The Encounter

It was a beautiful starry night. The moon was full, and no clouds spoiled this wonderful view. There were no other cars in the few miles' area. It was silent, really silent. Bob rode home in his old Chevrolet and didn't expect what was to happen. Mile after mile, everything looked the same... Until that place. Oh, he will never forget that night.

Bob suddenly saw a small bright point in the sky, moving towards the Earth. "Must be a meteor or something" - he guessed. But as the point was getting nearer, he started to doubt. "What the hell, it's too big for a meteor. It also moves much too fast" mumbled Bob. He had no idea about what it could be. He didn't know at that point, he would soon find out...

He forgot about the strange object pretty soon, so he was seriously surprised when, after about ten more miles, he found that the road was blocked by the strange thing. It looked like a huge metal ball with some strange small holes around. "Oh, shit" he whispered "what can it be? And why is it blocking the road? Hey, is anybody there, take this thing off, I gotta get to work by 6 a. m." he shouted getting off the car. Well, it seemed like there were nobody around, so Bob came nearer and started examining the strange object. It looked just the same as when he had watched it from the car. Only metal ball and those funny holes. When he tried to touch it, he suddenly shouted "Outch! This thing's hot! Oh, my finger". He realized it must have been the same thing he had seen few minutes earlier. It was then, when he started thinking about an UFO... An UFO, he had often read about such things in the color magazines, but he had never believed it really existed. In fact, he knew all the stuff they write there is a large piece of crap, written by all those people who call themselves "journalists", but are only swindlers trying to get as much money as they can. But this, this was real... He couldn't believe in what he saw, but he knew it was true...

When he stood there and stared at the ball, he suddenly heard a strange noise behind him. When he turned his head he saw the strange creatures standing between his car and him. They were pretty short, about half his height, covered with pink skin, or whatever it was. Each of them had three legs and four, hmmm, let's call that thing hands. Their heads were cylindrical, with six eyes (at least, he guessed that should be eyes) around and a row of small holes just below. No, they definitely didn't look like the Martians he knew from the magazines... They looked so strange...

"Hey guys, can you move your spaceship, or whatever it is, off the road" he asked. In fact he didn't know what to say. It was natural, as he had never met spacemen before. Well, he didn't expect it will lead to such a results. The creatures suddenly emitted some weird sounds and ran up to him and caught his arms and legs with their hand-like limbs and then carried him into their spacecraft. He didn't know how they did it, but they've just walked through the ball's walls. They put him into some sort of transparent box and set off. As the walls were covered with screens displaying the space around the ship, he saw the Earth getting smaller and smaller...

"What are you doing, I'm a citizen of the United States!" he shouted "Leave me alone, I haven't done anything wrong to you! I must get to work on time, leave me!!!". But the spacemen didn't react. He would later find out his screams were sent to their computer system (or whatever it was), which analyzed his language. It must have been a pretty fast machine, not like those computers we have on Earth, because after about an hour they were able to communicate with him. "Welcome to our spacecraft, stranger from the Earth, we're going to take you to our planet to examine you" - said the synthetic voice. "Don't be afraid, we won't harm you. You will soon return to the Earth" it continued.

"So they want to examine me. As if I was a stone, or a plant, or an animal... me, a human... funny thing, if I caught'em I would want to examine them as well..." he thought. "I hope I'll get back soon enough... if I'm late my boss will surely want to dismiss me". He looked outside. All he saw were stars they passed by, he couldn't even see the Earth...

So he looked outside and seen the galaxies passing them, one after one, until suddenly everything went black. He couldn't find out what was happening, he couldn't see a thing. But soon everything looked the same as before... Everything except the world outside. All those stars disappeared, and some other kind took their place. They were all red and had the shapes of rings... This looked pretty weird to Bob. "Hey, what happened, what was this darkness, where are all the stars, what the hell is what I see?" he asked. The synthetic voice answered "Don't be afraid, we've just got into the other dimension. Our dimension that is.". Bob was shocked. He couldn't believe there are more universes, not only the one we know. He mumbled "The other dimension?". "Sure", the computer answered, "there are thousands of them".

Soon they reached their planet. As Bob was informed it was about twice as big as the Earth and inhabited by about six billion creatures. He was also told the planet's name, but believe me, he couldn't remember it for any longer that few seconds. The creatures led him into their laboratory. It was located in a large spherical building covered with some sort of green material. They put him in another transparent container, this time cylindrical, and connected to some kind of machinery. They were testing everything - what is he made of, which way the blood flows, they measured every part of his body. Well, they looked pretty surprised such a creature can live (guess what Bob thought about them). They really couldn't believe a man can eat using his mouth, see using his eyes, hear with the ears, and so on. They couldn't understand why he had only two eyes, hands, legs... But the thing they were most curious about was Bob's penis... "What do you use this thing for" they asked. "For pissing, of course" answered Bob. "We cannot understand. What does 'to piss' mean?" they asked again. "Oh dear, to urinate". "We still cannot understand". Poor Bob, he had to explain how and why the kidneys produce the urine, and how it is then passed out. "Is that all you use this funny thing for?" they finally asked. "No, we also use it for making kids". They of course couldn't understand him once more, until he explained he meant reproduction. This time they were really surprised. "How come can you reproduce with this thing? It's impossible!". He tried to explain, but they couldn't believe. They showed him the method they used for the same purpose. Well, it was pretty strange. As he found out their population was made up of one sex, so everyone could be as well mother or father. To reproduce they just had to touch the other's head with the one of their own.

After all those boring examining they finally put him back into their spaceship and set out. The way looked just like before, including the moment of crossing the dimensions' boundary. When they put him down, just where they previously landed, it was 7 a. m. "Oh shit" he swore "I knew this. I knew they would make me late for work". Well, the spacecraft was really fast, but not fast enough. Too bad you couldn't see the way Bob was driving now. As he was late, he wanted to get to the city as soon as he could. He almost made three other cars crash during this way. In fact he was close to crashing his own car too. When he got to his work it was half past 8.

The boss was naturally mad. "What the hell do you think it is", he shouted "you're almost three hours late! I'm gonna dismiss you at once! How do you want to apologize this time, huh?" "It is not my fault, sir, it was an UFO... they took me to their planet and examined..." - Bob tried to explain, but the boss got even more mad than before. "Now that's too much. An UFO? Do you think I'm stupid enough to believe in such a bullshit?" - he shouted. "But... but, sir... it's all true... they were pink and had three legs and four hands, and..." - Bob said. The boss still wasn't convinced. "Are you insane?" he asked. "No sir, it's all true..."

Poor Bob... the boss didn't believe him. And neither did the doctors in the ambulance, and the doctors in the sanitarium... Poor Bob... his new room doesn't even have windows...