Linda carefully sat up as the nurse brought in a couple of vanilla pudding cups and some apple juice. Cathy and Joann were so happy to see Linda moving around again. Linda opened up one of the pudding cups and gobbled it down.
“How long was I unconscious? I feel like I haven’t eaten in days,” Linda ripped the top off the other pudding cup.
“Not even eight hours,” Cathy watched Linda scoop the pudding into her mouth.
“How are you feeling?” Joann asked Linda.
“My head is sore, but not like the pain that I had earlier. Otherwise, I feel pretty good.”
Joann smiled at her cousin and thanked God in her mind for helping Linda pull through. The nurse came back in and told Cathy and Joann that they should go home now and let Linda get some rest. Visiting hours start at eight in the morning so they can come back then. Cathy was hesitant about leaving Linda at first but knew that the worst was over.
“Okay… We will see you in the morning sweetheart. You get some rest,” Cathy kissed Linda on the bare part of her forehead.
“Goodnight Linda, sleep well,” Joann blew her a kiss.
“Goodnight, see you tomorrow,” Linda waved.
Cathy and Joann walked out of the room and down the hallway to the elevator. Linda sipped her apple juice cup until it was gone, and then shoved the table off to the side. She found the clicker buttons for the television and found something different to watch. Linda laid her head back on the pillow and rested while she watched a movie.
When Joann and Cathy got home it was almost 10:30 pm. Cathy told Joann that she was going to take a shower before going to bed. Joann went into the kitchen and fixed herself a peanut butter sandwich. With a glass of milk and her sandwich, Joann walked into the living room and plopped down on the sofa. She turned the TV on and looked for something to watch.
“I sure am glad that Linda is going to be alright,” Joann changed the channels.
Joann found a movie titled “Arrival” with Jeremy Renner and Amy Adams in it. It looked to be about half over but she found it interesting. After all, she saw her cousin come down from an alien spacecraft. Joann watched the movie and finished her sandwich. Her aunt Cathy walked in about fifteen minutes later and wished her goodnight.
“Should we go see Linda around nine tomorrow morning?” Cathy asked Joann.
“Sure, that sounds good,” Joann stared at the TV.
“What are you watching?” Cathy looked.
“It’s about aliens and how they got them to communicate.”
“Well, don’t stay up too late,” Cathy smiled and left the room.
Cathy went to bed, and Joann finished her glass of milk while she continued to watch the movie. Joann laid down on her side and tucked the throw pillow under her head. There were about 45 minutes left of the movie and Joann watched until her eyes got too heavy to stay open. She fell into a deep sleep and started to dream that she was on the alien spaceship in the movie. She walked up to the large glass window and tried to talk to the octopus-looking aliens on the other side. She used large cards with pictures on them to try and communicate with the aliens.
In her dream, the communication was going well until she was startled by a different alien. The long grey tentacles hit the glass hard. Joann backed up but watched as the alien turned around. Joann saw a familiar face, Linda’s face. It was on the head of the alien.
Joann woke up quickly and sat up, “oh my gosh… It was Linda as an alien.”
She looked at the TV and saw that a different movie was now playing. Joann sat there for another couple of minutes to collect her thoughts and noticed that it was 12:05.
“I have to get to bed,” Joann shut the TV off.
Back at the hospital, Linda fell asleep watching the same movie as Joann. She didn’t have any nightmares though, but she was starting to remember some things from the day that she went missing. She dreamt that she was walking at the preserve when she saw a massive grey cloud move in. It was hanging low in the sky so she walked into the open field and stared up at it. Because it was still daylight, she didn’t see any lights shining from it. Linda thought it was just a peculiar rain cloud. She remembers thinking that she better leave or she might get soaked.
Just as Linda looked away from the cloud and started to walk away, she felt a force that started to pull her up into the sky. She remembers feeling light as a feather then. But when she looked up, she saw long dark grey thin arms reaching for her. Even though she was startled, she didn’t feel scared. As she was pulled into the spacecraft, she woke up to the sound of someone dropping something out in the hospital hallway. Was I dreaming or did that actually happen to me, Linda thought.
Please join me again for more of: Unexplained Encounter.