The Mystery of the U.F.O. (2 page)

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Authors: David A. Adler

BOOK: The Mystery of the U.F.O.
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Eric was holding his camera. “Smile,” he said, and he took a picture just as the kitten jumped into Cam’s arms.
“I’ll call the picture ‘Local Girl Saves Untamed Feline.’ ”
Cam turned to put the kitten down. Then she stopped. She heard noises. Across the street people were shouting and pointing. Cam looked to see what they were pointing at.
In the distance Cam and Eric saw floating green, yellow, blue, arid red lights. The lights seemed to brush against one of the trees at the edge of the park. Cam looked straight at the lights and said, “
Click.
”
Chapter Two
 
 
 
E
ric aimed his camera at the lights. He pressed the shutter button, and the camera went
click.
The lights were rising, but they weren’t going straight up. They were moving from side to side and up and down. It almost seemed that the wind was moving the lights.
Eric aimed his camera again. He pressed the shutter button.
Click.
He pressed it once more.
Click.
“I’m not sure I’m doing this right,” Eric said. “It’s getting dark, and the lights are so far away. I hope at least one picture comes out.”
Cam wasn’t really listening. She was watching the lights.
“I’ve seen lights in the sky before,” she said, “but they were from helicopters or airplanes or fireworks. I don’t know what these are.”
“Let’s go over there,” Eric said, pointing to the parking lot. “Maybe those people know.”
Cam put the kitten down. Cam was picking up her books when she heard the kitten cry. The kitten was up in the tree again.
“That cat doesn’t seem to learn,” Cam said.
“The last time she was up there, you fed her some tuna fish,” Eric said. “The kitten learned that if she climbs a tree, she gets something to eat.”
Cam opened her lunch box. “Well, all I have this time is bread.”
Cam reached up and put the bread on the branch. The kitten turned around carefully. She came down the branch and ate the bread.
“I’m going to hold on to you,” Cam said as she put the kitten in her coat pocket. “If I don’t, you’ll just climb that tree again.”
Cam and Eric crossed the street. The people in the brightly lit parking lot were all looking up. Some children were taking photographs. A man and a woman were looking through pairs of binoculars.
“Six lights, no, seven,” the man said. “Three green lights, two yellow, one blue, and two red. That’s eight. I have to get this right if I’m going to write it down.”
The man was wearing a big open shoulder bag. A notebook and a book called
Bird Watcher’s Guide
were sticking out.
“I’ve got it!” the man said as he put the binoculars in his bag. “Seven flying lights.
“You said we wouldn’t see anything,” he told the woman next to him, “but you were wrong. We’ve seen a red-backed sandpiper, a bufflehead, an old-squaw, and now this.”
The woman put her binoculars into a case. “It wasn’t a sandpiper,” she said. “It was a golden plover. The old-squaw you thought we saw was a pintail. And there are eight lights up there, not seven.”
Cam and Eric could hardly see the lights now. They were just tiny dots of color.
“Can I look through those?” Cam asked the woman.
The woman took the binoculars out of the case and handed them to Cam.
Cam could see why the couple had trouble counting the lights. Sometimes one would move one way, while another moved in a different direction. Sometimes one light moved behind the others and could not be seen at all. Cam also saw lines, like thin wires, pointing down from each light.
Cam looked straight at the lights and said, “
Click.
”
“Let me see,” Eric said.
“Just a minute.”
The lights were floating up. Cam looked carefully at just one light, a blue one. At first Cam thought it was round, but it wasn’t. It was shaped like an egg with a point at the bottom. Cam looked straight at the light and said, “
Click.
” Then the lights floated into a cloud and Cam couldn’t see them any more.
“They’re gone,” Cam told Eric. Then she returned the binoculars to the woman.
“Are there seven lights up there or eight?” the woman asked.
“Ah, I’m not sure. The lights keep moving and disappearing. They’re hard to count.”
“Well, there are eight,” the woman said. “I’m sure.”
Eric pulled on Cam’s sleeve. “I have one picture left. What should it be?”
Cam was going to tell Eric to photograph the crowd, but Eric yelled, “I’ve got it! Don’t move.”
Eric bent down and took a picture of the kitten. She was leaning out of Cam’s pocket and eating from someone’s bag of groceries.
Cam pulled away. The kitten fell back into her pocket. Some food was still in the kitten’s mouth.
“Well, that’s it,” Eric said. “I hope nothing else happens. I’m out of film.”
“Look! Look!” someone in the crowd yelled. “More lights!”
Chapter Three
 
