Flashback Friday

I forget now exactly when I first posted this picture,  It was, I think, probably last year at some point.  I'm sure I laughed it off and maybe wrote some kind of silly story.  But I can tell you now,  I hope safely, the whole story.

Where to begin, my hands are even now still shaking at the thought of reliving that early morning?  It was summer, last summer, yes, it was warm and I went outside, like I always do periodically through out the day to just get out of the stifling locked-up feeling of summer's-in-air-conditioning in Florida.  It was early morning and the sun was peeking through the tree in front of the Bedlam apartment building just across from my front door.   It was unusually quiet.  There is the infamous Route 19 right next door, or what I derisively call The River of Death.  So the noise of rubber grating against pavement is like a thrumming that is ceaseless.  But right now, in this instant, a calm silence came over Bedlam.  Just as soon as I noticed that and started to wonder, an electric feeling began to course through me like I'd never felt before. Almost simultaneously I noticed an object approaching from over the roof next door across the parking areas.  A kind of slow approach and then I saw it completely, although the sun was making the full visual kind of hard.  

The airport is close by so it isn't all that unusual to see different types of aircraft flying around.  The Coast Guard keeps a fleet of planes and so there is the aspect of a government agency.  But this was certainly not the norm.  It was, as simply as I can say, the prototypical flying saucer.  Cylindrical cigar shaped with a large domed lower section and smaller rounded upper area.  

As fact as I could I reached into my pocket to see if I had my cell phone and luckily I did.  I whipped it out and with a slight shaking of my fingers to properly push the right buttons, not from fright but desperation to get this picture.  I raised my cell and quickly took three fast shots - this one above was the only one that wasn't blurred.   

About that time I was bathed in a bright light, don't laugh, that was so bright that it made my closed eyes see a kind of blackness.  I turned away and started toward my front door - I was still feeling the electric hum in me and the sensation of total blackness and the hum was keeping me frozen in place.  Looking back, I wasn't really panicked, more relaxed than anything else.  Like a strange hypnotic trance - no pain, yet, just a vigilant kind of awareness.  I wanted to go inside but I just stood there as the bright dark light kept me from moving. 

After a few seconds, I don't really know for sure, all I could sense was the dreaded cat inside mewing in a frantic way that I never heard it do before.  I recall thinking, don't take me, take the cat.  About that time I felt something, a shot in my back - the stinging kind of like being hit by a hammer, or maybe a large BB.  It didn't make me drop or the pain wasn't overwhelming, but a hurt that felt sudden and strong, then seemed to subside faster than it should have.  

And then I simply reached for the door knob, free from the light and the freeze, and walked back in.  When I got in I looked through the blinds to see if the object was still there, but it was gone.  The cat was fine again.  I was oddly composed, not going wild like I normally would be with an unusual event, not running on adrenaline, but deeply relieved the thing ended with me still here, although a lift to some other state would have been nice, too.  My back was edgy, not like a cut pain but a heavy bump pain.  I couldn't rub it outside but now I was messaging the area and making it feel a lot better.  I went into the bathroom and turned to look at the mirror, but I didn't see anything, it wasn't even red.  Nothing.  Phantom pain caused by a traumatic incident?  I've read of stuff like that, but what do I know about that kind of thing?

Double-checking my phone I looked at the pictures I'd taken and deleted the blurry ones and kept the one I posted today, and originally last summer.  I didn't tell anyone what happened.  Who'd believe me.  Besides, I think I saw a drone last summer at night that I told everyone, and I even had a witness that time, the current Mrs. Blythe.  Just ask her, she'll tell you what we saw.  But to tell anyone about this was probably a bridge too far.  No way.  Guess the damn cat and I are linked by something neither of us can't talk about.  Until now.  

We are kind of funny, we people.  We let the minutia of our lives pile up day by day and allow big events to become smaller.  So it was with that morning last summer.  Things to do, and I must have pushed it to the back of my brain.  But looking back, certain things are clearer now.  I flew up to Northlandia after this happened and when I went through security, I thought it was strange that they turned me around and a TSA guy felt my upper back area.  Funny at the time.  Like maybe they thought I had a shoulder harness or something.  But it was more than odd that on the way back to Floriduh after that visit they checked me the same way up in Moline.  This time I asked why this was and the guy said the scanner caught something on my back.  Hmmm.  OK. 

