I Know What I’ve Seen

Groom Lake, 1964

Anthony Taille
Life, Worlds and Transitions
4 min readMar 24, 2014

--

“I know what I’ve seen.”

“It was a cloud.”

“A cloud doesn’t make that kind of sound.”

“A meteor, maybe.”

“I know what I’ve seen, and it wasn’t a meteor.”

She goes back in the kitchen and finishes sorting out the dishes. I stay on the sofa and finish my drink. On the television, Barry Goldwater addresses reporters and expresses his concerns about president Johnson for falling behind the soviets in weapon development.

“I’m driving on the highway to Tonopah when I hear this terrible hissing sound and I see this thing rushing past the mountains at this impossible speed, right above me.”

“Probably an optical illusion. Diffraction sometimes makes for weird things when the weather is right.”

“It wasn’t an illusion. The sound was real.”

“There’s been multiple reports of seismic activity in the recent days, it must have been an earthquake.”

She looks at me and shrugs. I switch the television off. I take her hand and pull her towards me. I say

“I know it may look real.”

“It did.”

“So what do you think it was?”

“I don’t know. But it wasn’t from here.”

“It wasn’t from here.”

“Earth.”

“It wasn’t from Earth.”

“Too fast. And the shape wasn’t like anything men could have done.”

“How did it look?”

She leans over the coffee table to take a Life magazine and hits me on the shoulder with it. She says

“You don’t believe me, do you?”

“I believe you’ve seen something.”

“Its color was black but it seemed to reflect the sky or the ground, like a mirror. And it looked like it was stretching over the mountains.”

“Did you see any lights?”

“Like position lights?”

“Like position lights.”

“It was not a plane.”

“But how did it look?”

“It was so fast — I didn’t have time to catch a good view. It was long and slim like a rocket, but way larger, with a threatening look.”

“No rockets have been fired this week.”

“And it was leaving those blue circles behind.”

“So you think it may have been — an alien ship.”

I put my empty glass on the floor and I embrace my wife as she makes a helpless gesture with her hands.

“I know it sounds stupid but I’m sure of what I’ve seen.”

“There must be a reasonable explanation.”

“It was frightening.”

“Did the ground shake when it happened?”

“A little, I guess. It could have been the road. But the windows definitely shook and there was a strong vibration in the car.”

“Did you have the sun in your eyes? You were driving near the mountains, the sun could have blinded you.”

“The sun was behind the mountains.”

“Was it cloudy? I remember it was cloudy yesterday.”

“A little. Not much. But I saw it clearly and it wasn’t a cloud.”

“And the sound, was it like a deep rumbling?”

“A growing rumbling with a sharp hissing, yes.”

“So there was verified seismic activity in the area, the sky was cloudy with the sun casting shadows from behind the mountains, you were driving and tired from a day of doing housework and packing groceries, and you weren’t able of getting a clear view of what you saw.”

“You don’t believe me.”

“I do, but what you experienced was definitely some very convincing optical illusion. It happens all the time. I had one last week when I thought there was a coyote in the yard, remember?”

“What if it was real?”

“It was. It just wasn’t that kind of real. What makes the most sense? An alien ship flying over the desert or an odd set of circumstances, an odd and frightening combination of factors that appeared to you as an UFO because of all the stories they put on the news?”

“You think I’m crazy.”

“I believe in what you saw. I just think it was a scientifically explainable fact and not some random ship from outer space.”

“It was really upsetting.”

I get up and offer her my hand. She gets up too and we both go in the bathroom to prepare for the night.

We brush our teeth together and she puts some cream on her face before combing her hair in long, smooth strokes.

I kiss her on the neck. I tell her I’m sorry she was scared. I tell her we will go to Vegas tomorrow and have dinner together.

We go to bed and I make sure the sheets cover her shoulders because she gets so cold at night. We turn the lights off.

In the morning, I wake up, take a quick shower, eat a toast and some eggs, drink a fresh orange juice. I check the SR71’s blueprints one last time before I close my briefcase.

I wave my wife goodbye and get to the shuttle to Area 51.

--

--