creep back towards the garden. She was about to step out into the road when she heard a strange grinding noise and a roar in the distance. She immediately dropped to the ground again, demurely peeked her head out of the underbrush to peer down the road in time to see a huge metal behemoth shaped like an over sized car exit the road and turn onto the highway.

She ran as fast as her legs could carry her, all the way back to town. The first person she saw was Mr. Perez, Delores' grandfather, when she ejaculated her wild story he at first couldn't believe it, thinking it was some practical joke, but as she repeated it he noticed she had wet herself, he knew that it was no joke.

They made it to the Center in less than a minute.

~
You can't shake hands with a clenched fist. - Indira Gandhi

"Look at this one Kenya, this is Ginger, your cousin is named after this."

"You named Ginger after a weed?"

"It's not a weed silly, it's a spice and a medicine." Laura had been watching Kenyas cherubic brown face so intently that she hadn't noticed the big man approaching.

"Don't move bitch." He was pointing a long metal rod directly at her. As he spoke, his right index finger slithered through a little loop on the bottom of the beautifully shined wood at the other end of the rod. He had startled her yet she kept the aplomb she prided herself on.

"Okay."

Laura had never been one to get rattled easily. At times she may have appeared ditzy but that was just her own style of humility. This was a dire situation. In her forty-six years she had never encountered a stranger. She had never encountered a threat, but the apprehension growing inside her was genuine, the feral instinct to protect her babies was just barely being superseded by her intellect. When Kenya began chanting "Granny", she turned to the man and said "now what?"

"Shut the fuckin' kid up, before I have to."

"Kenya honey, everything is fine, I'm right here." She leaned over to stroke Kenya's raven-black hair to comfort the little girl.
"I don't like him," Kenya barely whispered.

"All right, I'm going to move now if it suits your pleasure." She stood up and faced the man. He looked decades older than anyone she had ever laid eyes upon. "Is there something we can do for you?" She was unsure if she could help him, she had never seen this brand of malady, but it was obvious he was experiencing some type of inner disturbance.

She was too close for comfort and ignored the gun pointing at her. "Yeah, shut the fuck up." He backhanded her so hard that she fell to the ground unconscious. Darryl threw her over his shoulders, scooped up the crying Kenya and plodded back to his car. He threw Kenya in the back seat, Laura in the front, and was taping her wrists together when she came to.

In shock, Laura couldn't speak, she could barely observe through the haze that was her consciousness.

"Sit back and relax girls, we're goin' on a little holiday." It was the first time in her life Laura didn't enjoy watching someone smile.