Now I know you are wondering if I've mentally slipped and I can tell you that what I have written is true.  Absolutely true.  I'd even be willing to take one of those lie detector things.  I took another picture of the building across the lot so you can see it is not something I found on the Internet.  I also took a picture of my back.

Other things are clearer, too.  Like every so often my back starts to tingle - almost like that electric hum that I felt that night with the encounter.  It's really strange because I'll sit in the chair watching something on TV and I'll have this uncontrollable urge to simply get up, go outside and check the sky.  Is there something there?  Is it hiding in the clouds?  Is it in the dark watching?  Oh and another thing.  Where I got bumped, punched, shot or whatever the Hell it was that night - it is growing.  It is now a couple peanut M & M's big and I don't know how I'll explain it to Dr. Springle in two weeks when I have my annual checkup.  "Oh, and Doc, while you are at it, check out my toes, I seem to have developed a couple more since I last saw you."  It cost too much to get rid of the polyps so these extra toes are staying with me.  I just have to find wider shoes, and the flip-flops I usually wear are OK and more comfortable but what if people start noticing?  

  

I'm not exactly sure what is going on, but things are weird and I thought I'd let you all know while I can still sit down at the computer and write.  My neck feels strange and I think I feel something moving every so often.  Two weeks ago I saw a small gecko next to my chair on the patio.  The place is full of them.  Did you know some of those old dinosaur movies in the 50's and 60's were lizards with spine sails glued onto their backs?  Well with a speed I didn't know I had I grabbed that thing.  I almost ate it.  It looked tasty.  I threw it back int he bushes but now I'm afraid to walk outside:  I'll either see the ship or try to eat something that's still alive.  

The other day I was looking at a billboard and all of a sudden its as if the letters shifted.  I wrote it down as soon as I got home.  First off it was a Catania - Catania lawyer outfit in Tampa that advertises heavily down here.  As I was driving by it looked like the letters rearranged themselves.  Now I can't get it out of my mind.  It keeps flashing in my head like that mountain flashed in Richard Dreyfus's consciousness in that "Close Encounters" film.    When I close my eyes I see it on my eyelids.  Obviously I'm not getting any sleep - its like a neon sign flashing on and off, on and off.  Norah has some nice drawing books and I grabbed one and wrote down what it seemed to be.  I may be off a little here or there, but this is what it looked like to me.

I've wracked my brain trying to figure out what it all means.  Did someone or something plant a code in me?  Is this gibberish in any way part of my future?  Or is it some kind of info for the things that were in that ship last summer?  I haven't told the current Mrs. Blythe.  Its not like she pays any attention to my toes except when Norah paints them, or my back for that matter.  But swimming season is approaching and, well, that thing is growing.  How big will it get?  And I swear to you all, everything I've said is true.  I mentioned that I have an annual in a couple weeks.  How do I keep all this a secret?  Maybe I shouldn't.  

I'm signing off for now.  I'm babysitting Alfred in a few minutes and I need to focus away from my problems.  I'm writing this on the Wednesday before throwing it on the blog for Friday, so I'll keep working on trying to decipher this.  

Addendum:

It's Thursday March 31st.  Well, I've laid it all out for you.  I don't know what you all will be thinking of me after this post.  I'm taking next week off from blogging - I may be back.  I may not.  I'm losing it.  

I keep wondering that if all this can happen to me in the space of 8 or nine months, what will I be like in another?  My neck hurts, I'm hungry for weird things, sunlight blinds me,  I can't sleep and something is growing on my back.  My mind is flashing gibberish,  I have grown extra toes, and like hiding in the dark closet.  The sound of the coffee pot brewing is hurting my ears.  And now I'm posting this.  But I have to before it is too late.  

And I keep thinking if they can do this, what will be next?  If they can do this, what will be next?  If they do this what can be next?  If they can do this, what will be next?  If they do this what can be next? 

If they can do this, what will be next?  If they do this what can be next? 

If they can do this, what will be next?  If they do this what can be next? 

If they can do this, what will be next?  If they do this what can be next? 

Oh wait!!!!!!!  I got it.  I know what it means!  I know what is flashing in my head......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................I turned the paper upside down and now it all makes sense.

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(HAPPY FOOL'S DAY)  AND SEE YOU ON THE 11TH.