The All-Knowing
By: Leif Gregersen
My ten year-old grandson Brandon was at my feet, flying his toy hovercar, chasing his brother’s drone helicopter. I loved watching him and when he saw me smiling he asked me what was the happiest day of my life. I told him it was the day he was born, but he pestered me for a more detailed answer. I began:
“A summer day of my eleventh year was the best. Two years before that, your great-grandparents had divorced, and I was caught in the middle, pulled in both directions. For a while I liked the game. It got me new rollerblades one time, it gave me a break from auntie Michelle for a few weeks another. My friends would often come over and marvel at the great stuff I had and were jealous how much I got away with by living with my Mom.”
I paused to cough, sip at my tea, then went on. “That summer changed everything. Dad took time off and brought Michelle and I to a park to go hiking and taking pictures. I had high hopes of getting a shot to put into a $5,000 photography contest.”
“We didn’t know that there was no wi-fi or cell service in the park. I have to admit I went through some pretty tough withdrawals until we started hiking and climbing the surrounding mountains. One scorching hot and beautiful summer afternoon, an emergency broadcast was put out all over the county we were in but we had no idea. What we did know was that far off in the distance dozens of military jets were flying on full alert. We could hear it; no maybe it was more we could feel the thing they sought was just over the next rise from where we were.” I was pleased to see my grandson’s eyes widen as I spoke.
“Eagerly, we climbed up to a vantage point and could see the object. It was an orb, only around 30 feet tall. It was resting in a small pool of water and had a bright white glow to it that was so peaceful and inviting it took away any fear we might have felt. Dad and I watched it for a while, content to just look at it and take snapshots. Then, to our horror, we saw little Michelle walking up to it. We ran towards her, yelling for her to step back, and then rays came out of the orb, stopped us in our tracks and Michelle disappeared.”
“Fifteen minutes later the orb released us and we cautiously walked towards it. As we did, Michelle came out with someone. A tall, slim, comfortably dressed, ordinary human being who seemed eerily familiar. I walked up to him and he put his hand on my head. As he did, a feeling of love and contentment came over me, and I understood he was there to tell us something. I told my Dad to stand where I had and the man put his hand out again onto my Dad’s forehead. As he did, two of the jets seemed to tear the sky open overhead. I knew they had hostile intentions. I found some logs and arranged them into a ‘peace symbol.’ Great grampa was in a trance-like state. The orb seemed to understand what I was doing and projected another ‘peace symbol’ into the sky. Again, two jets went by overhead much slower and they waved their wings at us. They had understood the signal!”
“The being took his hand away from your great-grampa and made a signal for me to come over. He said:
‘You are a very wise and brave boy. Take a picture then all of us must go.’ I took several pictures, and as I did the man grew smaller until he was an orb himself and floated back into the main ship, which took off. The three of us walked back to the car like zombies. We sat in silence for what seemed like hours.”
“Was that all that happened Grampa?”
“There was just one more thing. I took many snapshots, but when we loaded them onto the computer, there was no sign of the orb. Then, on the last picture I took was an image of a shrunken man carried by the most beautiful bald eagle you can imagine.”
“I don’t know if I can believe all that Grampa.”
I rummaged through a drawer that was behind me and I took out a copy of the picture and gave it to Brandon.
“But Grampa-this is a picture of an eagle–and you.”
“Yes, Brandon, yes it is.”
END
Mental Health coping skills blog by leif gregersen 