Night Lights by Sarah Epstein

Author:Sarah Epstein [Sarah Epstein]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Fourteen Press
Published: 2022-08-29T00:00:00+00:00

We couldn’t stop talking about Carolyn Sherman during the car ride home to the cabin. Marty searched up as many online articles about her as he could before his phone lost service.

“She was obviously teasing us,” Mum said, “when she claimed that UFOs visit this town all the time.”

“Maybe they do,” Marty replied, pretending to grab at Nika with creepy alien hands and making her giggle.

“Her credibility flew out the window,” Mum decided. “Up until then, I thought she was pretty genuine. But I suppose it’s all just a bit of fun.”

“There could be something in it,” Marty suggested. “Sounds like people have seen a lot of weird stuff in this town.”

My own bizarre experiences over the last week came to mind.

“Yeah,” I said. “They might not be able to explain it, but that doesn’t make those people unreliable. It just means they’ve never experienced anything like it before.”

“There are so many unknowns out there in the universe,” Marty said, really warming to the topic. “Things our brains can’t even comprehend. Maybe the time we’re living in right now is the infancy stage in our dealings with alien beings. Future generations will look back at this moment in history and will shake their heads about the way we treated UFO enthusiasts like crackpots. When, really, they’re the enlightened ones!”

“If you believe that, you’ll believe anything,” Dad muttered.

I had to admit, I was having trouble with the image of Graeme from the UFO Museum as an enlightened trailblazer. But maybe that was Marty’s point. I was being too quick to judge.

Later, while Marty and I washed the dishes after dinner, we found ourselves revisiting the topic of Carolyn Sherman over the kitchen sink.

“Imagine staying quiet about it for decades,” Marty said. “Carrying this incredible thing with you throughout your life that you couldn’t talk about.”

“I wonder if she ever married?” I pondered. “Or has a partner? At what stage in the relationship do you bring something like that up?”

Marty sucked a breath through clenched teeth as he dunked another dirty plate into the water. “Dangerous territory. One conversation throws it out there, and then there’s no shoving it back in the box. Sometimes that’s the beginning of the end.”

We were quiet for a moment as he rinsed the sudsy plate under the tap before handing it to me to dry.

“Is that what happened with you and Nathan?” I asked tentatively. I didn’t want to upset him. He’d never explained to me why his ex-boyfriend broke things off and moved out of their apartment. I was curious, because Nathan would never find anyone better than my uncle – he’d clearly made the hugest mistake of his life.

Marty looked at me with mock seriousness. “It’s true. Nate refused to be Scully to my Mulder.”

“Seriously, though.”

He handed me another plate. “Seriously? Yes, I threw something out there. And no, I couldn’t put it back in the box.”

“What was it?” I said, then quickly added, “Sorry for being nosy.”

“It was … kids,” Marty said, shrugging. “I want them and Nate doesn’t.

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