The flying saucer hovered above the hill overlooking the Palouse River. It circled left to right, then withdrew behind the hill only to reappear seconds later in the starlit sky. The UFO repeated this maneuver for several minutes as its lights whirled left to right as if it were spinning.
My mother, sister, brother, and I stood on the railroad crossing in the middle of the gravel road, facing west and gazing in wonder. I listened intently as they offered each other plausible explanations as to what it might be. My brother suggested that it might be some kind of experimental aircraft from Fairchild Air Force Base, which was about fifty miles to the north. But I could tell from the way he said it that he didn't really believe the Air Force could possess such an amazing aircraft.
It was 1957, I was eight years old, and we were totally oblivious to the fact that we had just been abducted and examined by aliens with large black eyes and pale skin. As strange as it sounds, we never discussed the sighting in the ensuing years until I brought up the subject in 1993. My mother said she remembered seeing a typical flying saucer with lights that night.
However, to this day I am the only family member who remembers what really happened that night. I didn't discover the shocking truth of that night until thirty years later. I was in the process of recalling traumatic incidents from my past when this scene suddenly pops into my mind:
I'm standing on the road watching the UFO above the hill. My brother, standing on my right, is talking about what the object might be.
Then suddenly another scene flashes in my mind. I'm sitting in the back seat of our Dodge station wagon, paralyzed. I look out the window to my left and see strange-looking beings with big black eyes peering through the window at me.
Then I flash forward in time. I'm lying helpless on a table in a large room with a curved wall on one side. I turn my head to the left and see my family stretched out on tables beside me. At first I don't believe it. This was just too bizarre. I tried to keep the truth of the abduction from invading my reality as I continued viewing the memory. But I finally could no longer deny the truth.
The trauma that was locked up for thirty years burst forth like a dam splitting wide open. I don't believe I've ever cried so long or so hard. But as the tears poured from my eyes, I began to feel the welcome relief from the burden of mental anguish. The trauma of this particular abduction would no longer affect me. However, I now had to confront a major adjustment in my personal reality.
What I didn't realize at that time is that I had just gulped down one helluva big red pill and was about to receive a backstage pass to the matrix.
Truman L. Cash