 
 
C
am and Eric turned to look. These lights were not a mystery. A fire department light truck drove up and parked nearby. Several of its large, moving beams of light searched the sky. The mysterious lights were just tiny dots of color. They floated in and out of the clouds.
Then a television news truck drove into the parking lot. A young woman holding a microphone got out of the truck. A man holding a television camera followed her.
The woman walked through the crowd and asked questions. Then she stood facing the cameraman. She took a deep breath, smiled, and spoke into the microphone.
“This is Stephanie Jackson,” she said. “I’m here in the parking lot at the corner of Fillmore and Harrison avenues. Just moments ago these people saw several mysterious lights rise into the night. People here are already calling these lights U.F.O.s—unidentified flying objects.”
Cam and Eric moved closer to the reporter to hear what she was saying.
“Many U.F.O.s are later found to be weather balloons, kites, clouds, or even high-flying airplanes. Sometimes they are only pranks meant to fool us.
“Others are never identified. Many people believe that some of the truly unidentified flying objects are aircraft from other planets. Some people even claim to have seen strange creatures get off those flying objects.
“We still don’t know what was seen here tonight. We may never know.”
Stephanie Jackson turned to a man standing nearby. “Sir, can you tell our viewers what you saw?”
The man took off his hat. With his hand he brushed his hair down. He smiled and spoke into the microphone. “I saw lights,” he said in a loud voice.
“Yes, well, maybe this girl can tell us more.” The reporter held the microphone in front of Cam. With her free hand the reporter turned Cam to face the camera. “What did you see?” she asked.
Cam closed her eyes. She said, “
Click.
”
The people near Cam smiled. A few laughed.
Click
was a strange answer to the reporter’s question.
“Well, at first,” Cam said, “I thought there was just one U.F.O. But the lights moved apart sometimes, so I think there were a lot of small U.F.O.s flying together. And at one time they were close to the ground. I know that because as they were going up, they touched one of the trees outside the park.”
As Cam was speaking, she noticed that Stephanie Jackson was moving away from her. Then Cam saw why. The kitten was leaning out of Cam’s coat and licking the reporter’s free hand.
“Thank you very much,” the reporter said. She walked away quickly.
“But there’s more!” Cam said.
“The lights can no longer be seen,” the reporter said into the microphone. “They remain a mystery. We don’t know what they are or where they came from. But I’m sure the people here tonight will remember what they saw for a long time to come.”
The report was over. Stephanie Jackson put the microphone down. She wiped her hand with some tissues. Then she and the cameraman went back to the truck.
The crowd started to move apart. Some people went to their cars. Others walked across the parking lot to the shopping area.
Cam pulled Eric to a corner of the parking lot. She closed her eyes and said, “
Click.
“I can’t see it!” Cam said. “Come on, Eric. Let’s cross the street.”
Cam and Eric waited at the corner for the light to change.
“What can’t you see?” Eric asked.
“The tree. When the U.F.O.s went up, they hit a tree. I can’t see which one it was.”
The light changed. Cam and Eric crossed the street.
“The reporter said that some people have seen U.F.O.s land,” Cam told Eric. “Creatures from outer space got out. Well, these U.F.O.s hit a tree. They might have landed near the tree.”
Cam stood at the corner. She faced the park. “This is where I first saw the U.F.O.s,” Cam said. “Sometimes, if I stand where I first saw something, it helps me remember.”
Cam closed her eyes. She said, “
Click.
”
Then she said, “I see it! It’s a small tree between two evergreens. Come on, Eric. Let’s go there and take a look. Maybe the U.F.O.s left something behind.”
“Something,” Eric said, “or someone.”
Chapter Four
 
 
 
C
am and Eric were a long way from the park. It was past five o’clock and already quite dark.
“Let’s go,” Eric said. “It’s late. My parents are going out. I have to baby-sit for Howie and the twins tonight. And besides,” Eric went on, “we have homework to do. We can come back tomorrow when it’s light out.”
“Don’t worry.” Cam told him. “As soon as we’ve seen what’s on the other side of that tree, we’ll go home.”
Cam felt something moving in her coat pocket. The flap opened and the kitten looked out. Cam petted the back of the kitten’s neck. The kitten purred. The flap closed as she settled back into the warmth of Cam’s pocket.

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